Big Ten expansion moves ahead

College Search & Selection
1081

<p>SE7*, I hope you understand the geography of Texas, and that the Houston Chronicle writes “stuff” to please Aggieland. </p>

<p>And, by the way, the Sooners will be OK, especially since they do not do anything they do not really want to do. Their coaches and fans are probably more focused on the Red River Shoot-out than figuring out in which conference they’ll play the same relevant teams next year.</p>

<p>*Since you did not like the affection-laden Sparky, you get the acronym. Happens when your handle is too long for repetitive consumption. Now, you’re in the same 3-letters family with UCB, RJK, and Cur. My good friend BlueBayou only gets BB. :)</p>

1082

<p>UT President quote:
Powers added, “Getting stability is Job 1 for the conference.” He said nothing is off the table in that regard, including restructuring media contracts and revenue-sharing agreements and adding schools to the league.</p>

<p>[Texas</a> Longhorns: Football, Basketball, Baseball and more | Statesman.com](<a href=“http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/longhorns/entries/2011/09/21/powers_absolute.html]Texas”>http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/longhorns/entries/2011/09/21/powers_absolute.html)</p>

<p>Uh huh…and where was this offer of compromise when NU, CU and Aggy were fleeing?</p>

<p>Pure drivel to me, xiggi.</p>

1083

<p>@xiggi,</p>

<p>“SE7*, I hope you understand the geography of Texas, and that the Houston Chronicle writes “stuff” to please Aggieland.”</p>

<p>Ah, indeed! The costal city of Houston which is located roughly an hour closer to College Station than Austin by car. For anyone to think that a city the size of Houston (fourth largest in the country & largest in Texas), its media outlets and journalism only cater to that of Aggieland (less than 1/8th in population than the Capital Austin), that person is unfortunately, gravely mistaken. In fact, throughout my past few years of visiting Texas (my Wolverine cousin practices law there), I will say that there are just as many Longhorn fans as the Aggies in Houston (as a matter of fact, there is even a Longhorn Sports section in Houston Chronicle). So, my suggestion would be: Rather than relying solely on geography, demographic is probably a better measure in this case, and as always, when in doubt (*especially against the court of public opinion on this matter), provide your own research fact(s) in order to rebuttal. </p>

<p>Richard Justice (aka. PTI Southwest Bureau Chief) who wrote the article that I provided is a renown sports columnist in Texas and here is a brief background of him:</p>

<p>"Richard Justice is a sports columnist for the Houston Chronicle. He used to work for The Washington Post and The Dallas Morning News. Justice is an Alumus of The University of Texas at Austin.</p>

<p>He is also a correspondent for ESPN, and occasionally appears as a guest on their programs Pardon the Interruption and formerly on Classic Now. He has made five appearances on the program/game show - Around the Horn,…"</p>

<p>Source: [Richard</a> Justice - uFollow](<a href=“http://www.ufollow.com/authors/richard.justice/2011/02/]Richard”>http://www.ufollow.com/authors/richard.justice/2011/02/)</p>

<p>“*Since you did not like the affection-laden Sparky, you get the acronym.”</p>

<p>Last but not least, I really appreciate the affection!! But please, don’t just refer me as ‘Sparky’ during a heated conversation as that may distort your loving intention due to my poor perception. Thank You! :)</p>

1084

<p>SK7, thank you for sharing your interpretation of Texas Sports. You are clearly entitled to your opinion. I hope your visits to Texas allow you to sidestep Houston! </p>

<p>However, it would take a mighty effort to elevate Justice to a “renown” status. He is a Skip Bayless wannabe. Similar jackass and moron, but will even less talent. Care to read his latest prose?</p>

<p>

</p>

1085

<p>This whole episode just reaffirms my personal opinion that football easily rules over all other sports at the collegiate level. College basketball, the number two sport, does not have the power or prestige to make major conference alliances and shifts to this degree.</p>

1086

<p>That’s because it’s the NCAA that controls the basketball tournament and garners huge television fees from it. On the other hand, the individual schools negotiate the money from broadcast rights from football. And the bowls have always been independent of the NCAA. The NCAA gets money from neither. In theory, the NCAA could start it’s own D1 football tournment, but it’s likely that no one would show up to that party. The NCAA only shows up when there’s a vacuum and an opportunity for $$. Remember the AAIW basketball tournament for the ladies? I didn’t think so. It was the organization that sponsored women’s college basketball until the mid-1980s, when the NCAA realized there was [some] gold in them thar hills, and the AAIW was powerless to stop them. Todays conferences, the Big 10, Pac 10 etc…certainly aren’t powerless.</p>

1087

<p>Perhaps the great xiggi can educate the board on Texas Sports/Politics and Dynamics… I like the story about the private girls school soccer team in Dallas not being able to put up field lights because it would harm former Exxon Mobil CEO Lee Raymond’s privacy and property value. Too funny.</p>

1088

<p>^^</p>

<p>Yep, the crusty Lee did not like the fact that Friday Nights in Texas often meant Friday Nights under the lights. All what poor Ursuline Academy could do was plead its case it its Bare News. Did not matter their soccer team was a perennial national champion and that Exxon’s Lee knew about the lights before buying his humble abode. </p>

<p>One could be surprised he did not try to buy the Academy and transform it into a personal heliport. Of course, there is limit for one to mess with Mrs. Bill Gates’ high school. :)</p>

1089

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</p>

<p>Well, yes, to some extent, but the total revenue figures from the two sports just aren’t comparable. College football revenue dwarfs college basketball revenue. Gate receipts are higher in football, licensing fees from logo-laden sportswear and other paraphernalia are higher in football, and television broadcast rights are worth a lot more in football because a lot more people watch college football than college basketball, at least during the regular season; college basketball gets ratings comparable to college football only during March Madness. I don’t know how much the NCAA itself makes on the men’s basketball tournament and how much if that is eaten up in NCAA expenses, but the colleges get relatively little out of it. Even in a basketball-oriented conference like the Big East, football brings in 2 to 3 times the revenue that basketball does conference-wide, even though only 8 Big East schools even participate in the conference in football. He who pays the piper calls the tune. </p>

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<p>Not so much. Notre Dame, an independent, negotiates its own network broadcast contract with NBC. Apart from that it’s almost all done by the conferences. CBS has a contract with the SEC for its pick of weekly SEC games. ABC/ESPN have contracts with most of the major BCS conferences that allow those networks their picks of top regional games. Fox has a new contract with the Pac-12 and will begin regular broadcasts of Pac-12 games in 2012. A few conferences now also have their own cable networks, like the Big Ten Network that broadcasts Big Ten games not picked up by ABC or ESPN; BTN makes its money both on advertising and on the per-customer fees cable and satellite operators pay to carry the network. These contracts bring huge amounts of money to the conference, which then distributes it to member schools—roughly $20 million per school per year in the Big Ten’s case. There are similar arrangements for regular-season basketball broadcasts, but the big television money for the conferences and their member schools is in football.</p>

1090

<p>^^ [Lee</a> Raymond’s house (Bing Maps) - Virtual Globetrotting](<a href=“Lee Raymond's house in Dallas, TX (Google Maps)”>Lee Raymond's house in Dallas, TX (Google Maps))</p>

<p>I would’ve been more concerned about my next door neighbor’s eyesore of a busy roof!</p>

<p>

It is quite modest in comparison to his neighbors…</p>

1091

<p>I agree with bclintonk about football broadcast fees. I neglected to point out that the model has changed in that the conferences negotiate instead of individual schools (with the exception of the Longhorn Network) to get a greater return. Perhaps I was thinking too much of local radio broadcast rights, which for some of the big schools surprisingly provided a lot of money. But this was before the federal court case [years ago] which ended the NCAA’s control over TV football broadcasts. I recall that in the early 1980s, the U of Washington had the most lucrative radio broadcast contract of any college in America. And the UW wasn’t even a perennial top 10 football program back then.</p>

1092

<p>Quote:</p>

<p>“Of the top 20 most popular programs, the Big Ten leads the way with seven schools, followed by the SEC and ACC (4 each), and the Big 12 (3). The Pac-12 has just one school (USC) in the top 20…”</p>

<p>The Chart</p>

<p>Read more: [NCAA:</a> Ohio State Has More Fans Than Any Other School](<a href=“NCAA: Ohio State Has More Fans Than Any Other School”>NCAA: Ohio State Has More Fans Than Any Other School)</p>

<p>If only this survey were conducted prior to TOSU’s recent scandal… (say 6 months earlier), its number (fans) should have been a lot higher… Needless to say, it probably also resulted in ~0.1 lower PA score in this year’s USNWR ranking due to massive negative publicities throughout the entire survey period… =.="</p>

<p>Oh well, still #1 in the land in terms of popularity!! Go Bucks!! :)</p>

1093

<p>The clear top 3 are all members of the Big 10 conference. #4 will also likely join the conference in the next 2-3 years. #5 would also join if they knew what was best for them!</p>

1094

<p>That article is real interesting but did anyone notice that Clemson has the 9th most fans in college football? Thought that was real interesting…(and maybe wrong?)</p>

1095

<p>You are wise to question the cited article. Nate Silver’s methodology in that article is quite suspect. I am a Georgia Tech alum and I will readily admit that GT is not the tenth most popular football program in the country. Within the state of Georgia it very significantly lags UGA in popularity. Having said that, I am hopeful that GT’s #1 offense continues strongly today against UNC.</p>

1096

<p>The original purpose of the NCAA was to promote scholar athletes in colleges and universities. Member institutions offered lucrative athletic scholarships, largely to students who otherwise could not afford to attend college, but were otherwise qualified to be students. Then there was a mandatory red shirt rule for ALL freshmen in any college, any sport. Marshall University accident changed all of that. But beginning in the 1960’s, television got its grubby mits into the fray and polluted college athletics. In fact, many coaches are paid from monies the colleges have sequestered from television revenues, not from state budgets. The result? A polluted and complicated and corrupt system which has destroyed everything. Its true some kids get a good education in the process, and many who otherwise could not afford an education. But we all know its about money, professional sports “training grounds” and university public image…its a far cry from where the NCAA started. </p>

<p>Its too late now. The horse is out of the barn.</p>

1097

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</p>

<p>Suspect? That might be the understatement of the year. </p>

<p>However, just as it works for the questionable methodology used by the USNews, it is totally futile to discuss this with people who are solely interested in broadcasting results that appear to be positive to their favorite schools. It would not matter to them if Lady Gaga did develop the methodology or a Chicago union leader was charged to ensure the integrity of the data. </p>

<p>Of course, it does not matter if the good people of Georgia know that Georgia Tech is not exactly the same as the University of Georgia and that they might find interesting that a market such as Atlanta is supposed to predominantly root for GTech! Perhaps a picture of UGA dressed up in a yellow jacket and looking like a fat bumble bee might help! :)</p>

<p>GIGO!</p>

1098

<p>xiggi - that mental image almost made me lose my breakfast.</p>

1099

<p>^^ Sorry! </p>

<p>In other news, it seems that the southeastern exodus by Texas A$M has cleared the legal hurdles. The Aggies are all set to go … all tattooed by OSU and a probable few more before the end of the season.</p>

1100

<p>^^ Well, I thought Miami is down south, demographically if not geographically closer to ATM…</p>

<p>Not sure what does this has to do Ohio State again? You are beginning to sound like the bitter ESPN which is rather unfortunate imho… ESPN has been mocking TOSU the last 6 months with 24/7 broadcast (due to the fact that the school Delany’s top dog in the B1G and rival BTN) but little if any regarding to Miami (a week of news coverage at most) which certainly committed FAR WORST transgressions… </p>

<p>If anything, unlike the greedy $Texas$, TOSU is fully committed to equal revenue sharing for the good of the conference! Perhaps Texas can learn something from the big boys of B1G (i.e. TOSU, Michigan & PSU) when it comes to distributing the TV revenues.</p>

<p>Quote:</p>

<p>“GS: I know what you’re saying, but we don’t think that way. I don’t always think about what’s best for Ohio State; I think about what’s best for our conference, and I think about what’s best nationally. So when I think about a school in our conference that is not as blessed as we are financially, I want to help them get better.”</p>

<p>[Big</a> Ten expansion would be about opportunities, says OSU’s Gene Smith | cleveland.com](<a href=“http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2010/06/big_ten_expansion_would_be_abo.html]Big”>Big Ten expansion would be about opportunities, says OSU's Gene Smith - cleveland.com)</p>