I hear you, but this guy has really studied it. Two quotes resonated with me...."the northeast is a lost region" (he believes college football gave up on it years ago) and "Conferences are looking for regional dominance". One was a gut punch but the other could be an opportunity for someone with a long-term vision.
I remember those quotes too.
This presentation made me more convinced than ever that Notre Dame will remain independent, but it is interesting that the hold up to their NBC contract renewal is that NBC is insisting that Notre Dame form a scheduling agreement with the B1G or just flat out schedule more B1G games because those matchups draw the highest ratings. Plus, it gives NBC (and CBS/FOX) access to Notre Dame away games. The holdup isn't the money, it's the insistence on Notre Dame playing more B1G games.
Other key takeaways:
FOX, NBC and CBS are trying to consolidate all non-SEC teams that can draw 4 million + viewers into the B1G and have B1G programming an essential part of their inventory going forward into the future world of streaming. This is why FSU and Clemson may make the cut ahead of Stanford and Cal, even though Stanford and Cal as universities fit the B1G mold the most.
There was a good mix of praising the Big 12 for what it has done/is doing, while at the same time putting them in their place that the only reason they are pulling this off is because these are all schools that neither the SEC or B1G want.
I loved this history lesson too. I had no idea that the Penn Quakers used to draw 80,000 fans at a time Penn State was lucky to draw 25,000. Had the Ivy League remained committed to the highest level of football, the northeast corridor might have looked different today in terms of fan passion and top-level recruits. When the Ivy stopped caring, so did most of the fans in the northeast who moved on to professional sports.
No one knows the answer to how big is too big in terms of an actual number of teams in a conference. The answer is however many teams are profitable enough to bring in. 20 - 24- 30 - They can't tell us. Depends on the financials. My gut instinct is tell me it's going to be either 20 or 24. I think it will go over 20 if Stanford and Cal join the B1G. But what do I know?
When he talked about the SEC's future problem of not having a full day's worth of coast-to-coast inventory, that is something I never even considered. The graph that showed game ratings on network TV vs. cable was telling. Especially since the cable channels are losing subscribers. The only games the SEC will be able to compare to the B1G in ratings will be the ones that air on ABC. The ESPN games will all rank lower than the games on NBC, Fox and CBS. I had no idea the ratings between network TV games and cable TV games were so far apart!
I felt like a sponge soaking up everything watching that video.