I can easily see that split between the B1G and the Big 12. Holds together what the B1G has histiorically felt is important and gives the B12 some big name schools.
They don't have that big of a swinging...... Especially without the other two conferences joining and forming a new athletic oversight group. The NCAA is nothing but a large group of member UNIVERSITIES.
The B1G may be willing to cede Nebraska (especially since they lost their AAU status....lol).....but they prize they have wanted for a while is UND.
Supposedly, one reason UND "partially joined" the ACC was because of the academic prestige of several of its members (not that the ACC caving in to UNDs TV demands hurt),. If that remains true, I am not sure the SEC has a chance.....the SEC has Texas, TAMU, Florida and Mizzou....but no one else has that level of academic reputation.
That could be a factor, but I’m jaded enough to believe that football and money win out.
The former commissioner of the B1G said the same thing. He probably meant it at the time. But he's gone and they need greater West Coast presence as a matter of proximate rivalries and logistics. If the Pac 12 starts splintering further, the B1G is going to take teams, and the SEC will need to counter. Otherwise, we'll be left behind in the next TV negotiation cycle after the one just past.
The SEC is the king of football. But the ACC still fancies themself a power. SEC ain’t giving up its name. There’s no way the ACC would go along.
The B1G has a huge presence now out west with the LA Market. They could eventually and in all likelihood expand to take Stanford (N.Cal market, Wash and Oregon).
And accordingly UNC would achieve that. Love 'em or hate 'em, they are a massive brand in a growing southeastern state.
I have long felt that UNC and either VA or VT make all the sense in the world.
If you’re going by quality of sports programs; I would have to disagree
Yes, but a partner would still be needed with them, to even out the number of teams.
If you're going division-less, that would not be a concern.
Don't know what the buyout is. I wonder if the SEC would pay all or most of that for UNC?
The cost to leave the ACC is prohibitive. And their grant of rights is ironclad.
If what King Ward said was to happen, I could see both the SEC and ACC decide to merge into one league. These kinds of things happen all the time in the business world to the surprise.....to the shock of Wall Street.....out of the blue. And college sports is a business.....a big business. If the SEC and ACC determined it was in their financial best interest to merge, they'd do it, with the approval of the tv boys, of course.. If it happened, forming a league stretching from the southwest, touching the midwest, through the southeast and all the way up the eastern seaboard, it would be a league unrivaled. It would be a league combining the best in college football and college basketball. Often when mergers happen, they happen with discussions in secret, out of daylight. I'm not saying it will happen. I am saying that we don't know what we don't know.
Correct, like how aTm and Mizzou were invited to join the SEC. I'm personally not thrilled with all of it, but I do understand.
Exactlty....the GOR would be out the window.
Year in, year out, over the longest period of time in the most sports, and throwing in their academic reputation to boot, their brand is unassailable in the ACC
I agree. But some schools would be excluded, I believe, and therein would lie the rub.
But that could not be centrally managed because no entity has the power. It's not the NFL. The conferences themselves would have to get together.
