Great ESPN article on how this (SC/UCLA) went down

[COUGinNCW]

From a long term perspective, I don't know how much most of the Midwest adds. Iowa is shrinking and Oklahoma will be boom and bust depending on the oil industry. I don't think the NBA is pleased with the decision to move to OKC.

Texas is a must, of course. The opportunity to add games in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and NoVA DC burbs is compelling.

Okie St has been a really good program at least since Mike Grundy turned 40. Winning should count for something. How big of a role has Gundy played and how much has been the money t Boone pumped in there as far as projecting their success into the future goes?

 

[dgibbons]

If the question is Fresno and SDSU and how they bring numbers.... Wilner, or someone mentioned the Central Cal region was like 6M homes, plus San Diego, also large. These add a needed recruiting footprint.

I personally like SDSU and UNLV. I think UNLV could be a real player soon. Think about NIL and Vegas. The Casinos could literally buy a good basketball team overnight. Same with a football team in Allegiant Stadium.

They're already in the footprint.

 

[dgibbons]

I do root for KSU even if I refuse to own any purple shirts. My point is that Waco (with a metro population of 280,000) is too small and everyone outside of Baylor grads hate the Bears means that only the uninformed thinks that the Bears are a good choice. I guarantee that their current success is based on cheating and it's only a matter of time before their next scandal comes to life. The entire Big 12 is flawed, but frankly so are most of the remaining Pac-12 schools.

Baylor is a cess pool that makes Boise State enticing in comparison.

Realignment will not be based on whether FlatlandCoug believes a particular university is highly moral institution or not.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Realignment will not be based on whether FlatlandCoug believes a particular university is highly moral institution or not.

Nobody has suggested that my opinion matters. There are a lot of people in the Pac-12 leadership have been very vocal that they aren't fans of religious institutions and I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that they really don't like religious institutions that turn a blind eye to murder, rape and drug dealing in pursuit of victory.

 

[dgibbons]

If you consider only the size of the markets within our footprint, yes, we have more potential. Problem is that we have a low level of engagement in those markets.

Surprisingly, Oklahoma state, Iowa state, and Cincinnati all three averaged more viewers per game last season that USC and UCLA did. The only Pac-12 team that outdrew any of them was oregon. They all drew at least 25% more than the next Pac-12 team, Utah.

But…their teams draw more eyes. ALL of their current teams draw more than half our of remaining teams do. Even Kansas and K state. Only two of their incoming teams - UCF and Houston - draw less than we do. All of their current teams beat us.

You could argue that some of that is due to the number of times they were on, and on what channels…and that’s probably at least partially true. Our conference number would probably be higher if anybody actually got the PAC-12 networks. But the current data shows that they have more viewers per team than we do, and that’s significant. Probably means a higher valuation for their contract, and a greater allocation per school…which doesn’t give their institutions much incentive to move toward the PAC-12.

Some sort of alignment with the ACC could change that math. If ESPN is desperate to have a west coast presence, it could also swing the calculus. Opening the contract negotiations and getting some conversations with media may help figure out what moves make sense. If we can get with the ACC and get to $40M per school, Oklahoma state will listen. And it makes more sense to pull them than UNLV.

It's more like lineup holes that need content, and contractual commitments to advertisers than "desperate" for a west coast presence. WSU @ ASU filling the 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm Pacific time slot draws more eyeballs, and more ad dollars, and satisfies the promise ESPN has made to Home Depot (or whoever), than the rerun of the B1G or SEC game that was aired earlier that day.

 

[dgibbons]

Nobody has suggested that my opinion matters. There are a lot of people in the Pac-12 leadership have been very vocal that they aren't fans of religious institutions and I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that they really don't like religious institutions that turn a blind eye to murder, rape and drug dealing in pursuit of victory.

If you consider yourself nobody, I guess that's true.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

If you consider yourself nobody, I guess that's true.

When it comes to decision making on conference realignment....we are all nobodies.

 

[dgibbons]

When it comes to decision making on conference realignment....we are all nobodies.

No. We're just little somebodies. Eyeballs and subscriber fees.