Oregon, Washington, California & Utah are good programs with lots of eyeballs. Stanford in all sports and great name. I think the big 12 is safe. So if Oregon and Washington can't get into the big 10, which they obviously prefer, getting those 4/5 and ditching Wake, BC, ?, would not be a bad conference at all. But getting out of that longterm deal is going to be impossible for a few years.

and not totally crazy, however, the issue is the product. You can be a national conference with tons of inventory and ability to cover multiple time slots but, if your product is not intriguing your viewership is probably soft. It is somewhat akin to marginal soft drink brands combining with the belief they will challenge Coke and Pepsi.

the more no-name, no national interest brands you bring in, the more you dilute the value of the small number of national brand properties you have. The PAC and Big12 are going to fail because their national brands are gone, combining them is not a value multiplier, it's a value destroyer. The ACC has more national brands, but no one cares about a matchup between UNC and Wazzu or Clemson and AZ State. ACC needs to focus on maximizing the value of the brands it has before that value is gone or the cost of paying off the exit fees to go to the SEC or Big10 becomes worth it for those brands.

We have UNC vs. Duke in basketball. Other than that, we have FSU and Clemson that are top 15 football brands in. And even if those two play in the regular season, it's not like that is nationally some sort of must see rivalry game like Ohio State-Michigan, Alabama- Auburn or some other game with a long pedigree. I also think the issue for the ACC is the ratio of big brands to pedestrian programs. It's hard to build a brand when you have only few big national matchups during the course of a season. So I'm ready for the maximizing. Just not sure how to do it. And I'm not sure our commissioner knows either. Got any ideas? As a side note, I think there are some bigger brands on the West Coast that would be in the top third of the ACC if they could somehow join us (although travel and GOR might make that unpalatable). But I would put Washington and Oregon into that category in football, and Arizona in basketball. I also think some East Coast exposure would definitely help these brands. ** Edited by Maroon Baboon at 3/3/2023, 6:18:02 PM

If the three conferences merge, they should create a three-tier system with relegation and promotion. Then you will have a top tier playing one another in a competitive schedule that would result in its higher performing teams being CFP capable. Pay the schools of all three tiers the same amount of money for a set time (maybe 5 years), then after that grandfather in a price table that gives teams in the top tier in each given year more money, and teams in tier three the least amount. It could be a pilot program for what the rest of college football should become. It might encourage the G5 schools below to form up in a similar manner, and in the end, it will prove to be more competitive and interesting than the P2 Cartel. And in the end, maybe the P2 would allow the system to come in underneath them for access. I think what we will eventually see is that the P2 greed will be unsatisfied. And soon they will look to the deadweight within its own ranks (crappy ratings, crappy performance teams), and want to run schools out (Vandy = no SEC titles ever). Eventually, people in the P2 will say, "Hey, we could be playing Washington, or Clemson, or Florida State, but instead, we are playing Rutgers." A nice, easy, fast and fair way to get rid of deadweight is to start using relegation. And who knows, maybe if put to a sink or swim season, Vandy might just do well enough to stay up. I just think merit is the way to go. I'm tired of the boardroom fiefdom picking winners and losers. I also don't think in the longrun the current model is sustainable or or one that will maximize profits.

I remember an article several years ago written by a reporter with a Tennessee Sports Media website. The article went into detail with reasoning to kick Vandy & Arkansas out of the SEC. I thought while reading the article about how the Razorbacks had beaten Tennessee a lot in the most recent games in the series. I also decided while reading that article that I definitely wanted to read the comment reactions below that article. That article had several hundred comments under it. I had assumed while reading it that it would get some negative responses from a few Hog fans. However what I saw surprised me. Auburn fans & fans from all over the SEC were defending the Hogs & Vandy. Vandy is an original SEC member. One fan went into a very long analytic article that historically compared Arkansas with Clemson. Arkansas has been horrible since Petrino's motorcycle wreck in 2012. However that fan clearly statistically showed how Arkansas was historically the better program over Clemson. I enjoyed reading those comments, I didn't even bother to post a comment. I enjoyed the comment section so much. I went in search of that article on that website about a month later. I found the article had been taken down off that website. The negative feedback caused that. Not going to be that easy culling programs from conferences.. Fans within the conferences have cherished memories of games involving those schools.

...schools, such as having a 70K+ seat football stadium while averaging an 80%+ tickets sold and "butts in seats." If you play in a NFL stadium, you do not meet that requirement. Schools must sell 90%+ of their allotted bowl tickets. That will solve the "small schools with tiny fan bases" problem for football. Maybe drop them in football, keeping them for basketball and non-revenue sports and have conference payouts reflect the change. This would be called the "build a fan base or get out" approach...lol

I can only talk a lot about Hog fans filling home football stadium seats. Those poor coaching hires would have already got Arkansas ejected from the SEC due to empty seats. From what I have always heard, South Carolina wins the prize in filling stadium seats with warm butts. They fill their stadium, win or lose. ** Edited by WarHog38 at 3/3/2023, 12:47:48 PM

back to back 0-11 years and still sold out that 80K+ stadium for every game. They show up without a doubt.

Wouldn't work for Miami, since I think they still have $99 season ticket packages...the cheapest in P5 football.

Or 200 pro-Vandy comments on a contraction article. After all, the powers that be just wrecked the whole Pac-12. And think about how many rivalries have been already been destroyed. I'm not saying it's going to happen that the P2 will definitely ditch Vandy, Rutgers, et al. But either way, it's a weakness in the P2. And I was speaking about it in contrast to a relegation and promotion system that embraces competition and rewards merit over a cartel that locks people out. ** Edited by Maroon Baboon at 3/2/2023, 8:30:30 PM

I just don't see the SEC kicking anyone out in the near future.Those comments on that board just rubber stamped that. You want to talk about college football as a whole or in a few decades. I do doubt college football existing in any form that we now recognize. It has drastically changed over just the last five years. This whole country is radically changing. Therefore I would never argue futuristic forecasts with anyone here about college football or much else.

the game we grew up with and love. I also don't see many thinking that these changes are good for the game - maybe individual schools or conferences - but not the game.

College Football is being made more & more like the NFL. With high salaried coaches & high compensated athletes. The NFL has always been more about money than winning going back to the NFL & AFL days. If a NFL franchise stays in the Black with large stadium crowds, no pressure really to ever win. They are located only in the very largest population cities across this country to facilitate that. If the stadium crowds pit, they move the franchise. All about money. Certainly more about greed than passion with being involved in that.

It's worse then being left behind by the Big10 and SEC. Either you have a conference, or you don't. The Big12 right now is the most excited I've ever seen a conference - top to bottom. The PAC and ACC need to stay together as conferences.

They are a cancer.

I know how Texas did the Big-12 with the LHN & Unequal Sharing. I remember Nebraska left the Big-12 to a large degree because of heavily biased game officiating against them in a Big-12 Conference Championship Game. The game officials kept letting Texas have attempts to hit a long FG they needed to win that game, eventually hitting the FG & winning that game. Nebraska fans were all livid after that game. Schools will leave over officiating. The Georgia Tech head football coach fighting the SEC over a controversial officiating call led directly to GT withdrawing from the SEC in the early 1960's. I also remember something Frank Broyles said about the SWC. Broyles said when he wanted something in the SWC. He knew not to bring it up at conference meetings in Dallas. Broyles said he knew it would most likely get a cool reception from all those Texas schools. Broyles said he would always go directly to Texas. If Texas agreed, Broyles said all the other Texas schools would follow in line agreeing. Texas ruled the SWC. The SEC already does have poor football game officiating. SEC officiating favors the better higher ranked or respected team. That just benefits the SEC on the monetary end of things. However SEC Championship Games usually will not be that blatant. I know Arkansas got some horrible game officiating in the later stages of that Kansas Liberty Bowl. Fumbles caused by the ground and targeting calls so bad that they were immediately overturned soon after the game ended. Arkansas literally won that game three times due to bad officiating. Game officiating is inherently bad for one reason. They will not ever fire those officials. They are bank presidents, and big insurance execs or large car dealership owners. They just never fire one for being inept. I do not think Texas can screw up Alabama favoring SEC game officials. I also extremely doubt the SEC will go unequal sharing favoring Texas. Texas entering the SEC will probably hurt Arkansas recruiting in Texas. Just like Texas A&M very visibly did to Arkansas football recruiting when the Aggies entered the SEC. That is my only fear.

Then for 6 years there would be 3 automatic G5 schools in the playoffs. What is that worth?

They will have the leverage to reduce or eliminated auto bids in the future. And their greed will be insatiable by then. I'd rather create something cool and entertaining and worry less about what other people are going to do with the CFP.

They would have a mutiny if they blocked the expanded playoffs. We will then have our semi pro league, and it's all over but the crying. If the mid tier and lower teams have no pathway to improve their position and standing on the field, then what's the point?

automatic qualifiers or automatic bids. ** Edited by Maroon Baboon at 3/2/2023, 8:41:54 PM

If the remaining P conferences combine forces and negotiate one contract - not one conference. The auto's to the playoffs are key. There is no way they would get Big10 numbers, but they could be very competitive.