Oregon on the 'Verge' of B1G Formal Conversations

[Charles Fischer]

I don't know what to make of this or how to feel...

 

For those who cannot read the rest...

 

FOX doesn't want to run the risk of losing any of their top football viewership schools to ESPN. 

The Ohio State insiders are saying the same thing. 

This is as close as I will be able to get to "confirm" that Oregon and Washington are on the verge of entering formal conversations with the Big Ten via FOX. 

I've mentioned many times that NBC, CBS, and FOX will grow the Big Ten. 

I bet it goes to 24 schools.

[Charles Fischer]

 

[Charles Fischer]

Some really good stuff in here to ponder...

 

Who's next to take the realignment leap? Latest intel after Colorado jumps to the Big 12

247SPORTS.COM

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The Pac-12 needs at least one new member and so does the Big 12, and it appears the Big 12 is not done picking at the bones of the Pac-12. Meanwhile, the ACC and Big Ten's eyes have...

 

[Desert Duck]

It's now extremely close to midnight.

 

It's time to make the move.

 

Go Ducks!

[Mudslide]

Is anyone else sick of this soap opera?  The level of incompetence amongst the school and PAC administration is breathtaking.  They make a LOT more money than most of us.  But they aren't necessarily any brighter, it seems.  We've learned from politicians that wisdom and intelligence aren't a prerequisite for high level positions. 

 

Signed, 

Grumpy O. Man

Edited July 28, 2023 by Mudslide

[lownslowav8r]

The PAC needs a media deal, stat. If that means they leaves some money on the table, too bad. The conference is on the edge of hemorrhaging out. 

[lownslowav8r]

Something to remember about sources from other conferences, many of them have been trying to kill the PAC for months. 

[Log Haulin]

On 7/28/2023 at 6:05 PM, lownslowav8r said:

Something to remember about sources from other conferences, many of them have been trying to kill the PAC for months. 

Seems to be working. Oregon needs to bounce. Sucks, but the Pac seems to be listing port side hard. Doubt it recovers. 

[fred flintstone]

IMO the pac 12 made a fatal error when it arrogantly sat while others were obviously recruiting.

 

Now it is trying to equate jewels with costume jewelry. George is as incompetent as Larry. 

 

What the president of Arizona stated in the article is telling......if the pac 12 media deal is not competitive......he'll be shopping. So from my viewpoint....Arizona is gone......if there was going to be a great media deal it would have been discussed prior to Colorado leaving.......and.......without Phoenix,,,,,,the pac 12 is history. 

 

Oregon has built a great brand.......I'd tell the big 10 to ante up and look long term or take a hike. A discussion between Oregon and the ACC or Big 12 would be a very good negotiating tact. Especially if Wash, Stanford and Cal are with Oregon. The big 10 will see the light......and if USC and UCLA have any sense they will also. Of course that is to be determined. 

 

Somebody with a brain is going to want Oregon and its sisters on the coast. Hopefully the state of Oregon does not get involved and force Oregon to drag its poor brother, Oregon St to the party. 

Once Arizona decides the entire mess is going to get clarified and Oregon can choose from the suitors. 

 

Obviously, pac 12 admin will try to attract a 10th program in order to survive but after a season of ratings which I suspect will be less than competitive.....the die will be cast. 

[Log Haulin]

On 7/28/2023 at 6:24 PM, fred flintstone said:

IMO the pac 12 made a fatal error when it arrogantly sat while others were obviously recruiting.

 

Now it is trying to equate jewels with costume jewelry. George is as incompetent as Larry. 

 

What the president of Arizona stated in the article is telling......if the pac 12 media deal is not competitive......he'll be shopping. So from my viewpoint....Arizona is gone......if there was going to be a great media deal it would have been discussed prior to Colorado leaving.......and.......without Phoenix,,,,,,the pac 12 is history. 

 

Oregon has built a great brand.......I'd tell the big 10 to ante up and look long term or take a hike. A discussion between Oregon and the ACC or Big 12 would be a very good negotiating tact. Especially if Wash, Stanford and Cal are with Oregon. The big 10 will see the light......and if USC and UCLA have any sense they will also. Of course that is to be determined. 

 

Somebody with a brain is going to want Oregon and its sisters on the coast. Hopefully the state of Oregon does not get involved and force Oregon to drag its poor brother, Oregon St to the party. 

Once Arizona decides the entire mess is going to get clarified and Oregon can choose from the suitors. 

 

Obviously, pac 12 admin will try to attract a 10th program in order to survive but after a season of ratings which I suspect will be less than competitive.....the die will be cast. 

Big12 will pick up OSU. JS is a good coach and long term asset to both OSU and the Big12

[WiseKwacker]

What bugs me is constantly hearing (over many years) that the PAC-12/PAC-10/PAC-8 Conference is the BEST because its institutions have the highest academic standards among all the conferences. And, the PAC wouldn't THINK of adding certain schools because they aren't high-level research institutions. 

 

Well, this is about sports. And, the PAC is getting pilfered. Time for the PAC-9 presidents' group to wake up.

 

Seems to me that the Arizona schools and Utah are ripe targets for plucking by other conferences. So, will we end up with the PAC-6? Ugh!

 

The original conference alignments were set up along obvious geographical lines. To me, that still makes sense. 

 

From my perspective, college football has singlehandedly ruined college sports. I certainly don't see all this realignment stuff happening over men's basketball; and, certainly, not over any other intercollegiate sport. 

 

For me, a really sad aspect of all this realignment stuff is that instead of just rooting for the Ducks to win each week, I'll spend time rooting for USC, UCLA and Colorado to get their butts kicked. And, frankly, I don't need that level of negativity in my life. 

[Cacker Guy]

On 7/28/2023 at 8:38 PM, WiseKwacker said:

From my perspective, college football has singlehandedly ruined college sports.

That's an interesting perspective.  I can see where you are coming from I think.  I guess college football is such great entertainment that it generates so much interest - and therefore money - that the entertainment industry (and the almighty dollar) is now driving college football.  Which in turn is driving other sports.  It is sad in a way for us who played sports back in the olden days for fun and school glory.  But I don't see how it can be reversed. There is always Willamette vs. Linfield and so on I guess. 

 

This snowball effect reminds me of a time I was convinced college scholarships were ruining high school sports -- players changing schools, parents badgering me about more touches for their son, kids specializing in one sport, etc. -- all to increase their chances of a scholarship.  I wish they would have made the same effort in academics or career tech!  It really bothered me, but what can you do?  It's a different world.

 

I'm curious to see how this will all shake out.  I'll root for the Ducks, and I think they will be fine.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Cacker Guy

[Mike West]

On 7/28/2023 at 8:38 PM, WiseKwacker said:

For me, a really sad aspect of all this realignment stuff is that instead of just rooting for the Ducks to win each week, I'll spend time rooting for USC, UCLA and Colorado to get their butts kicked. And, frankly, I don't need that level of negativity in my life. 

 

In my opinion, USC, UCLA, and Colorado deserve all the credit.  They are making sound business decisions based on real world conditions.

 

I don't even have to elaborate on that given this forum itself has debated this issue for nearly a decade.  

 

I am wholeheartedly supporting all three schools this year.  Rooting for them avidly.  Because I believe the remaining Schools still see the world like some adults that play video games in their living room instead of getting out and living in the real world.

 

Some people just have to fall completely into the abyss before they wake up.  USC, UCLA, and Colorado aren't avoiding reality.  Kudos to them for taking charge of their future.  

[Jon Joseph]

Interesting. But a friend in the B1G Athletic department? No comprende. A friend in 'the' Ohio State athletic department I could understand. The B1G to my knowledge does not have a one size fits all athletic department.  But the way the world of CFB is today all of these re-posts have merit. I pooh-pooed what I believed to be unfounded speculation before and I have learned a smoke/fire lesson. 

 

As others have noted above, Fox, CBS + NBC/Peacock will make any B1G further expansion decisions. But looking at the B1G and knowing, in particular, USC's history, will the B1G prefer Cal and Stanford over the Northwest schools? I'm sure SC would rather compete (not compete) versus Cal and Stanford instead of Oregon and UW. 

 

Other than perhaps for the COVID off-season, this is the worst off-season I can remember. PLEASE kick the darn ball off!

[Jon Joseph]

On 7/29/2023 at 12:15 AM, Cacker Guy said:

That's an interesting perspective.  I can see where you are coming from I think.  I guess college football is such great entertainment that it generates so much interest - and therefore money - that the entertainment industry (and the almighty dollar) is now driving college football.  Which in turn is driving other sports.  It is sad in a way for us who played sports back in the olden days for fun and school glory.  But I don't see how it can be reversed. There is always Willamette vs. Linfield and so on I guess. 

 

This snowball effect reminds me of a time I was convinced college scholarships were ruining high school sports -- players changing schools, parents badgering me about more touches for their son, kids specializing in one sport, etc. -- all to increase their chances of a scholarship.  I wish they would have made the same effort in academics or career tech!  It really bothered me, but what can you do?  It's a different world.

 

I'm curious to see how this will all shake out.  I'll root for the Ducks, and I think they will be fine.

The idea of CFB needing one true champion when it didn't, the BCS that followed, and greed have 'ruined' college football. Money 2 decades+ ago trumped any semblance of ethics attached to college sports. Oregon happens to be part and parcel of the poorest managed, if managed even applies, conference in the nation. The Pac-9 today is reaping a subsistence crop that clueless 'business people' sowed. 

 

Yet, for my money, time, and interest there is still no sport I'd rather watch and follow than college football. But the powers-that-be and do-not- be, are making it harder and harder to care about what happens on the field. 

 

GO DUCKS! And Fox, ESPN, et al can go to Hades. 

[Jon Joseph]

On 7/28/2023 at 10:46 PM, Log Haulin said:

Big12 will pick up OSU. JS is a good coach and long term asset to both OSU and the Big12

Log, I doubt it. Money matters more than coaching a small market team up. Oregon State has had modest success on the football field but the Corvallis market does not move the financial needle. When the expansion dust finally settles I see Oregon State and Washington State in the Mountain West. The B12 would get no national love whatsoever from bringing on Oregon State.

[Jon Joseph]

On 7/28/2023 at 6:13 PM, Charles Fischer said:

Some really good stuff in here to ponder...

 

Who's next to take the realignment leap? Latest intel after Colorado jumps to the Big 12

247SPORTS.COM

---

The Pac-12 needs at least one new member and so does the Big 12, and it appears the Big 12 is not done picking at the bones of...

 

Thanks, Charles, very interesting. It turns out that Yormark made a brilliant move jumping ahead of the Pac-12 after Bob Bowlsby made the astute move to add BYU and 3 of the most valued G5 teams. Even more brilliant was Yormark getting Fox/ESPN on the hook to fund further B12 expansion. With ESPN/Fox committed to come with $31.7M a year per school to fund B12 expansion no wonder these 2 are dragging their feet when it comes to doing a deal for what is now Pac-9 inventory. And as Desmond Howard noted the other day, Pac teams can get divorced today without having to pay alimony. 

 

My only disagreement with this article is that Larry's failure to destroy the B12 was not in hindsight close to Carol Folt leading the way to squash the Pac-12's obvious business move which was to add 6 or so B12 orphans and create a P4 without a B12 competing for media rights money. GK did not have the gravitas that a Jim Delany and perhaps even a Bob Bowlsby would have had to overcome the presidents of the 'Elite Club' and put the B12 out of existence. 

 

Today, with Fox owning the LA market and ESPN floundering amid cord-cutting and having to come up with its share of $31.7M a year for CU through 2030/31 and on the hook for the add-on of other 3 Four Corners schools, where is the money going to come from for Pac-9 inventory.

 

Oregon finds itself in the middle of the most disruptive media market in the last two decades and without leaders who have the ability to overcome today's terrible media logistics. I find the idea of the Pac-9 gaining more media power the longer it waits as simply more financial nonsense. It galls me to have to say this but Yormark appears to be having the last laugh. 

 

Oregon today needs to do what's best for Oregon, period. It stinks that decades-long relationships might have to be flushed away but that's the cold business reality of where SC/UCLA, Fox, the B1G, and the B12, along with incredibly short-sighted decade+-long business stupidity has placed Oregon today. An Oregon that did all it could to raise its own profile and the profile of an entire conference while SC and CU among others, sat on their wallets. 

 

The sad question is, what alternatives is Oregon left with? Unfortunately,  the alternative may be at least through 2030/31, to join the B12 that should no longer exist. The Oregon brand will lead to a solution but there are likely to be more bumps in the road.

[Jon Joseph]

Oregon needs the Big Ten, but the Big Ten needs Oregon just as badly

DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM

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A perfect outcome for Oregon is a seat at the table next to USC and UCLA. The Big Ten may need to jump on that while they...

 

[NJDuck]

 

Wow, talking about calling the kettle black.  TROJANSWIRE off base in their so-called speculations that not necessarily are true, but they could be?  So let's play the innocents card while throwing shade towards Oregon and Washington on the demise of the Pact-12.

 

Suggesting that Oregon's only hope to get into the Big Ten is for the Pac-12 to perish.

 

One statement you could possibly take away from this article to be more truth than fiction is this..."George Kliavkoff’s game theory and his calibration of priorities and first tasks was simply horrible throughout this process. That is not speculation. That’s a fact, Jack."

 

How Oregon and Washington might have fooled George Kliavkoff and the Pac-12

 

Oregon might have been playing the long game with the Pac-12

TROJANSWIRE.USATODAY.COM

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Was @Ducks_Wire playing the “long con” the whole time with Kliavkoff and the #Pac12? Let’s talk. #GoDucks #B1G

 

[Charles Fischer]

Oh brother.

 

That article is a GREAT example of a ton of "blah-blah" wrapped up in an editorial with an opinion that has some sizzle.  In the end...it says nothing, speculates, but nothing beyond what we have seen on the forum often.  The writer has been around a while, and actually provided pictures to a Oregon-USC game in LA years ago for this site.  So he is talented in many ways--most of which is bloviating.

 

He makes reference to Oregon and Washington doing "the long con," and wow....look who is talking!

 

He also writes that the Ducks and Huskies feel that, "We want to make the Pac-12 work for us … but if not, we won’t be devastated.”    Geez, no kidding.  Haven't I been writing for months that no matter what happens...Oregon will be just fine?

 

This is why I don't read a lot of that crap...

[Pennsylvania Duck]

Which conference would be a better football fit for Oregon — Big Ten or Big 12?

 

With the departure of the Colorado Buffaloes from the Pac-12 Conference, the topic of conference realignment has once again been brought to the forefront.

 

If you’re and Oregon Ducks fan, this means that your team is in the middle of nearly every conversation that is being brought forth at the moment, for good or for bad.

 

Should the Ducks end up leaving the Pac-12 and finding a new home, we need to start vetting their landing spot. The Big 12 may be the more likely option at the moment, but the Big Ten is certainly the more-desired outcome. But is the Big Ten that much better than the Big 12, and if so, why?

 

Let’s take a look at that question. In college football, one of the most important things for fans to hold onto is rivalries, and shared experiences.

 

One place may be a great spot for a team to land, but if they don’t have any past matchups with the teams in the conference, things could fall flat in the end.

 

So when looking at the Big Ten and the Big 12, which conference has Oregon had more experience with, and where would the best rivalries come from? Let’s take a look...

 

Oregon Football: Which conference would be a better fit for the Ducks?

DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM

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Rivalries and past history matter in college football. With that being said, which conference — Big Ten or Big 12 — would be a better...

[Annie]

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

 

Wake me when:

 

There's a PAC media deal.

Conference membership, current or new, is a done deal.

Kliavkoff makes a final decision about anything.

 

[Dave23]

On 7/29/2023 at 9:59 AM, Charles Fischer said:

He makes reference to Oregon and Washington doing "the long con,"

Having a backup plan and not tying ourselves into a contract before the media deal with solidified is just smart business.

[Charles Fischer]

On 7/29/2023 at 10:30 AM, Pennsylvania Duck said:

Which conference would be a better football fit for Oregon — Big Ten or Big 12?

[OregonDucks]

On 7/30/2023 at 2:50 AM, Dave23 said:

Having a backup plan and not tying ourselves into a contract before the media deal with solidified is just smart business.

I would hope that Oregon is exploring every potential option from staying in the Pac to joining another conference (B1G, Big XII, SEC) to forming an alliance/merger with the ACC to going independent. 
 

It’s clear that leadership will not come from the PAC-12 commish or CEO group. 

[Cacker Guy]

On 7/29/2023 at 6:01 AM, Jon Joseph said:

The idea of CFB needing one true champion when it didn't, the BCS that followed, and greed have 'ruined' college football. Money 2 decades+ ago trumped any semblance of ethics attached to college sports. Oregon happens to be part and parcel of the poorest managed, if managed even applies, conference in the nation. The Pac-9 today is reaping a subsistence crop that clueless 'business people' sowed. 

 

Yet, for my money, time, and interest there is still no sport I'd rather watch and follow than college football. But the powers-that-be and do-not- be, are making it harder and harder to care about what happens on the field. 

 

GO DUCKS! And Fox, ESPN, et al can go to Hades.

I agree 100% with you Jon.  The demand for a national champion was the start.  It's kind of an American thing I think -- "second place is the first loser."  I loved watching those top bowl games back before the BCS.  And half those teams finished the season with a win.  Since the BCS we have one winner and a bunch of losers.  And now as you said, money trumps ethics.  And tradition, geography, etc.  I for one am sad.  But I still love college football.  

 

I hate ESPN, and I've said since the 80's that it is ruining amateur sports.  I started noticing my freshman basketball players unnecessarily dribbling behind the back, throwing no-look passes, and trying to dunk at lunch (when I wasn't supervising) because they were copying ESPN's top 10 plays.  I know I just sound like a crazy dinosaur when I say it, but I guess I am.

[Charles Fischer]

On 7/29/2023 at 3:30 PM, Cacker Guy said:

I know I just sound like a crazy dinosaur when I say it, but I guess I am.

Ha!  Jon will confirm how I often say to him...."Jon, we are dinosaurs!"

 

[Notalot]

Whichever conference the Ducks compete within during the next 5-7 years, that relationship will likely transition when there are two or three divisions of the top 48-60 programs.

 

CFB has entered a tumultuous transition period now. The most media desirable teams will be seperated from the rest of the field leaving the lower tier teams behind.

 

Every existing P5 conference has programs to shed to achieve the new era alignments with a super league.

 

The Ducks will rise into the rare air after encountering turbulence. Some of the Pac programs will not, as will be the case with every other conference. Yes, even the mighty SEC.

 

GO DUCKS.

Edited July 30, 2023 by Notalot

[FG Lumber]

Sad demise to the pac 12 (or whatever we call it now).  Oregon should surface somewhere but Cal, OSU, WSU, ASU and possibly Stanford....what will befall them.  Intensely dislike what's become of the tradition of Saturday college football.  Money, NIL, portal etc have killed it...at least west of the Mississippi River.  Tough to take.  I guess there's still the golf channel.