CalBear95 No. 1 Share Posted July 2, 2022 Here is what I honest to goodness don’t understand: why are these realignment decisions all sports or none? USC and UCLA are literally going to run (and ruin) their non football sports ragged with this crazy geographic arrangement. Football is the only sport that can support that sort of travel schedule on a collegiate basis (pro teams can but, volleyball players aren’t full time pros, for example) It seems an utter failure of imagination to think of the grant of rights in two parts: football and everything else. The huge money comes from the former and (excepting hoops) funds the latter sports. Athletes in this latter group have no pro level aspirations. There is no pro rowing league. Or the current construct for sports with pro corollaries (hoops, baseball) already work just fine as is. If the goal is to get to the single biggest payoff for media rights it seems somewhat obvious to actually take a page from ND’s book (I literally threw up in my mouth writing that) and offer their football rights to some uber-league and then leave the current geographic conferences intact. This allows for a league of 32+ high value brands that compete in football only and saves the absolutely disastrous outcomes for sports that cannot work as a national confederation other than in a playoff/national championship format (Final Four, CWS, Frozen Four, what have you) instead we are going to do a lot of damage to people who love doing a sport and are leveraging that skill to help pay for college and harbor literally zero hopes or real pathways to some semblance of a pro career in athletics. This insanity hurts the vast majority of student athletes and someone needs to step up and call an end to this madness. It is possible to have both a national football conference and vibrant local conferences that house some of those same national brands in non-football sports. Am I crazy here? 2 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 2 Share Posted July 2, 2022 No. In the end thousands of athletes will lose an opportunity for a college education, and it will be a disproportionate number of minorities and women. IMHO...if Oregon does not go to the B1G, then our revenues will drop and we will have to discontinue a number of sports. From 19 down to...?? Minority football players want to be paid, and women want an equal number of scholarships, and there is not enough money for all. So we'll lose more money arguing it in court... There is our attorney... Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WFO No. 3 Share Posted July 2, 2022 I agree 100%. The travel alone is mind boggling. I suppose the big dollar teams pack their FB teams around on private charters but I highly doubt they'll be carting the gymnastics team along with them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tandaian No. 4 Share Posted July 2, 2022 B1G TEN and SEC will be making 30-50 mil more than p12, b12 and ACC. Travel expenses are NOT a factor for Olympic sports. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuackAttack No. 5 Share Posted July 2, 2022 I have to disagree with the hurting minority student athletes. Women, YES! The NFL has 60% of their rosters made up of black athletes, I think it's safe to say D1 football is about the same. D1 basketball is at least the same if not higher. The non-revenue generating sports like gymnastics, hockey, soccer, of women's basketball and volleyball teams generate revenue and not surprisingly they are in the B1G. Out side of these volleyball schools: Stanford, State Penn, Wisconsin, Nebraska what schools actually pack the house and make money? Outside of these basketball schools: Duke (pardon me for using that word), Stanford, South Carolina, Baylor, Kansas, Maryland, UCONN, Tennessee consistently bring in revenue? If it comes down to a class of people, he women are getting $crewed. I like the idea posted about a football only conference format and all the other sports stay in their own regional conferences. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Funduck No. 6 Share Posted July 2, 2022 Title IX is about to get front and center. Pretty hard for a traveling School. Not so much for the SEC. This is going to get beyond confusing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTdux No. 7 Share Posted July 2, 2022 I think CalBear's suggestion is brilliant out-of-the-box thinking. It preserves the greatest parts of college athletics and actually enhances the profitability that the dollar-chasers covet. Well done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeotechDuck No. 8 Share Posted July 2, 2022 I think CalBear is on to something. My only question is are the remaining teams in the PAC (assuming they stay together) going to allow USC and UCLA to stay in conference for non-football and basketball sports right after they drove the knife into the back of the remaining schools and screwed them out of millions of dollars in TV money? If I am Oregon, I am scheduling Cal and Stanford twice instead of USC and UCLA. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Washington Waddler Moderator No. 9 Share Posted July 2, 2022 Whether CalBear’s idea (which is brilliant!) gained traction now or not, the eventual reality of travel cost over runs for in the red revenue sports and the back lash that would incur when subjected to being cut would create a regional bond that would bring us back to CalBear’s idea anyway, so why not do it from the get go? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
