Just heard on Fox Sports radio that Stanford & Cal
- Thread starter RickinDayton
- Start date
How about something with NATIONAL in it since the league is now spread across the country?
I'm aware but it's still known as the Big Ten and will beB1G is the big ten's logo
Cal is an Ivy league level school stuck in a state school body. Disengaged fan base (do they have fans?) and a long history of mediocrity or worse in football. They are really awful in the two big revenue sports, football and basketball, drawing lousy ratings so no one wants them on their team. You know it is bad when their one claim to fame in football was that ridiculous band on the field play in 1982 vs Stanford.
All Coasts Conference. They’d have the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific covered.
While part of (the state of) Nebraska is in the Mountain Time Zone, Nebraska U and Lincoln are in the Central Time Zone.
Plus the coast of the Allegheny, Mon and Ohio Rivers. Actually they've got the Ohio River covered twice since Louisville is on it too.
Great Lakes as well. Some call the great lakes the third coast.
As someone who lives a mile from the shores of Lake Michigan I'm not sure I can agree with that. Need that salt in the air.
SMU is apparently now in play for the ACC as well. Fully expect that will lead to some combination of Oregon State, San Diego State, Boise State, Air Force, etc to complete a "western block of 6".
The Oregon Trail division of the ACC?
I am not sure why the PAC12 and now the ACC want SMU. If it is just to get into Texas, that is over-saturation with 2 power conferences already there. I think they are better off grabbing Or St, WSU (the only school left with half decent tv ratings that beat much of the current ACC), Stanford, and SDSU.
I agree about Stanford, Oregon and SDSU but I'd go with SMU before Washington State or Cal honestly. SMU ratings will go up playing better teams.
I know Vegas isn't a market that translates to ratings but I'm still surprised UNLV hasn't gotten a real look. I wouldn't take them but I thought someone would get sucked into that pipe dream.
Likewise surprised about UNLV. I would take them before SMU or Cal. It is a market filled with alum retirees from every conference and as such tv ratings would dramatically increase from current levels. Each game would be sold out due to fans of visiting teams. Stadium is brand new.
After seeing the story about Wazzou on ESPN today, my curiosity got the best of me and I took a peek at their broader athletic programs. My god they suck. And I mean at historic levels. II guess if they had mike leach under a life time contract and he was still alive, i'd pay them whatever they wanted to have him in my conference. But aside from a pretty fair women's soccer team...my god, honestly, they should just fold up their tent entirely and go with a university of chicago model.
Ultimately, I think Stanford/Cal joining up with the remnants of the ACC (once FSU, Clemson, et al jump ship when they can break the GOR) will make sense despite the absurd geography. It would be a good collection of academic and like minded schools.
I can’t see Stanford and Cal joining the worst conference academically. But, who knows!
Well im dreading the B1G offers them both an invite, since that was rumored before Oregon and UW additions. I guess the Mountain West is another option. They dont have any other options unless reconfigure the PAC with Mountain West schools.
Cal has to take anything it can get at this point. Stanford couks try to go at is as a Independent but that's risky.
The smartest thing would be to merge what’s left of the PAC with the Mountain. Less travel , regional recruiting, natural rivalries, easer for fans to attend.
Joining the ACC is crazy. Too far away, little fun interest, and would be distant outsiders with no pull. Join the Mountain and they are the major fish in that pond.
Just don't give them a seat at the playoff. Make them drop a division or whatever. They could be a poor man's Ivy League.
There are going to be some weak power 5s left without a seat when the music stops. Part of increasing the revenues of the top schools is to drop those who were a drain on the ratings.
B1G is talking 10 game conference schedule. That means more big time match ups and more money. No more WVU unless they are willing to go the Delaware route and come to Beaver Stadium with no reciprocation.
I'm sure the university presidents would love to invite Cal/Stanford for the academic prestige, but the Big Ten conference folks, ADs and TV execs have no interest in them. I really don't see any plausible way either joins the Big Ten, except maybe Stanford to come along with Notre Dame. No shot for Cal.
I'm envisioning something like:
Boston College
Syracuse
Pitt
Louisville
Duke
Wake Forest
Georgia Tech
Stanford
Cal
+/- Va Tech
+/- UVA
+/- NC State
+/- Miami (FL)
FSU, Clemson and UNC are pretty much sure things for better conferences. Outside of Louisville, that's pretty awesome academically and would be decent in all sports - not dramatically different from the Big 12 honestly.
I just don't want them getting an auto bid to the playoff. The conf champ who wins that conf and also beats Delaware, UMass and East Carolina has no business in the big boy playoff. Not all conferences are equal (captain obvious statement).
I don't think they will ever change from Big Ten (just like the SouthEastern Conference is not going to change even if it is no longer only SouthEastern), but if they do, Big National would be okay.
On one hand that's reasonable but on the other hand the fans of those schools will have no incentive to be interested in the playoff and thus may not watch. And while each of those schools may not have a large number of fans, there are a lot of those kinds of schools and the numbers can add up. I think the Big Ten and SEC powers that be may be overestimating how interested the fans of schools outside the Big Ten and SEC will be in a big boy playoff.
Put yourself in their position. If there was going to be a big boy playoff and PSU was going to be left out of it, would you be interested in the big boy playoff? ETA: I don't mean if PSU was going to be left out of it this year, rather I mean if PSU was going to be left out of it every year.
The solve is to give them a separate playoff. Separate college football into varsity and JV. Do something. Come on, really we think Syracuse or Cal or Stanford or Louisville or BC is legitimately winning the national championship?
Big Ten, SEC teams in. Big 12 teams, I guess make it. ACC for now yes but once the good teams leave then no which is the conference we are talking about.
Another way to go is make the playoff like March Madness. 32 teams or heck 48. Start it early Nov after a 10 game reg season, no conf playoffs, just spitballing. If freaking Syracuse or Cal can win enough games to make a field of 48 then run the gauntlet of a one and done tourney winning 5 straight games or whatever against more difficult competition then great they win the natty.
And the kicker, Notre Dump plays in the JV league until they join a conference. LOL!!
The idea of the Left Outs starting their own playoff has occurred to me too but I think that would be even worse for interest in the Big Ten / SEC playoff. College is different than the pros and college football became popular because everyone was in the same, whatever you want to call it, one big league, association, whatever. Even though some schools were way better at playing football, they were all together in a sense. If the Big 10 and SEC are their own 36 school, then why should the fans of the other 100 or so schools care about those 36? And 100 is a lot and it'll probably grow over time as new school join over time, and of course they won't be joining the Big Ten or SEC.
The bigger the playoff, the less important the regular season becomes. Lots of people pay little attention to college hoops now until March Madness starts.
Yep, 16 team max. I would prefer only 8 as the dropoff is so extreme #9 has no real chance.
The rest go to bowl games as no one would watch a playoff of also rans. At least no more than watch the minor bowls.
That's true but you cannot be giving these lesser teams a seat at the table for a playoff reserved for the elite teams. Sorry, we don't all get trophies. Not sure how much ratings would plummet which I guess is your point about lack of interest. They would still have their own NC. Get Greg Sankey to figure it out, isn't he smarter than God?
What if in the college admissions process the top 20 schools had to take certain students from a high school or region or whatever and the best they have is a C student. But they need to take them because they live in x state or went to x high school so they go to Harvard. Not talking race or anything like that just where you live and it could be an affluent white area but they need to fulfill a quota from that area so the C student is in. Ridiculous.
The other way to go here like I mentioned is go to a March Madness playoff format, 48 teams.
