2018 Offseason Realignment Thread (because Duff loves this ****)

[ahoelsken]

BYU doesn't bring enough to the table to justify regular membership or a special ND type deal.

Notre Dame gets away with it because they are possibly the single biggest national name in college football. Like em' or hate em' they draw attention and generate revenues. That's the same reason they get special consideration in the P5 and why P5 schools are willing to play them at sites of Notre Dame's choosing.

BYU is none of that. BYU is the school that gets the Thursday night slot on a minor ESPN channel, they are the school has to schedule 2 for 1s to get top 20 historic schools to schedule them. They are the school that gets beat by Boise and nobody notices much.

If CU could get them to do a 2 for 1 I'd be fine with that. We have been trying to recruit Utah and have had some success signing LDS kids from the Pacific Coast states. I wouldn't give them a special deal though.

LOL. They played on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC 7 times last year. They played on ESPN/ESPN2/ABC/FOX/FS1 8 times last year. They still are a big deal. I don't have a problem with giving them more games against our league (they're playing Arizona, Cal, Washington, and Utah this year) if we get more national exposure and better bowl tie-ins.

As far as what you say about 2 for 1s-Stanford is playing in Provo twice in return for one game in Palo Alto. Washington is doing a home and home with them in the future. Arizona agreed to another two games with them.

 

[ScottyBuff]

What concerns me about the shape this conference is in under Larry Scott is we're getting far enough behind the other major conferences to where making a move like that and making more concessions to Texas than we should is becoming more and more of a possibility.

Except that isn't even close accurate. The Pac-12 was WAAAYYY further behind the other major conferences in every measurable way financially before Larry Scott came aboard. It was actually quite pathetic and mind-boggling. If you look at recent events only however you see that the Pac-12 jumped to the front in $/school after the expansion/CCG/and new TV contracts he negotiated. Since then everyone else has had their turn to play leap-frog over us and the numbers got bigger and bigger.

Post-Larry Scott Pac-12 vs Pre-Larry Scott Pac-10 isn't even a comparison. But, of course, we all have short-term memories and what-have-you-done-for-me-lately.

The real question is whether we can do better in the current environment than we are now. That's a fair question, but I don't think anyone can find much support that we can do significantly better than we are as a conference in regards to the things that he can control. He doesn't coach the games, play the games, referee the games, or recruit the players. Any on-the-field and on-the-court deficiencies the PAC has is on the coaches and players, not the commissioner. About the only thing we can truly gripe about is the TV network distribution on AT&T/DirecTV and not always being on a basic tier in some cable markets.

 

[skibum]

Except that isn't even close accurate. The Pac-12 was WAAAYYY further behind the other major conferences in every measurable way financially before Larry Scott came aboard. It was actually quite pathetic and mind-boggling. If you look at recent events only however you see that the Pac-12 jumped to the front in $/school after the expansion/CCG/and new TV contracts he negotiated. Since then everyone else has had their turn to play leap-frog over us and the numbers got bigger and bigger.

Post-Larry Scott Pac-12 vs Pre-Larry Scott Pac-10 isn't even a comparison. But, of course, we all have short-term memories and what-have-you-done-for-me-lately.

The real question is whether we can do better in the current environment than we are now. That's a fair question, but I don't think anyone can find much support that we can do significantly better than we are as a conference in regards to the things that he can control. He doesn't coach the games, play the games, referee the games, or recruit the players. Any on-the-field and on-the-court deficiencies the PAC has is on the coaches and players, not the commissioner. About the only thing we can truly gripe about is the TV network distribution on AT&T/DirecTV and not always being on a basic tier in some cable markets.

Generally true, but he is ultimately in charge of hiring, firing, and general performance of the referees. The quality of officiating is something on which he can have a direct and ongoing impact.

He can also have a direct and ongoing impact on the scheduling of games - which has both fan accessibility and significant competitive impacts. Making teams travel for a Friday night game when they were on the road for the late Saturday game the weekend prior and the home team got a bye the weekend before is abso****inglutely ridiculous - and it really is an unfair competitive advantage for the home team.

This last year, that **** scheduling, which Larry Scott ultimately controls, directly led to weeks with fewer P12 teams in the top 10, which definitely hurt the league's chances of getting a team in the playoff.

But, yeah, he's pretty much powerless until it's time to renegotiate the media contracts...

 

[MiamiBuffs]

Making teams travel for a Friday night game when they were on the road for the late Saturday game the weekend prior and the home team got a bye the weekend before is abso****inglutely ridiculous - and it really is an unfair competitive advantage for the home team.

Do you want the money or not? The paymaster plays a big role in this problem.

 

[skibum]

Do you want the money or not? The paymaster plays a big role in this problem.

I know they want the marquee matchups. But change the week prior FFS. The P12N really doesn't need USC @ ASU to be played at 9pm the Saturday before USC plays WSU on Friday night.

Keep SC @ Wazzu on Friday to make the network happy, change the week before.

 

[Bison]

That ain't happenin'. The politicians in those two states wouldn't allow it. As far what @SuperiorBuff says.......that's the only expansion for this league that makes sense. BYU isn't an expansion candidate for us because of the religious issue. San Diego State and UNLV? We've got enough alums in those markets to where we practically have them anyway. Boise? Not good enough academically from what I know. New Mexico? A little bit of a case can be made there......but you'd have at least add another school with them. The only way expansion makes sense for this league is pulling out of the Big 12, and that's going to have to start with UT or Oklahoma. What concerns me about the shape this conference is in under Larry Scott is we're getting far enough behind the other major conferences to where making a move like that and making more concessions to Texas than we should is becoming more and more of a possibility.

Just look at the history of the old PCC and the early days of the PAC. Not every PCC member (save for Idaho and Montana) joined the new PAC right away. UW and UO could go indy for a couple of seasons and then join the new PAC. It's also nearly impossible for UW and UO to join the B1G or Big 12 in this scenario. Really UW is the big dog in this case and whatever they do does impact UO and the other two schools. If that was done in the past with the transition from the old PCC to the PAC, it's very doable today.

I already brought up the Carnegie Research rankings which is a good indicator of where those colleges stand and Boise State, SDSU, and UNLV doesn't make the cut. In the entire west, only CSU, Hawaii, and UNM makes the cut academically for the PAC. Hawaii doesn't realistically have much hope of joining the PAC unless they build a new football stadium. A report last year stated that Aloha Stadium is now "a liability" and needs to be replaced. From the time frame in other websites, it's possible the new stadium is ready by 2025 if not sooner.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/...t-aloha-stadium-a-potential-danger-to-public/

I am becoming more convinced that the PAC might never ever expand to Oklahoma and Texas and would be more likely to expand within the Pacific and Mountain Time Zones. Revenue doesn't appear to be that big of a deal to the conference presidents and given the time zone issues, a traditional media rights deal does not appear workable as well due to the late starts to athletic contests. The MWC will have a new media rights deal for the 2020 football season and early reports are saying that the MWC will go with streaming video full time and the PAC will be watching how the MWC does in that regard. The MWC was first to the market with a conference network so there is some precedent plus the MWC has the same problems as the PAC when it comes to the start of athletic contests. On the positive side, the PAC is better positioned to have a better landing in the event that the media rights bubble bursts which is appearing more likely than ever unless Amazon or anyone else coughs up the money to keep that from happening. Another thing to watch is the popularity of football as it evolves due to the CTE saga. This could lead to a decline in media rights money since football makes up about 75-80% of said media rights deals. We'll find out with the upcoming NFL media rights deal that is to begin in like 2022. That will most likely say a lot about the future of football and media rights deals that rely on football.

 

[Bison]

Falling further behind as a conference is far, far, really ****ing far better than having UTerus come over to destroy their 3rd conference.

Agreed. I'm still nostalgic about the old Big 8 and the PAC appears to have that with the regional pairings plus the PAC doesn't easily expand as well.

 

[MiamiBuffs]

Imagine if you would what it would look like if the Pac12 Net carried ALL the games.

Below is the weekend of the 28th and 29th. How would you schedule it?

UCLA VS Colorado
USC VS Arizona
Oregon State VS Arizona State
Brigham Young VS Washington
Utah VS Washington State
Oregon VS California
Stanford VS Notre Dame

Would you put each team on at either 11am or 3pm and have them compete against each other for audience on their respected regional? Remember you have to fill content for an entire day.

Or would you put them on something like a 1 Thursday night. 1 Friday night. Then maybe 4 games against each other at 11am and 3pm. And the last being a marquee with 8pm kickoff.

 

[Buffnik]

Imagine if you would what it would look like if the Pac12 Net carried ALL the games.

Below is the weekend of the 28th and 29th. How would you schedule it?

UCLA VS Colorado
USC VS Arizona
Oregon State VS Arizona State
Brigham Young VS Washington
Utah VS Washington State
Oregon VS California
Stanford VS Notre Dame

Would you put each team on at either 11am or 3pm and have them compete against each other for audience on their respected regional? Remember you have to fill content for an entire day.

Or would you put them on something like a 1 Thursday night. 1 Friday night. Then maybe 4 games against each other at 11am and 3pm. And the last being a marquee with 8pm kickoff.

I'd do 1 Thursday, 1 Friday and then do non-competing kickoff times on Saturday. However, something that needs to change is to have non-conference games sprinkled through the season instead of loaded to the front of schedules. That would help conference networks more than anything on scheduling.

 

[Not Sure]

Imagine if you would what it would look like if the Pac12 Net carried ALL the games.

Below is the weekend of the 28th and 29th. How would you schedule it?

UCLA VS Colorado
USC VS Arizona
Oregon State VS Arizona State
Brigham Young VS Washington
Utah VS Washington State
Oregon VS California
Stanford VS Notre Dame

Would you put each team on at either 11am or 3pm and have them compete against each other for audience on their respected regional? Remember you have to fill content for an entire day.

Or would you put them on something like a 1 Thursday night. 1 Friday night. Then maybe 4 games against each other at 11am and 3pm. And the last being a marquee with 8pm kickoff.

I’d put them all on at the same time: 5:00 PM Mountain time.

I’d work a deal with the ACC to televise all their games at 10:00 Mountain time (Noon Eastern, a perfectly reasonable start time). Then work a deal with he B12 to televise all their games at 1:30 Mountain Time. That arrangement gives you content and national exposure.

I might even work a deal with the MWC to televise all their games at 8:30 mountain time. With the majority of MWC teams in the Pacific time zone, that’s a 7:30 kickoff, which beats the hell out of the start times for most of their games.

An arrangement like this puts the network front and center for most college football fans. Content, distribution, exposure.

 

[Buffnik]

I’d put them all on at the same time: 5:00 PM Mountain time.

I’d work a deal with the ACC to televise all their games at 10:00 Mountain time (Noon Eastern, a perfectly reasonable start time). Then work a deal with he B12 to televise all their games at 1:30 Mountain Time. That arrangement gives you content and national exposure.

I might even work a deal with the MWC to televise all their games at 8:30 mountain time. With the majority of MWC teams in the Pacific time zone, that’s a 7:30 kickoff, which beats the hell out of the start times for most of their games.

An arrangement like this puts the network front and center for most college football fans. Content, distribution, exposure.

Yeah. Because the ACC would want to break its deal with ESPN for the ACC Network in order to get its games broadcast on PACN.

Besides, why the hell would you want to be showing games from competitor conferences on PACN?

I'll admit that it's creative thinking, but it is not something that any of the parties would be interested in doing.

 

[Not Sure]

Yeah. Because the ACC would want to break its deal with ESPN for the ACC Network in order to get its games broadcast on PACN.

Besides, why the hell would you want to be showing games from competitor conferences on PACN?

I'll admit that it's creative thinking, but it is not something that any of the parties would be interested in doing.

Not now. But when the various tv contracts come up for renewal, maybe then. I’d actually propose to partner with the B12 and ACC and sell them a stake in the network.

 

[Townie]

I say PAC 12 associates with the WAC and AAC, for football only and use a soccer-style system. Next couple years, the champions of those conferences get promoted to the PAC 14/16. From then on, champs keep getting promoted, and the last place team in each PAC division gets relegated down.

 

[BerkeleyBuff]

....but at the same time we bemoan out of jealousy the revenues of those other guys that are in conferences that totally serve the interests of TV.

I don’t bemoan out that jealousy, so... I feel fine.

Besides, the money is more about fan engagement than conference size. Big XII money is smoking the PAC with only ten teams.

 

[SuperD]

Imagine if you would what it would look like if the Pac12 Net carried ALL the games.

Below is the weekend of the 28th and 29th. How would you schedule it?

UCLA VS Colorado
USC VS Arizona
Oregon State VS Arizona State
Brigham Young VS Washington
Utah VS Washington State
Oregon VS California
Stanford VS Notre Dame

Would you put each team on at either 11am or 3pm and have them compete against each other for audience on their respected regional? Remember you have to fill content for an entire day.

Or would you put them on something like a 1 Thursday night. 1 Friday night. Then maybe 4 games against each other at 11am and 3pm. And the last being a marquee with 8pm kickoff.

I'd make sure when the next time the streaming rights came up I was able to sell a streaming package rights to Amazon, Google, and the other over the top options so that every game can be selected depending on what the viewer wants to watch.

 

[skibum]

Just look at the history of the old PCC and the early days of the PAC. Not every PCC member (save for Idaho and Montana) joined the new PAC right away. UW and UO could go indy for a couple of seasons and then join the new PAC. It's also nearly impossible for UW and UO to join the B1G or Big 12 in this scenario. Really UW is the big dog in this case and whatever they do does impact UO and the other two schools. If that was done in the past with the transition from the old PCC to the PAC, it's very doable today.

I already brought up the Carnegie Research rankings which is a good indicator of where those colleges stand and Boise State, SDSU, and UNLV doesn't make the cut. In the entire west, only CSU, Hawaii, and UNM makes the cut academically for the PAC. Hawaii doesn't realistically have much hope of joining the PAC unless they build a new football stadium. A report last year stated that Aloha Stadium is now "a liability" and needs to be replaced. From the time frame in other websites, it's possible the new stadium is ready by 2025 if not sooner.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/...t-aloha-stadium-a-potential-danger-to-public/

I am becoming more convinced that the PAC might never ever expand to Oklahoma and Texas and would be more likely to expand within the Pacific and Mountain Time Zones. Revenue doesn't appear to be that big of a deal to the conference presidents and given the time zone issues, a traditional media rights deal does not appear workable as well due to the late starts to athletic contests. The MWC will have a new media rights deal for the 2020 football season and early reports are saying that the MWC will go with streaming video full time and the PAC will be watching how the MWC does in that regard. The MWC was first to the market with a conference network so there is some precedent plus the MWC has the same problems as the PAC when it comes to the start of athletic contests. On the positive side, the PAC is better positioned to have a better landing in the event that the media rights bubble bursts which is appearing more likely than ever unless Amazon or anyone else coughs up the money to keep that from happening. Another thing to watch is the popularity of football as it evolves due to the CTE saga. This could lead to a decline in media rights money since football makes up about 75-80% of said media rights deals. We'll find out with the upcoming NFL media rights deal that is to begin in like 2022. That will most likely say a lot about the future of football and media rights deals that rely on football.

Fantastic points.

Pro tip: paragraphs = good.

 

[Buffnik]

Long-time Utah AD Chris Hill is retiring in a couple months. Big blow for the Utes. Rumors that he could end up working for the Pac-12, which makes the following extra interesting. He just advocated for BYU to be added to the Big 12 - or another power conference.

https://www.ksl.com/?nid=294&sid=46289547

“It would have sure been nice if they would have picked BYU in the Big 12,” Hill said. “It would have made things a lot less toxic, I think in a way, because then we’re both playing in a Power Five and we don’t have that kind of anxiety back and forth.”

“For us, if they can get in a power league, it just makes the competition a little less toxic,” he said.

 

[skibum]

“It would have sure been nice if they would have picked BYU in the Big 12,” Hill said. “It would have made things a lot less toxic, I think in a way, because then we’re both playing in a Power Five and we don’t have that kind of anxiety back and forth.”

“For us, if they can get in a power league, it just makes the competition a little less toxic,” he said.

Before anyone likes this logic, realize that it also applies to the ewes.

 

[CUFan]

I’d love to get BYU. Air Force would be awesome too. Balance out some of the crazy CA.

 

[Not Sure]

If BYU enters the PAC 12, I can’t wait for the day that God himself appears to the trustees at BYU and tells them it’s ok to play on Sundays so long as they get a big check for doing so.

 

[CULifer]

Yeah. Because the ACC would want to break its deal with ESPN for the ACC Network in order to get its games broadcast on PACN.

Besides, why the hell would you want to be showing games from competitor conferences on PACN?

I'll admit that it's creative thinking, but it is not something that any of the parties would be interested in doing.

I like the idea of scheduling for ease of watching on the east coast, instead of an 8pm start time MST, which means I'm up till 10:05pm EST waiting for my Buffs to start play. Schedule a 6pm marquee and you have the rest of the nation's eyes.

 

[Bison]

http://www.fbschedules.com/2018/04/a-bold-plan-to-make-college-football-great-again/

The Pacific Conference: Boise State, BYU, Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington, and Washington State.
The Southwest Conference: Air Force, Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Colorado, Houston, SMU (or Colorado State), Texas Tech, Texas A&M, TCU, and Texas.
The Midwest Conference: Arkansas, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Memphis, Missouri, Northern Illinois (or Toledo), Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State.
The Great Lakes Conference: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin.
The Southeast Conference: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt.
The Northeast Conference: Army, Boston College, Maryland, Navy, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The Atlantic Conference: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami Fla., North Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, UCF, USF, and Wake Forest.

The heart would prefer that CU bumps NIU/Toledo out of the Midwest Conference and the Southwest Conference inserts New Mexico instead. The mind says having all of that access to Texas shouldn't be overlooked.

So which one would I choose? Midwest Conference and let CSU die a slow and painful death in the Southwest Conference.

 

[ahoelsken]

http://www.fbschedules.com/2018/04/a-bold-plan-to-make-college-football-great-again/

The Pacific Conference: Boise State, BYU, Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington, and Washington State.
The Southwest Conference: Air Force, Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Colorado, Houston, SMU (or Colorado State), Texas Tech, Texas A&M, TCU, and Texas.
The Midwest Conference: Arkansas, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Memphis, Missouri, Northern Illinois (or Toledo), Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State.
The Great Lakes Conference: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin.
The Southeast Conference: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt.
The Northeast Conference: Army, Boston College, Maryland, Navy, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The Atlantic Conference: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami Fla., North Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, UCF, USF, and Wake Forest.

The heart would prefer that CU bumps NIU/Toledo out of the Midwest Conference and the Southwest Conference inserts New Mexico instead. The mind says having all of that access to Texas shouldn't be overlooked.

So which one would I choose? Midwest Conference and let CSU die a slow and painful death in the Southwest Conference.

They forgot to include "The Kiddie Table"......thats where the goats will sit. Wyoming is more attractive than they are in any of this.

 

[TimmyDUBs]

http://www.fbschedules.com/2018/04/a-bold-plan-to-make-college-football-great-again/

The Pacific Conference: Boise State, BYU, Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington, and Washington State.
The Southwest Conference: Air Force, Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Colorado, Houston, SMU (or Colorado State), Texas Tech, Texas A&M, TCU, and Texas.
The Midwest Conference: Arkansas, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Memphis, Missouri, Northern Illinois (or Toledo), Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State.
The Great Lakes Conference: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin.
The Southeast Conference: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt.
The Northeast Conference: Army, Boston College, Maryland, Navy, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The Atlantic Conference: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami Fla., North Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, UCF, USF, and Wake Forest.

The heart would prefer that CU bumps NIU/Toledo out of the Midwest Conference and the Southwest Conference inserts New Mexico instead. The mind says having all of that access to Texas shouldn't be overlooked.

So which one would I choose? Midwest Conference and let CSU die a slow and painful death in the Southwest Conference.

Yuck. Whoever did this can’t truly enjoy college football.

 

[Not Sure]

http://www.fbschedules.com/2018/04/a-bold-plan-to-make-college-football-great-again/

The Pacific Conference: Boise State, BYU, Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington, and Washington State.
The Southwest Conference: Air Force, Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Colorado, Houston, SMU (or Colorado State), Texas Tech, Texas A&M, TCU, and Texas.
The Midwest Conference: Arkansas, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Memphis, Missouri, Northern Illinois (or Toledo), Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State.
The Great Lakes Conference: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, and Wisconsin.
The Southeast Conference: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt.
The Northeast Conference: Army, Boston College, Maryland, Navy, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The Atlantic Conference: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami Fla., North Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, UCF, USF, and Wake Forest.

The heart would prefer that CU bumps NIU/Toledo out of the Midwest Conference and the Southwest Conference inserts New Mexico instead. The mind says having all of that access to Texas shouldn't be overlooked.

So which one would I choose? Midwest Conference and let CSU die a slow and painful death in the Southwest Conference.

This is done based on geography, which I suppose is OK. I’m not a fan of being tied to all those Texas schools, though.

 

[Bison]

Yuck. Whoever did this can’t truly enjoy college football.

I would strongly disagree. That Northeast Conference looks solid and would have mostly turned out that way if Penn State never joined the Big Ten. Boise State and BYU are already rivals and the same applies to Utah and the Donks. The Northwest schools will hate having BSU in the same conference while the California schools will rail against BYU. It could make the PAC more attractive to media rights holders than the current set-up. I'd be intrigued by Arkansas being paired up with both Oklahoma schools plus having access to Memphis and Chicago (via NIU) could lead to better basketball.

This is done based on geography, which I suppose is OK. I’m not a fan of being tied to all those Texas schools, though.

Me too but having the Arizona schools along with Air Force and easy access to the Metroplex & Houston would be tough to pass up too. TCU might be doing good right now but once Patterson hangs up the headset, TCU might go back to sucking again and SMU & Baylor's long term prospects wouldn't look that good either. When CU is doing good, the only schools that would scare me would be Arizona State and Texas. Same for Houston and like those schools, CU would have better attendance at Folsom Field for sure. The money would be better as well and so would the start times but I would wonder about donations but I would also wonder if the west coast donors do miss those earlier starts plus they could watch CU in Arizona anyway. I was pretty opposed at the beginning to the four Big 12 South schools coming along for the ride but entering year eight, I'm more open to reuniting with Oklahoma & Texas...they could be more likely to bring the best out of CU than UCLA/USC. I'm starting to wonder if those rumors of those Arizona schools moving to the Big 12 did have some fire in them given the Pac-12's issues.

 

[Bison]

OU's Boren is retiring after 24 years as the OU president and the new OU president attended UCCS in Colorado Springs before going to law school in Norman. I like him already given this tweet:

 

[WarBuff]

OU's Boren is retiring after 24 years as the OU president and the new OU president attended UCCS in Colorado Springs before going to law school in Norman. I like him already given this tweet:

Down with the Longhorns. They never let up.

 

[The Alabaster Yak]

Some interesting comments in here.

There is at least one Power Five conference commissioner who thinks a current lawsuit against the NCAA will end in defeat for the organization. The case, Alston v. NCAA, is seeking an injunction against current NCAA scholarship limitations (room, board, books, tuition, cost of attendance).
The commissioner, who was not named, recently spoke to CBS Sports and put it bluntly: "I think we're going to lose."
If the NCAA does lose, it could signal a major shift in the structure of college football. The changes could lead to conferences being given the independence to eradicate the limit on scholarships, and the door for the creation of "super conferences" might be in play for the future.

 

[ScottyBuff]

Some interesting comments in here.

The only connection to potential realignment is that the conferences could dictate the limits rather than the NCAA. Not sure that results in immediate realignment because there is no guarantee that anything would change immediately.

I do think the new 4 game rule and instances like Nick Bosa will result in the conferences pushing to increase the scholarship limits to ~95 per team if they get a chance. I could see a conference like the Mountain West or American Athletic going out and trying to push these limits first to gain a competitive advantage temporarily over P5 programs.

All of this is something that will push the P5 conferences into a new "division" for management purposes. The MAC, Sun-Belt, and Conference USA are not sitting in the position of strength in any of the above. Some schools in P5 might not be able to afford this type of arms race either (Wake Forest?).