Conference Realignment thread

[CPslograd]

On 9/6/2023 at 4:47 PM, idkk said:

It's 17x the amount they actually paid to leave. They settled at $900k when the WAC wanted $5M.

Link: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/oct/29/wac-receives-reprieve/ 

So, why do you think they’ll actually pay 17  in this case when they didn’t pay 5 million in that case?

[sactowndog]

On 9/6/2023 at 2:18 PM, wolfan said:

Which reminds me.  OSU & WSU, with rare exception, have been at or near the bottom of their conference for the last 100 years.  Very few of their Oly teams have made the national scene?  MWC schools have beaten them.  Will the Pac name really carry cache when all the well known teams are gone?  Is the media really clamoring to be able to televise them?  There's a reason they got left behind.  My point is this.  I'd be very happy to see them in the MW, but we need to keep it in perspective.

I think you might be overstating things a bit. The Beav’s are pretty good at baseball.  WSU Volleyball is damn good. 

  

[sean327]

On 9/6/2023 at 5:09 PM, sactowndog said:

So happy to move shit around but is it fair to ask a few questions?

Do you think AF would prefer 9 games or independent with a scheduling alliance of their choosing?  

Does UNM really give a crap about football?  If the answer is no you are with those teams for hoops baseball etc.  if yes isn’t a focus on Texas critical to get UNM back to decent? 

70% of UNM's football roster are Texas kids. It's always been that way. The MWC not having a Texas school hasn't changed that fact. Not having a real QB for the last 10 years has killed us. From what I saw last week, that QB drought may have finally ended. Football does matter, and it will get better. Booting AF is stupid. The hate them and Wyoming get here is just ignorant. Leave the Flyboys and Cowboys alone. Stop trying to break up the Front Range schools. Like it or not, we are the last of the OG's. Without us, who is going to keep SUDS down?

[Brew_Poke]

On 9/6/2023 at 5:35 PM, namssa said:

Isn't the exit fee 3 times the yearly media deal?  If there is no media deal what is it 3 times of? 

Do you think we just will let our deal run out? Besides which, the buyouts are not tied to the media deal, they are based on revenue distribution from the conference.

[wolfpack1]

On 9/6/2023 at 5:12 PM, smithy said:

Heard Aresco's focus is getting Army to jump to the AAC for SMU replacement. Gets national team and eyeballs at the same time. He said he was not interested looking out west anymore because of the logistics of going west is too costly.

https://csnbbs.com/thread-976742.html

So AAC officially becomes C-USA 2 then? It doesn't bring anything to AAC, Army isn't a national team (nothing against Army) most people only game they watch with Army is Army vs. Navy which is controlled by CBS. You could imagine the members of the AAC talking to themselves, we wanted to leave C-USA and damnit we are back in C-USA

[RebelRobert]

On 9/6/2023 at 7:14 PM, CPslograd said:

So, why do you think they’ll actually pay 17  in this case when they didn’t pay 5 million in that case?

We won’t. It is negotiable as I have said all along.

[EvilPoke]

I think this has been brought up before - I could see a situation as part of the reverse merger where schools are required to hit certain minimums for athletic spending generated internally (tickets, donations, etc.) within a few years of formation.

This would force schools to decide if they're willing/capable of hitting those standards.

 

[Brew_Poke]

On 9/6/2023 at 5:53 PM, SierraSpartan said:

This is the language of the MWC by-laws.

Now, I suppose a group of four MWC schools could theoretically kamikaze the conference by not accepting any new media contract to take effect after the current one expires after the '25-'26 school year so as to avoid the possibility of an exit fee - but that would not be possible until the end of the '26-'27 school year - "the preceding year".

Then again, there may be a "continuance" clause in the media rights contract that says that the existing terms of the contract will continue until such time as either a) a new contract extension is signed, or b) one or both parties timely notices the others of their desire to terminate the contract.

Either way, waiting for or even possibly even engineering the end of the media contract in order to get out of an exit fee would be a hell of a thing to explain to the non-FB athletes and parents and supporters.

 

I'm sure we'd just vote to expel them, then vote for the deal.

[sean327]

On 9/6/2023 at 4:59 PM, sactowndog said:

Sean.  Would love to hear your thoughts on this? 

No!! Leave the Flyboys alone. They belong in the MWC a hell of a lot more than Nevada or Utah St do. Their OG status should be of some value, but phuck loyalty I guess. 

[SteedLaw]

On 9/6/2023 at 6:09 PM, sactowndog said:

So happy to move shit around but is it fair to ask a few questions?

Do you think AF would prefer 9 games or independent with a scheduling alliance of their choosing?  

Does UNM really give a crap about football?  If the answer is no you are with those teams for hoops baseball etc.  if yes isn’t a focus on Texas critical to get UNM back to decent? 

I would venture to say that AF would want both their geographic and military rivals in the same conference. 
 

My best guess is their preference would be for the MWC to eventually add OSU/WSU, Navy and Army (as football only members if needs be), and a school or two from Texas.

That way, they could schedule their rivalry games as in-conference matchups and free up their OOC for, whomever they want really. 

[wolfpack1]

If you take out football and basketball, there is a lot more room in Olympic sports for different scheduling options. 

There are still little avenues that both schools are looking at  but honestly I think right now, especially since MWC was the one to bring it up, we are headed for some sort of situation like WAC and Atlantic Sun did for football in FCS.

Now Washington St could file a lawsuit against ESPN and FOX but honestly they won't go anywhere because really as things have come up schools in Pac-12 got into this situation themselves no one else did it.

On another note, I guess Washington St AD or President set a soft deadline of October 1st to have something decided by.

[SteedLaw]

On 9/6/2023 at 6:30 PM, sean327 said:

No!! Leave the Flyboys alone. They belong in the MWC a hell of a lot more than Nevada or Utah St do. Their OG status should be of some value, but phuck loyalty I guess. 

I agree with you on AF, but USU belongs here too — so does Nevada. 

[sactowndog]

On 9/6/2023 at 3:36 PM, JohnJayJay said:

SDSU (supposedly) already tried to rally nine schools to move to PAC and dissolve MWC (thus avoiding exit fees). It went nowhere. While a few schools may be itchy (SDSU, CSU, my own Bulldogs, maaaaybe BSU) it’s apparently not enough to get it done. Cooler heads seem to have come to the conclusion that the PAC is in a bind. If you game the system to hoard nine figures all to yourselves (an outsized sum, btw, given those two schools relevance), cool. Enjoy your trips to the Carolinas and Deep South. It will be a short term wealth infusion, and then those two schools will wither on the vine with the travel and zero west coast/mountain time zone rivalries. They’ll massively regret the move long term. If they want help and want to build something with the only true western D-1 football conference? Awesome. But you’re gonna pay for the privilege. Otherwise, the MWC doesn’t need them that badly. And, they don’t elevate the AAC above the MWC. WSU isn’t better than top end MWC schools and OSU’s recent success is built on nearly $40 million a year in conference money. Even a move to AAC is a $30+ million revenue hit, not to mention exorbitant travel costs. You think they’ll maintain their current level of play with those future handicaps? I sure don’t. Fresno, Boise, SDSU, and AFA have shown they can regularly win on peanuts. They’ve been doing it for years. OSU? I’m not so sure. 

This is foolish.  WA is the 3rd largest state on the west coast.  We absolutely do need them and we need to lock up the 5th spot.   

Ideally we do it without leaving anyone behind.  My AF independence proposal is because I think AF would prefer it not because I want to ditch AF.  

But people will need to be more open minded than in the past.  Fresno, Boise, SDSU, Hawaii and UNLV could split themselves off and join a best of the rest.  

[NevadaFan]

On 9/6/2023 at 5:21 PM, sactowndog said:

I think you might be overstating things a bit. The Beav’s are pretty good at baseball.  WSU Volleyball is damn good. 

  

That and a cup coffee. Those sports don’t move the needle when it comes to revenue and you know that. Hell, if the MWC was worried about programs that were “pretty good” at an actual major sport it would have GU in its crosshairs. What do WSU and OSU do for the MWC exactly?? Recruiting? Revenue? 

[Brew_Poke]

On 9/6/2023 at 6:36 PM, sactowndog said:

This is foolish.  WA is the 3rd largest state on the west coast.  We absolutely do need them and we need to lock up the 5th spot.   

Ideally we do it without leaving anyone behind.  My AF independence proposal is because I think AF would prefer it not because I want to ditch AF.  

But people will need to be more open minded than in the past.  Fresno, Boise, SDSU, Hawaii and UNLV could split themselves off and join a best of the rest.  

Cool. $34 million each.

[idkk]

On 9/6/2023 at 5:14 PM, CPslograd said:

So, why do you think they’ll actually pay 17  in this case when they didn’t pay 5 million in that case?

The WAC was toothless. MWC has shown with the SDSU attempt that they'll play hardball. Look at the bylaws that are quoted above. As soon as someone gives notice, they'll immediately withhold any distributions. That's why SDSU said their letter wasn't official. The MWC was going to withhold their $6.6M distribution.

[smithy]

On 9/6/2023 at 5:27 PM, wolfpack1 said:

So AAC officially becomes C-USA 2 then? It doesn't bring anything to AAC, Army isn't a national team (nothing against Army) most people only game they watch with Army is Army vs. Navy which is controlled by CBS. You could imagine the members of the AAC talking to themselves, we wanted to leave C-USA and damnit we are back in C-USA

AAC is already C-USA 2.0 when Aresco brought in the 6 teams last year.. Luckily he only pays them 2 Mil a year each vs the OG teams get 6+Mil.  Army won't come in cheap, but with their GOR ending in 2031 who would want that unless maybe desperate teams to jump to FBS like from the Big Sky Conference. Gloria better keep and eye on Aresco..that guy is a operator.

[sactowndog]

On 9/6/2023 at 5:30 PM, sean327 said:

No!! Leave the Flyboys alone. They belong in the MWC a hell of a lot more than Nevada or Utah St do. Their OG status should be of some value, but phuck loyalty I guess. 

It has nothing to do with lack of loyalty! 

14 is a shit number and we are almost certain to have to go to 16 or 18.   That means 9 games.  I am assuming they would prefer independence and a flexible scheduling alliance.

And don’t talk about OG status when Hawaii, UTEP and Fresno were left for dead.  If anything their participation in the Airport meeting would be reason to leave them for dead   But that is not my motivation because I have been there.  

 

[bigd]

On 9/6/2023 at 5:44 PM, sactowndog said:

It has nothing to do with lack of loyalty! 

14 is a shit number and we are almost certain to have to go to 16 or 18.   That means 9 games.  I am assuming they would prefer independence and a flexible scheduling alliance.

And don’t talk about OG status when Hawaii, UTEP and Fresno were left for dead.  If anything their participation in the Airport meeting would be reason to leave them for dead   But that is not my motivation because I have been there.  

 

Why is 14 a shit number? The 3/5/5 scheduling setup seems perfect, and would make Air Force and everyone else happy.

[RSF]

On 9/6/2023 at 7:43 PM, smithy said:

AAC is already C-USA 2.0 when Aresco brought in the 6 teams last year.. Luckily he only pays them 2 Mil a year each vs the OG teams get 6+Mil.  Army won't come in cheap, but with their GOR ending in 2031 who would want that unless maybe desperate teams to jump to FBS like from the Big Sky Conference. Gloria better keep and eye on Aresco..that guy is a operator.

AAC doesn't have a GOR.  And Army will probably come real cheap, if the deal ends up being like Navy's - ie, Navy has a separate TV deal, with AAC only getting the rights to 1 home game each year plus the ND game every other year.  A scheduling alliance masquerading as a conference membership.  Aresco is a grifter.  The guy locked the AAC into a bad TV deal because he wanted to be able to claim it was a billion dollar deal (or was).