With Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC, does the Red River Rivalry top the Iron Bowl as the best in-conference rivalry?
The upcoming college football season features a plethora of changes, one of the biggest being mass conference realignment. Though the Big Ten and ACC added a handful of new programs to the lineup, the SEC will only welcome in the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners.
While having those two programs in the conference boosts the competition, it also results in the coveted Red River Rivalry matchup being an SEC matchup.
That fact led to Will Backus of CBS Sports re-ranking every SEC rivalry matchup. The Iron Bowl may have been the long-standing top pick, but it has officially been dethroned, according to Backus.
Every matchup between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers is full of excitement. Look no further than the most recent matchup between the two Yellowhammer State teams, which came down to a fourth-and-31 touchdown pass from Jalen Milroe.
On the Iron Bowl, Backus acknowledges the memories created from this rivalry, and credits the in-state animosity between the fans for its strength as one of the top rivalries in all of college football.
“Though it may not be as ancient as other entries on this list, few rivalries have produced as many memorable moments as the Iron Bowl. From Chris Davis’ kick-six to Isaiah Bond’s miraculous fourth-down catch in Alabama’s most recent win against Auburn, the Iron Bowl has given fans a feast of highlights that will be shown for decades to come. These two in-state foes cannot stand one another, and an Iron Bowl win means a whole lot more than anything else in the regular season.”
In Backus’s rankings, though, the Iron Bowl is second to the Red River Rivalry.
“The pageantry. The tradition. The stakes. The pure dislike for one another. The Red River Rivalry, née Shootout, checks pretty much every box you want in a college football blood feud. It also helps that the games are competitive. Neither team has won more than four consecutive installments since 2004, and eight of the last 10 Red River games have been decided by a single score.”
It’s hard to argue with the points made by Backus, and it’s easy to see how fans can disagree with the rankings of these two rivalries. At the end of the day, the fans are the real winners here, regardless of which is ranked higher.
Fans of SEC football have a lot to look forward to in 2024. Not only will the addition of Texas and Oklahoma lead to a stronger overall conference, but it will likely lead to higher representation in the College Football Playoffs, especially with the field being expended from four teams to a 12-team format.
Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow Alabama football news as the 2024 college football season approaches.
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow AJ Spurr on X @SpurrFM.
Big Ten expansion marks the end of an era for legendary advertisement
With the Big Ten conference expanding to 18 teams officially on Monday, the end of June marks the end of an era for the legendary Big Ten map television advertisement.
The ad takes the viewer from the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, to each of the current 14 Big Ten campus locations from west to east, wrapping up at Rutgers, while “Silver Lining” by Guards plays in the background.
The current iteration of the Big Ten came into effect in 2014 when Maryland and Rutgers joined the conference, expanding to 14 teams for a decade. Now in 2024, Oregon, USC, UCLA and Washington will all be joining the Big Ten.
It’s unclear if the conference will simply adjust their popular advertisement, adding the new the programs, or if they’re scrap the whole thing and go a different direction.
Nonetheless, it’s the end of an era for the Big Ten and the future is officially here for the 18-team conference.
With the current B1G ending at midnight tonight, let’s all take a moment to celebrate the B1G as it was pic.twitter.com/yLzfUTOOgV
Dick Weiss is hearing speculation that Utah might leave the Big 12.
Could Utah be on the move?
Dick Weiss believes so despite Utah still being in the process of leaving the Pac-12 for the Big 12. If he is correct, the decision might well usher in another round of conference expansion
Weiss is a legendary (and highly reputable) sports writer who has worked for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News. He reported on Saturday night that Utah could be set to leave the Big 12 and join the ACC, marking the latest news concerning conference realignment.
It is an intriguing yet curious report. Were Utah to join a new conference as Weiss is reporting, they’d be moving conferences along with former Pac-12 members Cal and Stanford (and SMU is leaving the AAC), all of whom are ACC-bound this year. But why would Utah want to leave for the ACC?
Weiss said it is about the television presence of the ACC on ESPN. But the Big 12 has a contract with Fox and ESPN, arguably putting them in a better spot than the ACC. Conference expansion and realignment is being fueled by the acquisition of media markets.
If a program is in a prime media market (such as Maryland and Rutgers were for the Big Ten), a power conference will come calling.
Speculation is circulating about potential shifts in college sports conferences. There is discussion about Utah possibly moving to the ACC despite its recent move to the Big 12, with some suggesting the ACC might be a better fit due to its ESPN network agreement and potential for…
And with their recent media rights deal, the Big 12 is set to surpass the ACC in terms of financial resources. So why would Utah leave a situation that makes geographic sense to join the ACC for potentially less money?
[lawrence-related id=38374,38336]
It may not make any sense. But if the ACC can make more money by adding Utah and help save its conference then anything and everything will be on the table.
And since when has anything relating to conference expansion made any actual sense?
Wisconsin named one of the most attractive schools for future conference expansion
Wisconsin football was named one of the most attractive schools for any future conference expansion, according to an article by FootballScoop.
The ranking takes into account the factors that television executives are looking for: brand value, market size and general success.
FootballScoop’s exercise took every team in the nation and power-ranked them based on if conferences were disbanded immediately and built from scratch.
This list will be interesting to revisit if conference expansion continues in the next few years — notably with the ACC’s current struggles.
Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion. Follow Ben Kenney on X.
What ACC programs might the Big Ten target in conference expansion?
Florida State appears to be heading out of the ACC. If Florida State leaves the conference, it could well set off another round of conference expansion and re-alignment for the Big Ten, the Big 12 and the SEC.
The ACC, which has a terrible media deal, isn’t on life support at this point. But there is no denying that the conference is struggling to keep up as a Power Five conference. The media deal is limiting the ACC’s ability to keep up and compete in the college sports arms race, especially with regard to facilities needed in football and basketball.
Staff hiring and retention is also an issue.
Now, is the Big Ten, or any conference for that matter, ready to expand? Who knows. But conferences have to be proactive and expand with the idea of the next media rights deals.
So the Big Ten or the SEC or even the Big 12 might need to act sooner rather than later if Florida State does bolt!
Scroll down and check out how the ACC’s top programs rank for Big Ten conference expansion! (Spoiler alert: Notre Dame is not on this list)
Big 12 commissioner dishes on expansion and future schedule at conference basketball media days.
The Big 12 is already looking at the future of their college basketball product beyond the upcoming season. Beginning in 2024-25 the conference will add Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah while Oklahoma and Texas head off to the SEC.
The idea is that the conference will play a 20-game schedule in men’s basketball and an 18-game schedule in women’s basketball. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yorkmark discussed scheduling for future seasons at media days in Kansas City. According to the commish, “scheduling and travel are a major priority for the conference.”
The Big 12 will try to keep competitive balance and rivalries at the forefront when the league expands to 16 teams next season. There has been plenty of chatter about the possibility of adding a 17th team to the mix for all sports outside of football. Gonzaga has been mentioned among the Big 12’s shortlist but Yormark states that “there’s nothing imminent” when it comes to adding the basketball power to an already strong basketball conference.
“I do explore all options that come to me, and if it creates value for membership both short- and long-term, we’re going to explore it even more.” – Yormark
As far as the upcoming season, all 14 teams will begin conference play on Jan. 6. Big 12 play will conclude on Mar. 9 and the conference tournament will top off at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, on Mar. 12. The same day that the women’s Big 12 tournament will conclude.
After weeks of deliberation, the ACC has officially expanded, adding Cal, SMU, and Stanford to the conference.
Week one of the college football season may be here, but conference realignment never rests.
On Friday morning, the Atlantic Coastal Conference officially announced the additions of Cal, SMU, and Stanford, giving the conference 18 members. Out of those 18, 17 will be full-time, with Notre Dame being a part of the ACC in all sports except football, where they remain independent. All three institutions will join the ACC next summer, with SMU officially joining on July 1, while Stanford and Cal will both officially join on Aug. 2.
“We are thrilled to welcome three world-class institutions to the ACC, and we look forward to having them compete as part of our amazing league,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D said in a press release on Friday. “Throughout the evaluation process, the ACC Board of Directors, led by President Ryan, was deliberate in prioritizing the best possible athletic and academic experience for our student-athletes and in ensuring that the three universities would strengthen the league in all possible ways. Cal, SMU and Stanford will be terrific members of the ACC and we are proud to welcome their student-athletes, coaches, staff and entire campus community, alumni and fans.”
The additions of the three schools come just a few weeks after the conference initially voted not to expand after the conference’s 15 members voted 11-4. The four dissenting votes came from Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, and NC State. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, it was NC State’s chancellor, Randy Woodson, who flipped his vote, which allowed the conference to extend invitations to the three universities.
For Cal and Stanford, the ACC is a lifeline for the two universities left in the remanents of the Pac-12 alongside Oregon State and Washington State. Both of those universities remain looking for their next home, with the Mountain West Conference as their most likely option.
For SMU, the move to the ACC marks the university’s return to a power conference. After being a part of the Southwest Conference from 1918 through 1995, the university has only been a member of the Group of Five conferences since 1996. The Mustangs previously spent time in the Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA, and American Athletic Conference.
According to Thamel, Cal and Stanford will only receive 30% of the conference’s revenue share for the first seven years of their membership. However, that number will increase to 70% in their eighth year with the conference, 75% in their ninth year, and they will then receive full financial shares in their tenth year.
SMU, on the other hand, to give themselves the best chance of being accepted into the conference, opted not to take any revenue share from the conference through their first nine years.
Notably, SMU’s move to the ACC will mean that the AAC will have lost a fourth program in the last two years, with Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston all joining the Big 12 this summer. However, thanks to being proactive in conference realignment themselves, the AAC will still have 13 members, including 12 for football, following SMU’s departure after adding six new members his summer.
The Power 5 Conferences are officially just the Power 4 now.
This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Mike Sykes.
Welcome back to the Morning Win, folks! Thank you so much for reading this morning. I appreciate you.
Conference expansion continues to move westward with the ACC being the latest power conference to pillage teams from the dying Pac-12. After a Thursday evening phone call, the conference is set to add Stanford, Cal and Southern Methodist University to its ranks, according to reporting from Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.
It’s final: ACC presidents have approved expansion to add Stanford, Cal and SMU, sources tell @YahooSports, ending a month-long saga into an issue that divided the league.
Should the three new invitees accept their invitations from the ACC, they’ll reportedly officially join the conference in the 2024 season.
The conference’s schools met three weeks ago to discuss potentially adding new schools to their 15-team conference, per the Associated Press, but decided not to vote on it knowing that they didn’t have the 12 necessary to move things forward. Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina and North Carolina State were reportedly the holdouts.
Obviously, something changed along the way. NC State seems to be the team that flipped with “no” votes still coming from Clemson, FSU and UNC. The question is why. The answer — like every other conference realignment story — is probably money. The conference’s teams had 72 million reasons to expand.
The ACC would reportedly squeeze an extra $72 million out of its TV deal with ESPN if it added three more teams, per On3 Sports. On top of that, those three newbies would get smaller portions of the revenue share upon entry into the conference. They’d slowly ramp up over time, sure, but in the meantime, the conference’s current powerhouses would rake in the cash.
That’s why the ACC is expanding. They don’t care if Virginia’s basketball teams have to travel coast-to-coast to play Stanford. Sacrifices must be made. Especially when the executives at the table aren’t really the ones sacrificing anything.
Meanwhile, what does the Pac-12 have left? By my count, Oregon State and Washington State are the only teams left in the conference. What are they supposed to do with that? There’s no way this conference will survive after 2023.
Sure, it’s partially the Pac-12’s own fault. Its media rights deal was catastrophic. It tried to launch its own network and failed miserably instead of partnering with an already established entity like ESPN or FS1. Now the conference is reaping what it sewed.
They get the cash and, in exchange, we lose what makes college sports special. The rivalries, good competition between conferences, the welfare of the student-athletes. All of that falls by the wayside just for some extra scratch.
It’s bad. But it’s our reality. Welcome to the new world of college sports. Hope you can enjoy it.
The lay of the land in College Sports
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
A lot has changed in college sports over the last few years or so. With all of this conference expansion, it’s hard to know exactly who plays where now.
So, in the spirit of trying to keep up, I’ve listed all the teams in the Power-5 (4?) conferences and where they’ll be playing. Newcomers will have the year they’re officially joining the conference in parenthesis.
ACC: California (2024), Stanford (2024), SMU (2024), NC State, Duke, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Notre Dame.
Pac-12: Oregon State, Washington State
SEC: Texas (2024), Oklahoma (2024), Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Auburn, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida.
Big Ten: Oregon (2024), UCLA (2024), Washington (2024), USC (2024), Purdue, Rutgers, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State,
“In a big rivalry game between the Braves and red-hot Los Angeles Dodgers with NL playoff ramifications, Acuña hammered a beautiful home run into the Dodgers stands with the bases loaded to give the Braves a 5-1 lead in the top of the second inning.
The homer helped Acuña make history as he became the first-ever MLB player to hit 30 home runs and steal 60 bases in a single season.
ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum says that the Big Ten will look to target two ACC programs next.
In the world of college sports and conference expansion, change seems to be the one true constant. The ACC is expanding and the Big Ten never seems far removed from the idea.
But what is next for the Big Ten in all of this? And who is the Big Ten’s top target when they expand next?
ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum talked this week about the future of college football and in particular, conference expansion. With the Big Ten adding UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington in 2024, the Big Ten now sits at 18 members.
Does the Big Ten look to add two more teams to raise their membership to 20 universities? Finebaum thinks that if the Big Ten does expand, two ACC programs would be the target.
“I happen to think North Carolina is number one for both leagues, they bring so much to both leagues. Is it Miami? You’re also talking about broad areas. I don’t think geography matters more. Brands matter more,” Finebaum told Rutgers Wire.
“The Big Ten essentially has become a television network. I compliment them for having a myriad of programming but I don’t understand the logic beyond that. Greg Sankey made a good point: SEC is contiguous. At least you can look at a map and say it isn’t the SEC but I get it. The Big Ten makes no sense. This is what happens when you have the decisions made with television networks.”
North Carolina, given their national brand in basketball, makes sense for the Big Ten. They add the growing media market of North Carolina to the Big Ten’s portfolio.
They are an AAU member and are also strong in football.
“This part of the house doesn’t comport with the next part. It is a hodgepodge. One part looks like this, another part looks like that,” Finebaum said.
“I congratulate the Big Ten on what they’ve done but now it’s the NFL”
Where could the Big Ten be looking next in conference expansion?
College conference expansion is taking a break, but it isn’t going to slow down. Not anytime soon, and not as long as the ACC’s media deal remains inferior to that of the Big Ten, the SEC and the Big 12 (not to mention Notre Dame).
But it is clear after recent additions of Oregon and Washington that the Big Ten will continue to be aggressive in the college expansion and realignment landscape. This is as much about accruing assets (i.e. desirable media markets) as it is about adding fine athletic programs.
So where does the Big Ten go next in all of this? And what does the Big Ten value in conference expansion?
AAU membership (all current additions to the Big Ten are members of this prestigious academic institution)
Football, followed by basketball, drives this bus
Media markets, especially for the next television deal, are vastly important for the Big Ten to remain the most valuable conference in college sports.
So with that being said, scroll down and check out the most recent power rankings for possible expansion candidates to the Big Ten!
(Oh, and no Notre Dame on this list as they don’t seem enthralled with the idea of joining any conference quite yet)
