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Message: [QUOTE="huskymedic, post: 3111357, member: 549"] [MEDIA=twitter]1113456863616524290[/MEDIA] There are two CR questions tucked in the SM mailbag (one @ the beginning and one near the end... [B]>[/B]Hey Stewart: How far are we from another round of major conference realignment and what could it look like? If there’s another big round of shuffling, it will likely come somewhere in the 2023-26 range. Several major TV contracts will come up for bid in short succession, starting with the Big Ten (2023), followed by the Pac-12 (2024), Big 12 (2025) and, perhaps most significantly, the College Football Playoff (2025). Don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Big Ten opted for shorter-than-usual six-year deals with ESPN and FOX in its last round of negotiations. Or that the Pac-12 recently turned down a tempting offer from ESPN to take over distribution for the long-struggling Pac-12 Networks that would have locked in its Tier 1 rights “well into the 2030s.” << The other: [B]>>[/B]San Diego State and Boise State were headed to the Big East at one point several years ago, then opted out to stick around in the Mountain West. If the offer came up again — this time to join the AAC — would the money be too hard to resist, even given the brutal travel? It seems like that league’s schedule is the best chance a Group of 5 team has to make the Playoff should they go undefeated[B].?[/B] But there’s one big difference between 2012 and now. Back then, the Big East had BCS auto-qualifying status and expected to stay that way up until the BCS went away. The Big East had recently turned down a new ESPN deal that was worth more back then ($11 million per school) than the one the AAC just signed because it thought it could do even better (whoops). At the time, the two Western schools were prepared to buck geography because getting into an AQ conference seemed as essential then as Power 5 affiliation does now. Without that carrot, I don’t see why either party would try to force that marriage again over a couple million dollars. Playoff contention will continue to be near-impossible from either G5 league, but getting that New Year’s Six berth as a Mountain West school is perfectly attainable.<< [/QUOTE]

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