Why conference realignment may force Big 12 schools to make changes to Olympic sports (The Oklahoman)

[huskymedic]

Interesting read:

Why conference realignment may force Big 12 schools to make changes to Olympic sports

Travel concerns for Olympic and non-revenue sports in conferences with huge geographic footprints is an under-the-radar issue amid conference realignment.

www.oklahoman.com

-> Lyons said, “I think there has to be some future consideration looked at in those other Olympic sports because it doesn’t make sense to be flying the volleyballs, the soccers, softballs, baseballs all over the country.

“We talk about student-athlete welfare, and it’s OK when you’re chartering, but we can’t afford to charter the Olympic sports.” <-

 

[noeynox]

Interesting read:

Why conference realignment may force Big 12 schools to make changes to Olympic sports

Travel concerns for Olympic and non-revenue sports in conferences with huge geographic footprints is an under-the-radar issue amid conference realignment.

www.oklahoman.com

-> Lyons said, “I think there has to be some future consideration looked at in those other Olympic sports because it doesn’t make sense to be flying the volleyballs, the soccers, softballs, baseballs all over the country.

“We talk about student-athlete welfare, and it’s OK when you’re chartering, but we can’t afford to charter the Olympic sports.” <-

Got one of those alternate links?

Benedict has been beating a similar drum. Just make FB it's own thing. FB only conferences make a ton of sense.

 

[huskymedic]

Got one of those alternate links?

Benedict has been beating a similar drum. Just make FB it's own thing. FB only conferences make a ton of sense.

Interesting… I’m clearly not a subscriber but didn’t get a paywall. Try this… first two back doors were locked

 

[noeynox]

That worked. Good read.

 

[Kolumbo]

It already works for Men's Soccer out of necessity. WVU, Kentucky and South Carolina are now playing in the revived Sun Belt Conference. WVU was going to move from the MAC to C-USA and then went with the Sun Belt. Marshall won the 2020 Natty, btw, and is now in the Sun Belt.

West Virginia men's soccer joins Sun Belt; Marshall also part of nine-team league - WV MetroNews

The Mountaineers and Thundering Herd will both begin competition in the reinstated league in the upcoming 2022 season.

wvmetronews.com

 

[Ha Who]

Who cares? The cartel made their mess. The remaining conferences shouldn’t accept these Olympic teams. Let the p5 or whatever they are travel these teams around,

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Who cares? The cartel made their mess. The remaining conferences shouldn’t accept these Olympic teams. Let the p5 or whatever they are travel these teams around,

How about this instead: hey ACC, SEC, and B1G - we will play your Olympic sports teams in some sort of home and away arrangement over some period of time so you can get our basketball teams to sell out your arenas, you reduce your travel expenditures and perhaps make some money/get closer to break even with some of your Olympic sports. In return, you bring us in for some guaranteed football payoff games.

This could create a win-win. They get to reduce travel costs, play our very good Olympic sports teams, and make some extra basketball money by selling our their arenas that would have otherwise been partially empty. We get to stay relevant with the power conferences, get games in fertile recruiting grounds, enhance our out of conference schedules for our Olympic sports, get some guaranteed football paydays (might become harder to get given power conference expansion), and it bides us time to get football back to where it needs to be to get in the ACC full-member conversation. Obviously, there would have to be calculations based on the specific costs and benefits but hopefully this sort of calculus is going on in our AD (or maybe it has been happening already?).

 

[Hondo 77]

How about this instead: hey ACC, SEC, and B1G - we will play your Olympic sports teams in some sort of home and away arrangement over some period of time so you can get our basketball teams to sell out your arenas, you reduce your travel expenditures and perhaps make some money/get closer to break even with some of your Olympic sports. In return, you bring us in for some guaranteed football payoff games.

This could create a win-win. They get to reduce travel costs, play our very good Olympic sports teams, and make some extra basketball money by selling our their arenas that would have otherwise been partially empty. We get to stay relevant with the power conferences, get games in fertile recruiting grounds, enhance our out of conference schedules for our Olympic sports, get some guaranteed football paydays (might become harder to get given power conference expansion), and it bides us time to get football back to where it needs to be to get in the ACC full-member conversation. Obviously, there would have to be calculations based on the specific costs and benefits but hopefully this sort of calculus is going on in our AD (or maybe it has been happening already?).

Olympic sports are never going to "make money/break even." The athletic departments see them as proof that there are "student athletes." It's also a prestige thing.

 

[Kolumbo]

How about this instead: hey ACC, SEC, and B1G - we will play your Olympic sports teams in some sort of home and away arrangement over some period of time so you can get our basketball teams to sell out your arenas, you reduce your travel expenditures and perhaps make some money/get closer to break even with some of your Olympic sports. In return, you bring us in for some guaranteed football payoff games.

This could create a win-win. They get to reduce travel costs, play our very good Olympic sports teams, and make some extra basketball money by selling our their arenas that would have otherwise been partially empty. We get to stay relevant with the power conferences, get games in fertile recruiting grounds, enhance our out of conference schedules for our Olympic sports, get some guaranteed football paydays (might become harder to get given power conference expansion), and it bides us time to get football back to where it needs to be to get in the ACC full-member conversation. Obviously, there would have to be calculations based on the specific costs and benefits but hopefully this sort of calculus is going on in our AD (or maybe it has been happening already?).

Big East programs already play the P5 or other top programs in their respective sports outside of conference so I think that is already in play. The next step would be to build actual regional conferences for the olympic sports which do not align with football, but I doubt that happens.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Olympic sports are never going to "make money/break even." The athletic departments see them as proof that there are "student athletes." It's also a prestige thing.

Some schools have basketball programs (men's and women's) that are on the cusp of break-even (and there are some schools that actually make money with basketball). Basketball is primarily what I am referring to above - that is one of our strongest leverage points and we need to use it more than we currently do. We schedule basketball games/series but don't stuff in return - and we need to.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Big East programs already play the P5 or other top programs in their respective sports outside of conference so I think that is already in play. The next step would be to build actual regional conferences for the olympic sports which do not align with football, but I doubt that happens.

I hear you - I just don't think we have drilled down enough with an eye towards really playing our strongest brands (men's and women's basketball). Let's give up a men's bball game versus a local/northeast school at XL on a Wednesday night and/or a women's bball game and play a road game at BC or Maryland or Rutgers or VA or VA Tech in return for a football series (even if it is two away/one home). We have to get better at horse-trading with BOS-WASH corridor programs.

 

[CL82]

Big East programs already play the P5 or other top programs in their respective sports outside of conference so I think that is already in play. The next step would be to build actual regional conferences for the olympic sports which do not align with football, but I doubt that happens.

If the Big Ten gets big enough I could certainly see an arrangement where Olympic sports play in regional pods to limit travel costs.

(For what it’s worth the big tens growth reminds me vaguely of the European maps showing the spread of Germany in Frank Capra‘s Why We Fight series.)