SEC Network to be announced in April

[UConn Dan]

http://yhoo.it/15OYbYL
This is when more moves will go down.

Money. Chaos. Bring it.

 

[UConn Esq]

Enter Uconn and the Northeast market..

 

[pj]

This is a major item delaying B1G expansion. There's little reason for an ACC school to commit to the B1G until they see whether they can make more in the SEC. Clarifying exactly how the SEC Network will work and what rights it will have, is a precursor to being able to estimate revenue.

We may be about to see a bidding war between the B1G/Fox and SEC/ESPN for the top names in the ACC.

Then there will be state-level politics, eg if UNC has offers from both B1G and SEC and NC State offers from neither, can they arrange for UNC to pick one and pick up an offer for NC State from the loser? Same with UVa / Va Tech. That has the potential to hold things up significantly. The B1G's major bargaining chip here is it's claim to have academic standards -- that UNC and UVa are academically acceptable but Va Tech and NC State are not -- if this is credible and the SEC has no similar standards, then UVa/UNC to B1G and Va Tech/NC State to SEC is a plausible outcome.

 

[HuskyHawk]

This is a major item delaying B1G expansion. There's little reason for an ACC school to commit to the B1G until they see whether they can make more in the SEC. Clarifying exactly how the SEC Network will work and what rights it will have, is a precursor to being able to estimate revenue.

We may be about to see a bidding war between the B1G/Fox and SEC/ESPN for the top names in the ACC.

Then there will be state-level politics, eg if UNC has offers from both B1G and SEC and NC State offers from neither, can they arrange for UNC to pick one and pick up an offer for NC State from the loser? Same with UVa / Va Tech. That has the potential to hold things up significantly. The B1G's major bargaining chip here is it's claim to have academic standards -- that UNC and UVa are academically acceptable but Va Tech and NC State are not -- if this is credible and the SEC has no similar standards, then UVa/UNC to B1G and Va Tech/NC State to SEC is a plausible outcome.

It's also the B1Gs weakness. UNC and UVA, knowing this, could go to the SEC, and be assured that the ACC would survive in some form. VT might be poached by the Big XII, but NC State won't. Effectively, UNC and UVA can keep the B1G out of the south. The B1G won't move on GT alone.

An SEC East including UNC, Duke, UGA, Florida, Vandy, Alabama, Auburn and UVA is pretty darned solid academically. UNC and UVA would fit just fine.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I imagine that by now Delaney can tell you where the punctuation mistakes are in the SEC Network's formation documents. Nothing new will come out of this announcement as far as he is concerned. The SEC may be waiting for finalization before announcing their expansion, although I think that ESPN as a partner in the SECN will not be crazy about raiding schools from another ESPN league like the ACC.

The Big 10/Fox already have all the cards they can play, and just have to make a decision on how to play them. Does the BTN want to go head to head with the SECN in the south, and likely lose, or expand straight east to the ocean? Or do nothing? I know which answer I like (expand straight east), and I can certainly make a strong case for it, AND it is consistent with the Big 10's past decision making (passing on Texas and Missouri, adding Rutgers and Maryland). But ultimately only the Big 10 Presidents know what they want to do.

 

[Fairfield 1st]

Is there anything (other than federal anti-trust regulations that may or may not apply) preventing the SEC, ACC and BiG simply forming their own network at some point in the future?