New teams must bring:

--Successful football programs
--Significant media market and/or significant fan base following

With that in mind, adding new teams to the Big 12* does have media potential:

• SMU, DFW #5 media market
• Houston, Houston #7 media market
• UCF, Orlando #18 media market--Adds Florida
• BYU, Salt Lake City #30 media market (national following supposedly second only to Notre Dame's?)
• Cincinnati, Cincinnati #35 media market--Adds Ohio/Kentucky
• Memphis, Memphis #51 media market--Adds Tennessee
• Navy, Baltimore, #26 media market (national following)
• Air Force, Colorado Springs #91 media market (national following)
• Army, West Point is 60 miles from NYC #1 media market (national following)
• Boise State, #100 media market--Adds everyone who loves potatoes (or bluegrass music)

FYI, Waco is #91 media market; Austin is #40 and Oklahoma City is #45

Media markets from Nielsen DMA Rankings 2019 - MediaTracks Communications

* Lose the number and rename it--The Big Country?? ;-) since it's more national? ;-)

I love the idea of adding West Point, Air Force Academy, Naval Academy and BYU. I really believe the marketing potential of adding the service academies could be HUGE!

sporthree said:

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I love the idea of adding West Point, Air Force Academy, Naval Academy and BYU. I really believe the marketing potential of adding the service academies could be HUGE!

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I've long been an advocate of adding Navy in particular, which was ridiculed by some of the know-it-alls on this forum.

But Sailor Bear always agreed with me!

Just be patient. The B1G has no interest in the 8 teams available from the Big 12.

Fox will pressure the B1G to expand, and that expansion will come from either 4 (USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington) or 6 ((kick in Stanford and Cal....B1G presidents love to brag about academics)schools from the Pac 12. The remaining Pac 12 will then be available to merge with the 8 Big 12 schools. That's basically the way it will play out. There's never been a Power 5. There's always been a Big 2, Little 3.

UCF is the clear #1 option. Then Cinci. I would go to 12 (assuming no one gets an invite from any of the other big conferences), so I would prefer Memphis and then one of Boise/UH/SMU. Probably UH.

I am pretty sure UC Berkeley would give up football before joining Baylor, Tech, KSU and OSU, especially in a shotgun marriage like that

GoodOleBaylorLine said:

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I am pretty sure UC Berkeley would give up football before joining Baylor, Tech, KSU and OSU, especially in a shotgun marriage like that

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That's one way to make sure that Cal won't score again!!!

GoodOleBaylorLine said:

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I am pretty sure UC Berkeley would give up football before joining Baylor, Tech, KSU and OSU, especially in a shotgun marriage like that

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I read an article recently that the PAC12 may need to be proactive itself or risk losing schools to the Big10. ESPN may be interested in getting the big 10 to add marquee programs like USC, and they need travel partners. That could blow up another conference. If the PAC12 moves to the central timezone and refactors their tier 3 rights with more schools (read content) in major markets, they could solve their own problems. Maybe their new head honcho will be kore proactive than the Big12

Fox owns the primary rights to both the Pac 12 and the B1G, not ESPN.

DanaDane said:

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Just be patient. The B1G has no interest in the 8 teams available from the Big 12.

Fox will pressure the B1G to expand, and that expansion will come from either 4 (USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington) or 6 ((kick in Stanford and Cal....B1G presidents love to brag about academics)schools from the Pac 12. The remaining Pac 12 will then be available to merge with the 8 Big 12 schools. That's basically the way it will play out. There's never been a Power 5. There's always been a Big 2, Little 3.

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At this point, SEC/ESPN is forcing the other Power conferences to look into expansion to catch up to the SEC. it's pretty much Adapt or die

BylrFan said:

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At this point, SEC/ESPN is forcing the other Power conferences to look into expansion to catch up to the SEC. it's pretty much Adapt or die

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Yep. Fox will need to throw a haymaker back at ESPN, so you can bet they are already in conversations with execs of both conferences trying to devise a way to dethrone the mighty SEC and ESPN. You don't throw a haymaker back at the SEC and ESPN with Ames, Stillwater, Lubbock, etc....... You throw it with LA, The Bay area and Nike.

DanaDane said:

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Fox owns the primary rights to both the Pac 12 and the B1G, not ESPN.

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Espn and Fox split media rights for both, but if PAC12 seems to Lena more towards Fox, and may go all Fox exclusively next cycle. If espn can take out the big schools in the pac12 as well as get Big10 exclusively when their right are up in a couple years, it may be cheaper than trying to bid on those two conferences separately (of which they could lose out on the pac entirely).

When the smoke clears by 2024 or 2025, we will be in a conference that likely features:

Arizona
Arizona St.
Utah
Colorado
Tech
KState
Kansas
Ok State
Wasington St
Oregon St
TCU
Iowa St.

and possibly 1-4 others, depending on what the networks want.

We should be so fortunate. About the biggest positive I can think of for us is the size of our budget. However even that becomes suspect if we can't land in an equal pay grade P5.

Given what the SEC did with ESPN, Fox has no choice but to pursue the other college football prize -- the B1G. And, the B1G has no choice but to align itself almost exclusively with Fox. You could see this coming a decade ago.

I actually wouldn't mind this at all. The PAC12 could collapse with the big schools getting an offer with the Big10, so getting what is essentially a beefed up mountain west / swc with large state schools in a moderately regionally contingent conference would be pretty nice.

Exactly.

DanaDane said:

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When the smoke clears by 2024 or 2025, we will be in a conference that likely features:

Arizona
Arizona St.
Utah
Colorado
Tech
KState
Kansas
Ok State
Wasington St
Oregon St
TCU
Iowa St.

and possibly 1-4 others, depending on what the networks want.

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Not sure if it was here or somewhere else but that is what a pondered a merger of the XII and PAC remnants of the California schools and Oregon, Washington were raided away and whether the tv co tract would be in the neighborhood of what we now call P5s get.

DanaDane said:

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When the smoke clears by 2024 or 2025, we will be in a conference that likely features:

Arizona
Arizona St.
Utah
Colorado
Tech
KState
Kansas
Ok State
Wasington St
Oregon St
TCU
Iowa St.

and possibly 1-4 others, depending on what the networks want.

---

I wouldn't mind that at all.

BearlyBeloved said:

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With that in mind, adding new teams to the Big 12* does have media potential:

• SMU, DFW #5 media market
• Houston, Houston #7 media market
• UCF, Orlando #18 media market--Adds Florida
• BYU, Salt Lake City #30 media market (national following supposedly second only to Notre Dame's?)
• Cincinnati, Cincinnati #35 media market--Adds Ohio/Kentucky
• Memphis, Memphis #51 media market--Adds Tennessee
• Navy, Baltimore, #26 media market (national following)
• Air Force, Colorado Springs #91 media market (national following)
• Army, West Point is 60 miles from NYC #1 media market (national following)
• Boise State, #100 media market--Adds everyone who loves potatoes (or bluegrass music)

FYI, Waco is #91 media market; Austin is #40 and Oklahoma City is #45

Media markets from Nielsen DMA Rankings 2019 - MediaTracks Communications

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Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), the size of media markets doesn't really matter. Otherwise, Rice would not be in the C-USA because it would capture the Houston market.

It's really all about the brand. That's why West Virginia is arguable the most valuable franchise even though it is located in the middle of nowhere.

The same goes for Texas Tech. Lubbock is a tiny media market, but the large alumni base and t-shirt fan following provide their value.