Breaking down 7 schools that are dreaming of crashing the Big 12 (Pat Forde)

[HuskyHawk]

Quote that most stood out to me from the Memphis commentary was "basketball following is irrelevant". We really need to bump up our football following/attendance this year to make a statement to the XII that we have all sports following fans and not just basketball fans

But that is nothing but ignorance on the part of the writer. Many of them believe this and it is complete nonsense. NCAA credits matter, they can provide significant revenue to the league. Basketball does matter in T1 rights contract as well, just less than football. Lastly, basketball matters a lot to anyone with a network. There is simply never going to be enough football content to fill even 1/10th of a network. These sportswriters took the simply truth that football is the sport most easily monetized by the conference and have assumed that nothing else matters.

 

[Drew]

But that is nothing but ignorance on the part of the writer. Many of them believe this and it is complete nonsense. NCAA credits matter, they can provide significant revenue to the league. Basketball does matter in T1 rights contract as well, just less than football. Lastly, basketball matters a lot to anyone with a network. There is simply never going to be enough football content to fill even 1/10th of a network. These sportswriters took the simply truth that football is the sport most easily monetized by the conference and have assumed that nothing else matters.

The entire reason for XII expansion is football. Us filling up the stadium makes a big time statement. Nobody available sells out consistently (sans maybe BYU, haven't looked at their attendance #'s but have long football tradition). College football at this level is 100% about arrogance, greed, and ignorance. These guys are basically Goldman Sachs on Wall St and we're the company that started 15 years ago trying to compete with them for business.

If you haven't realized after UConn wound up in the AAC and your Jayhawks were 30 minutes from the Mountain West that basketball is almost entirely irrelevant in conference realignment then I don't know what to tell you at this point. Having a strong athletic department is absolutely a net positive when looking at expansion candidates but I would argue that what were doing academically and our market size is much more important in CR than our basketball program.

 

[Ldandy]

The entire reason for XII expansion is football. Us filling up the stadium makes a big time statement. Nobody available sells out consistently (sans maybe BYU, haven't looked at their attendance #'s but have long football tradition). College football at this level is 100% about arrogance, greed, and ignorance. These guys are basically Goldman Sachs on Wall St and we're the company that started 15 years ago trying to compete with them for business.

If you haven't realized after UConn wound up in the AAC and your Jayhawks were 30 minutes from the Mountain West that basketball is almost entirely irrelevant in conference realignment then I don't know what to tell you at this point. Having a strong athletic department is absolutely a net positive when looking at expansion candidates but I would argue that what were doing academically and our market size is much more important in CR than our basketball program.

You could have saved yourself two paragraphs with one word. Rutgers.

 

[HuskyHawk]

You could have saved yourself two paragraphs with one word. Rutgers.

Here are others. Maryland. Indiana. Kentucky. Kansas. Vanderbilt. Duke..... "It's all about football" is the biggest myth out there. It's all about money. Football is the sport where the greatest percentage of the total revenue flows to the conferences and schools. Attendance for example, is a key ingredient to football revenue. NCAA basketball brings in just as much money, but it is spread over a wider number of schools, and a big chunk of it is locked up by the NCAA in the tournament. The result is that basketball is harder for the conference to benefit from. NCAA credits are an exception however. I'd tend to say that a mediocre basketball team doesn't bring much. But one that earns quite a lot of credits and brings TV ratings? That has far more value than these talking heads know.

 

[Drew]

Here are others. Maryland. Indiana. Kentucky. Kansas. Vanderbilt. Duke..... "It's all about football" is the biggest myth out there. It's all about money.

This is 100% accurate- I am making the point however that XII expansion is almost entirely football based. The reason this whole topic even started is because they were left out of the playoff 2 years ago and there is data to show they have an improved chance to make the playoff with 2 more teams (duh). Then all this talk of a network and everything else came in but honestly I don't see a XII network happening no matter who they add. If the Big 12 expands it will be primarily football based and we stack up just as good as any of the options out there when you compare the football metrics. Plus if they stage a championship game they get another $30m for the conference.

Expansion criteria this go round for the XII is much different from when the B1G added Rutgers/Maryland and the SEC added Mizzou/A&M. And you can point out schools like Indiana Kentucky and Kansas but all of those schools were fortunate enough to be in the P5 already and not have to try to earn their way in. If you're taking the top 65 schools today and putting them in a conference obviously small private schools in redundant markets aren't getting in.