The Kamikaze Kid Moderator No. 1 Share Posted February 17, 2023 At this point I have zero faith in the long term relevance of either the Pac or B12. I also feel a simple merger of the two just creates a bloated conference that has too many teams. In the age of conference realignment, I think it’s necessary to go outside the box and create some new conferences that reflect the priorities of media value while attempting to keep regional groupings. What I envision is something I’ll just refer to as The Great West Conference. This would be a sixteen school conference with four four team pods. One possible grouping could look like this. NW Pod UO, UW, Cal, Stanford SW Pod SD ST, UNLV, UA, ASU Midwest Pod OK St. KU, Utah, Cincinnati Texas Pod TTU, TCU, Baylor, Houston In football, each team would play all three pod mates plus two teams from the others for a nine game schedule. In other sports, home and away games with all pod mates first then maybe the same thing with the closest neighboring pod (NW and SW pods for example) then fill out the rest of the schedules with the more distant pods. This new conference would have a strong Texas presence and cover the largest media markets the west has to offer. OSU, WSU, Fresno St and BYU could be the main teams in another new conference that would be an upgrade from the Mountain West. I think some big time movers and shakers like Uncle Phil and his pals could get the ball rolling on this and have a plan in place by the time the next round of media contracts are up. If a plan like this doesn’t happen, I’m afraid all schools not in the B10 or SEC will just end up being in glorified Mountain West conferences anyway. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph No. 2 Share Posted February 17, 2023 I too have played around with something like this. But the opportunity at the conference level was lost when the Pac-12 voted not to take in orphaned B12 teams. The only way to get this or something like it on today would be for the teams to say to heck with the conference and its commissioners and negotiate directly. But in the world of academia, I see little or no chance for this to happen; especially, when the B12 has a new all-linear media deal that the 4 new teams in particular are most happy about. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kamikaze Kid Author Moderator No. 3 Share Posted February 17, 2023 On 2/17/2023 at 8:43 AM, Jon Joseph said: I too have played around with something like this. But the opportunity at the conference level was lost when the Pac-12 voted not to take in orphaned B12 teams. The only way to get this or something like it on today would be for the teams to say to heck with the conference and its commissioners and negotiate directly. But in the world of academia, I see little or no chance for this to happen; especially, when the B12 has a new all-linear media deal that the 4 new teams in particular are most happy about. This is why I'm saying it would require the Uncle Phil type movers and shakers to get together behind the scenes and workout a plan then approach the schools of interest. I have zero faith that conference leaders will do anything more than simply try to duct tape SD St and SMU onto the sinking Pac ship. If the the Big10 and SEC become the super conferences that they are currently heading towards that will only alienate the rest of the country and national interest in college football would plummet. Does anybody care who won the G league championship? Who one the AAA baseball crown last year? That's all a semi pro Big10-SEC division would be reduced to. I think for college football to retain national relevance, it's going to take outside the box thinking to restructure it to fit the current revenue generating landscape. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 4 Share Posted February 17, 2023 Jon, I did like your past suggestions of a 16 team conference with the “Surf” and “Turf” Divisions, but that is now ruined by loss of the LA schools. None of it is happening now since the Big 12 has a media contract signed. 1 Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kamikaze Kid Author Moderator No. 5 Share Posted February 17, 2023 On 2/17/2023 at 9:18 AM, Charles Fischer said: None of it is happening now since the Big 12 has a media contract signed. This is why I'm saying work things out now and have the new conference form at the end of the media contracts. At this point, all members of the B!12 and Pac are going to get left behind the B10 and SEC financially no matter what kind of realignment the conferences do. Heck it may even be possible to bring USC and UCLA into the new conference if it could generate something close to what they'd get in the B10. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lownslowav8r No. 6 Share Posted February 17, 2023 I can’t wait for the PAC to get a contract signed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph No. 7 Share Posted February 17, 2023 On 2/17/2023 at 12:38 PM, The Kamikaze Kid said: This is why I'm saying work things out now and have the new conference form at the end of the media contracts. At this point, all members of the B!12 and Pac are going to get left behind the B10 and SEC financially no matter what kind of realignment the conferences do. Heck it may even be possible to bring USC and UCLA into the new conference if it could generate something close to what they'd get in the B10. Like the idea. But been there and passed on the opportunity. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyin Vee No. 8 Share Posted February 17, 2023 Throw every team up on the board. Let the big 4, Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS play a rock paper and scissor tournament for the order of picks. Ducks go in the 3rd round to CBS........ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 9 Share Posted February 17, 2023 On 2/17/2023 at 10:30 AM, Flyin Vee said: Throw every team up on the board. Let the big 4, Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS play a rock paper and scissor tournament for the order of picks. Ducks go in the 3rd round to CBS........ Or just do a draft. After all the media networks are the overlords of college football. Might as well build the leagues via draft every let's say 4 years. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Haulin No. 10 Share Posted February 17, 2023 Big 12 expansion, realignment speculation includes Pac-12 schools Arizona State, Arizona WWW.AZCENTRAL.COM Over the summer, speculation about Arizona and Arizona State potentially leaving the... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirklandduck Moderator No. 11 Share Posted February 17, 2023 I'd be still open to a Pac12-ACC alliance. You'd get media markets on both sides of the country and they can figure out a travel schedule where each team does a single cross-country road game each year to minimize the logistical issues but still keep an interesting slate of games each season plus a cross-conference championship game at a neutral site. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haywarduck Moderator No. 12 Share Posted February 17, 2023 On 2/17/2023 at 8:43 AM, Jon Joseph said: I too have played around with something like this. But the opportunity at the conference level was lost when the Pac-12 voted not to take in orphaned B12 teams. The only way to get this or something like it on today would be for the teams to say to heck with the conference and its commissioners and negotiate directly. But in the world of academia, I see little or no chance for this to happen; especially, when the B12 has a new all-linear media deal that the 4 new teams Athletic Departments in particular are most happy about. May seem petty the change I put in, but I don't think the teams are going to enjoy the travel the athletics departments have signed them up for. The AD's, on the other hand, are all about the money they will get. My take is we have no idea what the college football world will look like in one, two or five years, but once again the student athletes are the pawns. They may think they are winning, but most schools are just after the money. Side note, who was the first Alabama player to sign an NIL deal? You guessed it, or maybe not, Traeshon Holden. A little known fact. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
