OT: D1

[IUPNation]

…and to think this all began the day Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova voted NO to keep Penn State out of the Big East but took in Pitt.

I guess Syracuse and Boston College should have fought harder to get Penn State in..there could have been a very formidable Big East.

But they blew it…

[cwfenn]

I think FBS will cycle back to what is was. It'll eventually cause the mega conferences to slowly split and form new geographical conferences. How likely will this happen, who knows. But sports (and almost everything in life) has a tendency to cycle back around.

The original Southern Conference was founded in 1920-1922 and had 20 schools. In the early 30’s a bunch of them left to start the SEC and a bunch of others in 1953 left and started the ACC. Those that were left out were mostly no longer relevant in athletics. I guess something like that could happen again, especially if it continues to be a chase to get the most money.

(Fun fact-Sewanee and Tulane were original members of the SEC.)

[TDBoi8136]

If it realignment happens in the future; I want them to consider my new P5 conference. TBD Conference (leaning toward Yankee Conference) Boston College, UCONN, Syracuse, Rutgers, Temple, Penn State, Pitt, Maryland, WVU, Virginia, VA Tech, and Cincinnati

[cwfenn]

…and to think this all began the day Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova voted NO to keep Penn State out of the Big East but took in Pitt.

I guess Syracuse and Boston College should have fought harder to get Penn State in..there could have been a very formidable Big East.

But they blew it…

They did blow it…Paterno wanted to be in a league bad, and kept getting turned away. Oddly enough, Villanova didn’t have football when that vote was cast (they dropped the program for a few years after Howie Long left), they maybe vote differently if they had a program.

[cwfenn]

If it realignment happens in the future; I want them to consider my new P5 conference. TBD Conference (leaning toward Yankee Conference) Boston College, UCONN, Syracuse, Rutgers, Temple, Penn State, Pitt, Maryland, WVU, Virginia, VA Tech, and Cincinnati

As someone who remembers the old Yankee Conference, UMass needs to be in there too.

[IUP24]

…and to think this all began the day Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova voted NO to keep Penn State out of the Big East but took in Pitt.

I guess Syracuse and Boston College should have fought harder to get Penn State in..there could have been a very formidable Big East.

But they blew it…

Was a little more complex than that. Paterno wanted to form an all sports, Eastern conference, comprised of schools who were mostly already on his schedule. And you have to consider, at the time, College Football didn’t rule the roost. Basketball did. And rather significantly at that. The forming of the Big East was structured to create a powerful basketball conference that existed largely in urban and metropolitan areas. Penn State, for better or worse, didn’t fit what they were looking for. Sure, hindsight says it would’ve been great to have all those schools who both Pitt and Penn State were playing at that time all form a league together (I think Pitt, Penn State, and WVU should all play every year), but the focus of college athletics at the time was basketball.

This all didn’t “begin” there though. Life existed like this for a long, long time. TV money didn’t become a “thing” until Texas started the Longhorn Network, attempting to match the exclusive TV deal that Notre Dame had with NBC.

As tv money grew, and the dollars grew even more for football, the old Big East broke up.

What’s happened now is exclusively because Greg Sankey (SEC Commissioner), Jack Swarbick (ND athletic director), and ESPN executives orchestrated a backroom deal two summers ago to expand the playoff and convince Texas and Oklahoma to leave the B12. The proposal to expand the playoff was introduced by Sankey and Swarbick, and received support from Group of 5 conferences (because it guaranteed them a seat at the table), as well as the Big Ten, ACC, and PAC 12. ESPN held rights with the Big 12, and likely no longer wanted to pay to broadcast that conference without their two biggest brands. More playoff games means more games to broadcast, and as such, means more money.

Immediately after the 12 team playoff proposal and Texas/OU leaving, the B1G, ACC, and PAC 12 created their “Alliance,” which was hilarious. But they did that. They knew the SEC was fully invested in the arms race. And the hope was that the Big 12 would get destroyed, allowing their conference to still exist.

Consider that the original 12 team proposal was an AQ bid from each P5 conference, the highest rank G5 team, and the remaining as at large bids. ND supported this in full because, especially considering that they helped orchestrate this, they figured that one less AQ bid means an increased opportunity to reach the college football playoff, meaning more of a payout.

And why are these leagues trying to poach each other even more? Again, money. The more teams you have that can get your conference at large bids, the more money your conference gets. That’s how the broadcast rights work for the College Football Playoff.


THAT…. Is where this all began.

[IUP24]

If it realignment happens in the future; I want them to consider my new P5 conference. TBD Conference (leaning toward Yankee Conference) Boston College, UCONN, Syracuse, Rutgers, Temple, Penn State, Pitt, Maryland, WVU, Virginia, VA Tech, and Cincinnati

I would love that. College football is supposed to be about regional affiliation and identity.

[Fightingscot82]

I think FBS will cycle back to what is was. It'll eventually cause the mega conferences to slowly split and form new geographical conferences. How likely will this happen, who knows. But sports (and almost everything in life) has a tendency to cycle back around.

I hope but I think these conferences will eventually leave most G5 schools in the dust and maybe bring them back to FCS.

[TDBoi8136]

I hope but I think these conferences will eventually leave most G5 schools in the dust and maybe bring them back to FCS.

My fear is FBS becomes what they wanted to do with that failed super soccer league in Europe

[IUPNation]

I would love that. College football is supposed to be about regional affiliation and identity.

Which is funny since the biggest whining on D2Foosball.com outside of region 1 is that this level is regionalized.

[IUP24]

Which is funny since the biggest whining on D2Foosball.com outside of region 1 is that this level is regionalized.

It’s regionalized because it has to be. Schools are small. Budgets are small. Fan bases are small and niche. I have no qualms with the D2 setup, but I would like to see more of an “open” or “national” format with basketball.

I’m not sure I have a great solution to the problem.

[Ship69]

Was a little more complex than that. Paterno wanted to form an all sports, Eastern conference, comprised of schools who were mostly already on his schedule. And you have to consider, at the time, College Football didn’t rule the roost. Basketball did. And rather significantly at that. The forming of the Big East was structured to create a powerful basketball conference that existed largely in urban and metropolitan areas. Penn State, for better or worse, didn’t fit what they were looking for. Sure, hindsight says it would’ve been great to have all those schools who both Pitt and Penn State were playing at that time all form a league together (I think Pitt, Penn State, and WVU should all play every year), but the focus of college athletics at the time was basketball.

This all didn’t “begin” there though. Life existed like this for a long, long time. TV money didn’t become a “thing” until Texas started the Longhorn Network, attempting to match the exclusive TV deal that Notre Dame had with NBC.

As tv money grew, and the dollars grew even more for football, the old Big East broke up.

What’s happened now is exclusively because Greg Sankey (SEC Commissioner), Jack Swarbick (ND athletic director), and ESPN executives orchestrated a backroom deal two summers ago to expand the playoff and convince Texas and Oklahoma to leave the B12. The proposal to expand the playoff was introduced by Sankey and Swarbick, and received support from Group of 5 conferences (because it guaranteed them a seat at the table), as well as the Big Ten, ACC, and PAC 12. ESPN held rights with the Big 12, and likely no longer wanted to pay to broadcast that conference without their two biggest brands. More playoff games means more games to broadcast, and as such, means more money.

Immediately after the 12 team playoff proposal and Texas/OU leaving, the B1G, ACC, and PAC 12 created their “Alliance,” which was hilarious. But they did that. They knew the SEC was fully invested in the arms race. And the hope was that the Big 12 would get destroyed, allowing their conference to still exist.

Consider that the original 12 team proposal was an AQ bid from each P5 conference, the highest rank G5 team, and the remaining as at large bids. ND supported this in full because, especially considering that they helped orchestrate this, they figured that one less AQ bid means an increased opportunity to reach the college football playoff, meaning more of a payout.

And why are these leagues trying to poach each other even more? Again, money. The more teams you have that can get your conference at large bids, the more money your conference gets. That’s how the broadcast rights work for the College Football Playoff.


THAT…. Is where this all began.

Growing up in the Midwest, where basketball was very popular, I can't remember a time when college basketball was more important than football. Maybe that's an Eastern thing. They certainly weren't building Ohio Stadium and The Big House for basketball.

[Ship69]

They did blow it…Paterno wanted to be in a league bad, and kept getting turned away. Oddly enough, Villanova didn’t have football when that vote was cast (they dropped the program for a few years after Howie Long left), they maybe vote differently if they had a program.

Some Penn State fans enjoy whining about their treatment in the B1G, which at least took them in after they never were able to get into an eastern league.

[jrshooter]

What I can't understand is why people are excited about this.

I've yet to see anyone outside of the principals who are applauding this.

[IUP24]

I've yet to see anyone outside of the principals who are applauding this.

Holistically, yes, I agree with you. Intelligent people can identify how bad this is for college football. In a vacuum though, I disagree. Vehemently. There are fan bases in pissing matches with each other in the bowels of social media.

And like I said, the fans aren’t getting any money from this. All that’s happening is the teams in most of the conferences now are further from relevance than they were before. But they are just happy, for now, that their team has a seat at the table.