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Conference Realignment thread

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54 minutes ago, Ram1554 said:

 

Playing three service academies per year sounds awful.
 

I am fine with the Wichita St add, but no thanks to anyone else.

What is wrong with playing all three service academies?

Their games have exceptionally high viewership for mid major teams -- including a global TV market for their games. Indeed, the annual Army vs. Navy game is still one of the top watched sporting events in the US. Plus, it would allow at least one or two games a year in a different time zone (East Coast) -- which would go well for schools building a national fan base and national recruiting channels. Moreover, Air Force is more likely to stay long term in the league if they don't have to use their optional games each year just to play the other service teams.

On the flip side, the service teams get to play against better football programs and a more solid annual schedule. I don't hear anyone complaining about Air Force being in the league. I fail to see the problem with adding two more service teams with a national following to the football mix.

And help me understand the reasoning behind taking Wichita State over Gonzaga? Gonzaga is consistently the better men's basketball program and is, technically, already located in MWC boundaries -- not far from Boise State.  That being said, why not take both Wichita State and Gonzaga?

I think the only team  that does not make perfect sense is St. Mary's. The purpose of St. Mary's, however, is to ensure Gonzaga's commitment to the league -- there is no way Gonzaga will want to stay in a broken WCC without both BYU and St. Mary's. 

Just my two cents. 

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11 minutes ago, utgrizfan said:

I posted that initial thread about the rumor that has been all over the fcs boards for a while now. Based on the lack of response or supporting additional rumors I'm starting to believe that it was just a plain old rumor. I do think it would be a good idea for the Sunbelt though, if they don't add JMU, Marshall, ODU and So. Mississippi I could see them still adding 2 of the above 4, most likely Marshall and ODU so they could be travel partners 

I haven't seen anything lately about any desire for James Madison to move up, if they did, Sun Belt could be the best option football wise for them at the moment but Sun Belt commish back last month said they would only add if it helped the conference, I think the best two schools left in the CUSA right now are Louisiana Tech and Marshall. 

But best bet now might be let the dust settle again, and get through the rest of the year and next year start looking at the landscape again.

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2 minutes ago, wolfpack1 said:

I haven't seen anything lately about any desire for James Madison to move up, if they did, Sun Belt could be the best option football wise for them at the moment but Sun Belt commish back last month said they would only add if it helped the conference, I think the best two schools left in the CUSA right now are Louisiana Tech and Marshall. 

But best bet now might be let the dust settle again, and get through the rest of the year and next year start looking at the landscape again.

I heard the SB isn't going to add anyone.  I guess that makes sense because they can't really offer anyone a pay raise.

"Don't underestimate Joe Biden's ability to F@*k things up."

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On 10/15/2021 at 4:12 PM, 818SUDSFan said:

It's wrong to say the Hairmeister never did anything positive for the MW. In 2005, he brought in TCU and created The Mtn network. Both were proactive events which greatly raised the visibility of the conference.

I think we must have very different definitions of raising visibility.  For the first several years of the mtn's existence, it was not available nationally and was almost only available on cable networks in the markets of the MWC teams.  Additionally, it didn't broadcast anything in HD until its final few years - and then it was only for football games.  All basketball games and other events were Zapruder-level quality.

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7 minutes ago, SteedLaw said:

What is wrong with playing all three service academies?

Their games have exceptionally high viewership for mid major teams -- including a global TV market for their games. Indeed, the annual Army vs. Navy game is still one of the top watched sporting events in the US. Plus, it would allow at least one or two games a year in a different time zone (East Coast) -- which would go well for schools building a national fan base and national recruiting channels. Moreover, Air Force is more likely to stay long term in the league if they don't have to use their optional games each year just to play the other service teams.

On the flip side, the service teams get to play against better football programs and a more solid annual schedule. I don't hear anyone complaining about Air Force being in the league. I fail to see the problem with adding two more service teams with a national following to the football mix.

And help me understand the reasoning behind taking Wichita State over Gonzaga? Gonzaga is consistently the better men's basketball program and is, technically, already located in MWC boundaries -- not far from Boise State.  That being said, why not take both Wichita State and Gonzaga?

I think the only team  that does not make perfect sense is St. Mary's. The purpose of St. Mary's, however, is to ensure Gonzaga's commitment to the league -- there is no way Gonzaga will want to stay in a broken WCC without both BYU and St. Mary's. 

Just my two cents. 

I think people were saying about St. Mary's is if we got them to come with Gonzaga maybe Gonzaga would come to MWC I think that is what they mean but I think Gonzaga is very comfortable in WCC right now.

Army doesn't want to be in a conference again, they tried it with C-USA and it didn't work for them, I don't see them joining another conference again unless they have to.

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4 minutes ago, Aslowhiteguy said:

I heard the SB isn't going to add anyone.  I guess that makes sense because they can't really offer anyone a pay raise.

And that could be their choice as well. But that is also why I mentioned to kick the tires, then let things settle until next year and then look at things again. Will be enough time to check on things, I think I read their TV contract actually expires a year after ours does I think

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3 hours ago, TheBigAwesome said:

What is the MWC’s TV deal worth?

I found an article online that quotes $270M over 6 years. That’s $45M/year divided by 12 schools comes to $3.75M per school/per year. I don’t know how Hawaii being a football-only member impacts the revenue shares. 

Is this right/the most current?

The 11 full members of the MWC each get a full share of the $45 million annual CBS/Fox payout.  UH gets just a partial share, equal to the difference between 80% of whatever each of the other MWC members receive and the $3.1 million per year UH earns and is allowed to keep from its Spectrum PPV contract.

If you do the algebra, that means each of the MWC full members is getting $4.076 million per year (x11 = $44.836 million) and UH is getting the remaining $164K (for a total of $3.264 million which is 80% of $4.076 million).

Note that these calculations don't include the extra $1.8 million payout to Boise State each year, which I've heard is being covered by the networks outside the $45 million per year base payout to the conference.  It also doesn't take into account that the payouts aren't identical in each of the six years of the contract but rather start a little lower and end a little higher.

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19 minutes ago, HawaiiMongoose said:

The 11 full members of the MWC each get a full share of the $45 million annual CBS/Fox payout.  UH gets just a partial share, equal to the difference between 80% of whatever each of the other MWC members receive and the $3.1 million per year UH earns and is allowed to keep from its Spectrum PPV contract.

If you do the algebra, that means each of the MWC full members is getting $4.076 million per year (x11 = $44.836 million) and UH is getting the remaining $164K (for a total of $3.264 million which is 80% of $4.076 million).

Note that these calculations don't include the extra $1.8 million payout to Boise State each year, which I've heard is being covered by the networks outside the $45 million per year base payout to the conference.  It also doesn't take into account that the payouts aren't identical in each of the six years of the contract but rather start a little lower and end a little higher.

With Fox and CBS unwilling to increase the TV contract by adding teams (at least that's what's been said on here a few times) makes me wonder when the deal is renegotiated that there will be an increase at all.

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Just to expand on a post I made in another thread: moves have to be profitable quickly for a school to be interested in switching conferences. Like look at what the pitch is to SMU from the MWC:

1. You’ll get to remain in the clear cut best G5 conference

2. An easier path to the CFP

3. (Assuming another TX school joins) you will be in the G5 conference with the strongest TX presence

But with that they would have to pay millions in exit fees, give up millions in tourney credits, all to make similar TV money for several years because they’ll PROBABLY make more TV money in 5 years.
 

It should surprise nobody why we haven’t heard any real SMU to the MWC rumors. With major realignment happening every time the power conferences sign new TV deals, G5 schools just can’t afford to wait 5-6 years before getting raises, because in 5-6 years their new conference could get gutted and the raise they were expecting could turn in to another pay cut. 

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54 minutes ago, SteedLaw said:

What is wrong with playing all three service academies?

Their games have exceptionally high viewership for mid major teams -- including a global TV market for their games. Indeed, the annual Army vs. Navy game is still one of the top watched sporting events in the US. Plus, it would allow at least one or two games a year in a different time zone (East Coast) -- which would go well for schools building a national fan base and national recruiting channels. Moreover, Air Force is more likely to stay long term in the league if they don't have to use their optional games each year just to play the other service teams.

On the flip side, the service teams get to play against better football programs and a more solid annual schedule. I don't hear anyone complaining about Air Force being in the league. I fail to see the problem with adding two more service teams with a national following to the football mix.

And help me understand the reasoning behind taking Wichita State over Gonzaga? Gonzaga is consistently the better men's basketball program and is, technically, already located in MWC boundaries -- not far from Boise State.  That being said, why not take both Wichita State and Gonzaga?

I think the only team  that does not make perfect sense is St. Mary's. The purpose of St. Mary's, however, is to ensure Gonzaga's commitment to the league -- there is no way Gonzaga will want to stay in a broken WCC without both BYU and St. Mary's. 

Just my two cents. 

your lineman would all be out with knee injuries after 3 of those games

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1 hour ago, Pelado said:

I think we must have very different definitions of raising visibility.  For the first several years of the mtn's existence, it was not available nationally and was almost only available on cable networks in the markets of the MWC teams.  Additionally, it didn't broadcast anything in HD until its final few years - and then it was only for football games.  All basketball games and other events were Zapruder-level quality.

Almost nothing was broadcast in HD back then. As to availability, The Mtn. was available to anybody in the country with DirecTV. IOW, it was available to basically anybody willing to switch to DirecTV.

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2 minutes ago, 818SUDSFan said:

Almost nothing was broadcast in HD back then. As to availability, The Mtn. was available to anybody in the country with DirecTV. IOW, it was available to basically anybody willing to switch to DirecTV.

All college football games on broadcast channels and ESPN at the time were in HD.  That's the primary reason why I bought my first HD television in 2006.

And you don't have to explain to me when and where the mtn was available.  Since I lived outside of a MWC market, I was very aware.

DirecTV didn't start broadcasting the mtn until August 27, 2008 - two full seasons after the mtn started.  The mtn never got onto Dish Networks, and it was added to very few cable systems outside of the MWC footprint.  In other words, the only people who were watching the mtn - especially in those first two years - were the people who sought it out.  That's kind of the opposite of "increased visibility".

Then, for the 2009 season, DirecTV had a dispute with Versus, which also carried MWC games.  So everyone who got DirecTV for the mtn had to find some other way to get Versus that season.

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3 hours ago, wolfpack1 said:

I think that is what killed C-USA is having such a big conference and laid out as they had a lot of schools with different issues going on.  But then again when the playoff expansion gets hammered out, that could possibly add new eyes to things. I mean I read an article about speculation on the playoff format, which don't know is true but that is why they call it a rumor, that the winners of all the conferences will be in it as it will be a 12 team playoff

What killed CUSA was, ironically enough, being too good at adding attractive programs in large metro areas and boosting their value. They are what the AAC wants everyone to think they are.

The number of former CUSA schools that have moved on to power conferences is impressive: Cincinnati, DePaul, Houston, Louisville, Marquette, UCF, TCU. Maybe Memphis soon. Technically USF too (since they were in the old Big East when it was AQ). And ECU, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, and the six schools that just got poached all still moved on to greener pastures too even if it isn't P5. Even Saint Louis might end up in the new Big East if they're serious about expanding.

They've been raided so many times over the years, they've finally reached the point where the leftovers suck and there's not much left to add.

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2 hours ago, SteedLaw said:

What is wrong with playing all three service academies?

Their games have exceptionally high viewership for mid major teams -- including a global TV market for their games. Indeed, the annual Army vs. Navy game is still one of the top watched sporting events in the US. Plus, it would allow at least one or two games a year in a different time zone (East Coast) -- which would go well for schools building a national fan base and national recruiting channels. Moreover, Air Force is more likely to stay long term in the league if they don't have to use their optional games each year just to play the other service teams.

On the flip side, the service teams get to play against better football programs and a more solid annual schedule. I don't hear anyone complaining about Air Force being in the league. I fail to see the problem with adding two more service teams with a national following to the football mix.

And help me understand the reasoning behind taking Wichita State over Gonzaga? Gonzaga is consistently the better men's basketball program and is, technically, already located in MWC boundaries -- not far from Boise State.  That being said, why not take both Wichita State and Gonzaga?

I think the only team  that does not make perfect sense is St. Mary's. The purpose of St. Mary's, however, is to ensure Gonzaga's commitment to the league -- there is no way Gonzaga will want to stay in a broken WCC without both BYU and St. Mary's. 

Just my two cents. 

I would hate to be the team that has to play back to back against them.

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5 hours ago, utgrizfan said:

With Fox and CBS unwilling to increase the TV contract by adding teams (at least that's what's been said on here a few times) makes me wonder when the deal is renegotiated that there will be an increase at all.

Fox and CBS have no reason to increase the TV contract right now. Once the deal is over then they would have to compete with other networks or risk losing the MW.

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20 hours ago, HawaiiMongoose said:

The 11 full members of the MWC each get a full share of the $45 million annual CBS/Fox payout.  UH gets just a partial share, equal to the difference between 80% of whatever each of the other MWC members receive and the $3.1 million per year UH earns and is allowed to keep from its Spectrum PPV contract.

If you do the algebra, that means each of the MWC full members is getting $4.076 million per year (x11 = $44.836 million) and UH is getting the remaining $164K (for a total of $3.264 million which is 80% of $4.076 million).

Note that these calculations don't include the extra $1.8 million payout to Boise State each year, which I've heard is being covered by the networks outside the $45 million per year base payout to the conference.  It also doesn't take into account that the payouts aren't identical in each of the six years of the contract but rather start a little lower and end a little higher.

Thanks. 

I forgot about Boise’s sweetheart deal. Is it a certainty that the bonus $1.8M does not come from the $45M/year? 

So basically, from the TV deal and adjacent agreements, MW teams get just over $4M/year, Hawaii gets just over $3.25M, and Boise gets just over $5.8M. (Actually, I just found another article, different from the original one I quoted, that estimates Boise’s share at about $5.7M and the other members’ share at about $3.9M, so very close to the numbers you provided). 

ESPN has hamstrung the MW in regards to stealing SMU and a few of the other CT teams by agreeing to “essentially keep them whole” and keeping their payout at/close to their original expected $7M/year for the duration of the contract term. That can change in 2032 when the current AAC contract expires or even in 2026 when the MW deal ends/gets renegotiated. 

How serious is the MWC about getting into the Central Time Zone and what are the main motivations for that move if it were pursued? Is it strictly TV time slot related or is there something else? 

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30 minutes ago, TheBigAwesome said:

Thanks. 

I forgot about Boise’s sweetheart deal. Is it a certainty that the bonus $1.8M does not come from the $45M/year? 

So basically, from the TV deal and adjacent agreements, MW teams get just over $4M/year, Hawaii gets just over $3.25M, and Boise gets just over $5.8M. (Actually, I just found another article, different from the original one I quoted, that estimates Boise’s share at about $5.7M and the other members’ share at about $3.9M, so very close to the numbers you provided). 

ESPN has hamstrung the MW in regards to stealing SMU and a few of the other CT teams by agreeing to “essentially keep them whole” and keeping their payout at/close to their original expected $7M/year for the duration of the contract term. That can change in 2032 when the current AAC contract expires or even in 2026 when the MW deal ends/gets renegotiated. 

How serious is the MWC about getting into the Central Time Zone and what are the main motivations for that move if it were pursued? Is it strictly TV time slot related or is there something else? 

It doesn't appear that the MWC is serious about the CTZ at all..

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23 minutes ago, TheBigAwesome said:

Thanks. 

I forgot about Boise’s sweetheart deal. Is it a certainty that the bonus $1.8M does not come from the $45M/year? 

So basically, from the TV deal and adjacent agreements, MW teams get just over $4M/year, Hawaii gets just over $3.25M, and Boise gets just over $5.8M. (Actually, I just found another article, different from the original one I quoted, that estimates Boise’s share at about $5.7M and the other members’ share at about $3.9M, so very close to the numbers you provided). 

ESPN has hamstrung the MW in regards to stealing SMU and a few of the other CT teams by agreeing to “essentially keep them whole” and keeping their payout at/close to their original expected $7M/year for the duration of the contract term. That can change in 2032 when the current AAC contract expires or even in 2026 when the MW deal ends/gets renegotiated. 

How serious is the MWC about getting into the Central Time Zone and what are the main motivations for that move if it were pursued? Is it strictly TV time slot related or is there something else? 

All I've seen in regards to the remaining  AAC schools keeping the same payout, has just been speculative tweets and message board posts.  Has ESPN or Aresco confirmed the money will remain the same for those schools? 

It does make some sense that ESPN told them the dollar amount will remain unchanged if they add six schools and not raid any ESPN conference for expansion.  I just haven't seen anything official.  

 

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