Big media owns all national broadcasting of college sports and they want what they want and it is not an equal P4 or P3. They saved the B12 from going the way of the PAC, but at a price that the B12 is on the hook for. Same with the ACC, Big media saved the ACC getting them out of the lawsuit and signing on until 2026. With all that, Big media essentially "owns" the ACC and B12 so both are pretty well destined to fill whatever under the P2 league setup Big Media wants. I would love for the little p2 to refuse to play any p2 school but I do not believe they have the power to challenge Big media.

There used to be five big record companies and they peaked in revenue in 1999 at $25B in revenue(Universal, EMI, Sony, Warner, BMG). That number is 1999 dollars, NOT inflation adjusted. In 2024, the global music market was valued at only $8.95 billion. Where did all the money go?-->to Spotify and Apple basically. TV is all the same. I posted this below. I think once Apple and Amazon figure out how to kill ESPN, they will ,assuming they don't need them or want to do what they want. This was the perfect opp for the ACC and B12 to push the mouse's death forward a decade.

you call them, are in business to make money. They gave the BIG and SEC a lot of money after they expanded. They gave the SEC and BIG that money because that is where the eyeballs are. The didn't save the B12 - as they could care less about the actual sport, or the universities. They gave the B12 a media contract because that is where the eyeball are - and that is where the money is. When the BIG contract is negotiated next time, there is no guarantee that all of those games will be controlled by FOX. Other networks, including ESPN will in all likelihood, be bidding on that live content. Don't forget the streamers that once they figure out their business model, they too will be bidding on that content. Currently, the B12 has 5 different media companies "owning" the rights to broadcast B12 content until 2030. The entities in the "power" position are the conferences themselves. The NFL content as an example, isn't "owned" by any one media company, and who has the power there? Content is KING, and live content in streaming that people are willing to pay for is rare, and going up in value. The ACC brands are stuck in a media deal until 2036. The fact that anyone is discussing leaving the ACC with the exit fees as they are, should tell you everything. Those football "brands" have the eyeballs, and their content may very well be worth it. I had always held the position that the BIG is being over paid. My opinion on that is evolving. They get the ratings, they are promoted on their networks, they have large followings, and they cashed in when their contract was negotiated. They will get another bite of that apple around 2030, so if you think it's bad now, buckle up, because I now think they will get even more money - expansion or not. Same with the SEC. Same with the "saved" B12. There is no conspiracy with a "P2" or the "little P2" as you coin the phrase. The BIG and SEC will get richer, as they have the top marque games that people will pay to watch. The B12 will get richer, because they too have content that people are willing to pay to watch. The ACC if they stay together, will probably make as much or more than the B12 if their contract went up for bid again, but 2036 is too far off, and we may never find out. The networks are not pulling the strings here, the conferences are, and some strings are much stronger than others. ** Edited by Big12 guy at 9/2/2025, 6:44:22 PM

As I think they have shown they see more net money in a grouping of less than 40 of the best brands. If eyeballs meant as much as you hoped, and the B12 has them, there would be some B12 teams in this round of P2 expansion.There are not. Instead Big Media and the P2 seem to prefer to grow eyeballs in Virginia and NC over anything in the B12. Yes I mean UNC and UVA. If your take was correct, then neither of those schools would have gotten even a breath of speculation. Maybe your B12 eyeballs are seen as being maxed out with the growth and potential profit in VA and NC greater than anything in the B12. Of course there is also the potential that the people pulling the strings for this new college football know no more than the ones that tried to create a new larger customer base for Bud Light and Cracker Barrell. In another way if eyeballs were as important as you hope then VT would be the desired team to deliever the DC/MD/VA huge market area and NCSU would be the same for NC. One more, Kansas seems to be pretty much on the same athletic level, at least for the revenue sports as UVA yet they are not mentioned with the P2. Why? Maybe it is that KU is seen as having maxed out their eyeballs. I still believe that the B12 and the ACC are being "used" in an interim period to hold teams Big Media is not sure they are through with yet. The ACC TV deal through 2036 may look much better to the B12 once big media does not need them anymore. My guess is that neither the next B12 nor ACC deals will be nearly as good as they are now.

in Brooklyn.

because Yormark played ball and they needed a place to park some teams after they carved up the PAC12 carcass. Their next contract will be about eyeballs. ** Edited by 2hhoop3 at 9/2/2025, 8:47:55 PM

believe that they actually saw the PAC imploding. I think that it was a comedy or errors, and the B12 happened to be in the right place at the right time. I know we have disagreed on this in the past, but I contend that the 4 corners being added to the B12 was never planned by the networks, and the planets just happened to line up at the right time. You are right though, all conference media contracts moving forward will be about the eyeballs, but maybe more importantly, the eyeballs that are willing to pay for that content.

rules dictated by SEC and B1G - no way they can win that way. We saw this weekend that the top ACC football teams right now can indeed compete with the top SEC one-on-one but the SEC teams will just outnumber the other conference teams and it's a matter of numbers - just like the way the SEC got so many teams in the NCAA men's basketball tournament this year and finally won it.

...back yard so they have the "home field" advantage. How many times in a row will those games be played in Atlanta? Our game could have easily been played in Charlotte, and been fairly close to the geographic middle. How about a game in FedEx, or some other stadium that's not in SEC territory?

as well. Totally agree with you on being more geographic centric. If we had an AD worth football salt, he would have fought to schedule Sunday's game in Charlotte what 4 or 5 years ago when it was first scheduled, might have been longer.

because I think CFA was the original title sponsor and their headquarters is located there. Now that Aflac is the title sponsor, it probably makes sense to keep the game there because their headquarters is located in Columbus, GA. I suspect the reason Duke's Mayo chose Charlotte as the location of its game is because the brand was founded in Greenville, SC and maybe because Atlanta wasn't an option.

They'll call these kickoff games whatever company pays the bills.

would not surprise me if the organization limits the title sponsor to a GA based company/organization.

I haven't seen anything saying it has. Agree with you, though.

Obviously the Temples, the UL Monroe’s, etc would not have been great, but others, Boise, Appalachian, UTSA’s JMU’s etc would’ve been good

acting like the T2 have the power to change this, is way off base.

The problem is the control of time slots....the SEC was featured in 82 of the top 100 games watched last season....their Saturday triple headers onhe ABC load them up.

about conference realignment. The money gap is bad enough, but the exposure gap (i.e., the fact that ACC teams are not on channels people watch) is the existential threat to the conference, and why the competitive football programs want to leave. If your game isn't on a free OTA network like ABC, CBS, FOX, etc., or at worst on primary ESPN, then nobody is going to watch your game. For all intents and purposes, it may as well not even be on TV. And, it doesn't matter how well ACC teams do - ABC slots are designated almost exclusively for SEC games. 9+ times out of 10, unless an ACC team is playing an SEC team, they're not playing on ABC. And it's just going to get worse with the SEC going to 9 conference games. The reality, and the existential threat, is that the vast majority of ACC games have been banished to air on networks that very few to zero casual viewers will actually bother to watch, and there's no way to change that calculus now, at least not if Disney remains the primary media rights partner. And where else is there for the conference to go? ** Edited by Baltimore_Hokie at 9/2/2025, 12:37:37 PM

numbers is a double whammy. The B12 is in a similar position, and unless they start producing top 10 teams, they too will not get the prime slots. Without a ND, Miami, or FSU, it's the large fan bases that save the B12. Out here in flyover, there just aren't that many choices for the casual viewer, so the B12 does OK. If you want the viewership numbers, either you play a top 10 team, or you are the top 10 team. Looking at the polls, and how much they like the SEC and BIG teams, it makes it an even tougher hill to clime. Both the ACC and B12 give their schools a sound enough base to build a contender. Those that spend money wisely will get an opportunity to play the blue bloods in the layoffs - and until our schools start winning those games, those time slots will continue to go to the teams that the casual viewer wants to watch.

ratings is all they care about.

They also get some games on ESPN2, as well as the SECN. Yeah, the SEC definitely gets the "cream of the crop" of ESPN/Disney telecasts.

Mr Bezos, Netflix, and Youtube can destroy ESPN and Fox financially whenever they want…this would open the window

Fox(symbol FOX) - $25B Disney(DIS) - $220B Netflix(NFLX) - $513B Amazon(AMZN) - $2.4T Google(GOOG) - $2.5T All the big guys need is a story that it is accretive

Disney and Fox own the broadcast. That would be a huge game changer to say the least. They would be way more likely to want to grow the interest both nationally and globally, while Disney and Fox seem interested in getting it down to a much smaller number of schools. That’s how the SEC and B1G are the king makers right now. One question is does unequal sharing spread to the SEC and B1G? A lot of people think it is inevitable. That’s another big game changer.