Tag: Conference Expansion

College football in line for another major shakeup

The ground on which college football competes is once again shaking. At a time when college athletics is going through its share of changes, another major domino in the game of conference realignment seems set to fall. According to the San Jose …

The ground on which college football competes is once again shaking.

At a time when college athletics is going through its share of changes, another major domino in the game of conference realignment seems set to fall. According to the San Jose Mercury News, and since confirmed by multiple news outlets, Southern Cal and UCLA are heavily considering a move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten as soon as 2024.

As of this afternoon, the schools’ move had reportedly moved closer to a formality. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, USC and UCLA’s departure from the Pac-12 could be official as soon as tonight.

The expected bombshell would be the latest move toward what some believe will be the formation of mega conferences within college football. Last year, Oklahoma and Texas announced their departure from the Big 12 for the SEC effective no later than 2025.

The moves will push the Big Ten and SEC’s memberships to 16 schools apiece.

Not only is the West Coast schools’ pending move a blow to The Alliance — a handshake pact made among the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC last year in response to the SEC’s expansion — but it also brings further into question the existence of the Pac-12, ACC and Big 12 as Power Five conferences

Might some of the ACC’s top brands be of interest to the conferences that are poaching? While the Big Ten and SEC have media rights payouts that would be far more than what schools like Clemson and Florida State are getting as ACC members, leaving the ACC isn’t that simple.

The league has a grant-of-rights agreement that every ACC member is locked into until 2036. As part of that agreement, any school that tries to leave the ACC before then would give up its TV revenue.

But times, particularly in the world of college football, are changing. And there could be more coming.

Photo credit: Joshua A. Bickel/Columbus Dispatch/USA Today Network

Report: Big Ten set to dwarf the SEC with UCLA, USC conference expansion moves

The Big Ten appears set to add UCLA, USC in conference expansion.

The Big Ten could be chasing the stars, with a report on Thursday afternoon that the conference is exploring the possibility of adding UCLA and USC.

Multiple reports on Thursday indicate that the Big Ten could be close to adding the two Pac-12 programs. The move would be not just a shot in the latest jockeying amid a conference expansion frenzy but nothing short of a bomb.

Were the Big Ten to add UCLA and USC, the conference would have colleges located in the top four media markets in the nation. New York (via Rutgers), as well as Philadelphia (Penn State and Rutgers in southern New Jersey) and Chicago (Northwestern), would make the conference a juggernaut in terms of television ratings and media negotiations.

Los Angeles is the second-largest media market in the country after New York.

From a revenue point of view, potentially adding UCLA and USC would keep the Big Ten equal in the conference expansion war with the SEC. The SEC will be adding Oklahoma and Texas in 2024.

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The last time the Big Ten expanded was the addition of Maryland and Rutgers in 2014.

 

The next round of television revenue could potentially net the Big Ten over $1 billion a year in revenue.

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The addition of UCLA and USC would firmly stamp the Big Ten in the second-largest market in the nation. It is a move that will only enhance the Big Ten in terms of bringing in revenue in the never-ending arms race that is college sports.

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SEC commissioner Greg Sankey says intra-SEC playoff is on the table

Sankey said the league is considering a wide range of possibilities for the future.

The SEC is set for a major change in the coming years as Texas and Oklahoma are set to join the conference. The exact timetable is undetermined, but the move will happen no later than 2025.

Expansion will certainly bring changes to the structure of the league, and commissioner [autotag]Greg Sankey[/autotag] has hinted that a pod format could replace the divisions. But that may not even be the biggest change that will come.

Conference officials will meet in Destin, Florida, next week, and Sankey told ESPN that there are nearly 40 different models that the league has discussed. One of those, per Pete Thamel, is an SEC-exclusive postseason.

“As we think as a conference,” he said on Monday, “it’s vitally important we think about the range of possibilities.

“We need to engage in blue-sky thinking, which is you detach from reality. What are the full range of possibilities?”

Sankey said the league has expanded its thinking since talks of expanding the College Football Playoff to 12 teams stalled during negotiations with the other leagues.

“Those unknowns are on our mind as we think about decision-making down the road,” Sankey said. “This is a fully dynamic environment. … It’s hard to understand where things will end up if you wait for this to play out.

“We wanted to be good collaborators. We think we gave up a lot … what was viewed as a balanced approach given the up-front demands eventually fell apart. We also have the responsibility to think broadly about different possibilities. The SEC will continue to do so.”

These conversations are purely hypothetical right now, and your guess at how a potential intra-league playoff would be structured is as good as ours. But it goes to show that league officials are thinking outside the box as college football is set for a seismic shift to its landscape in the coming years.

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How did the Big 12 expansion teams fare in week 2?

How did the newest members of the Big 12 fare in week two of college football action?

While the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns have one foot out of the Big 12 and the other in the SEC, no one knows when the schools will officially swap programs. For this reason, the Big 12’s invitation to BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF is still relevant to Sooners fans, as OU and Texas could compete against the new members as early as 2023 if they haven’t completed the transition yet.

So, how did the four programs fare in the second week of college football action?

5 thoughts on the Big 12’s latest round of expansion talks

Here are five thoughts on the Big 12’s latest round of expansion that includes BYU, UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati.

The Big 12 conference has seen a big shakeup over the last couple of months. Arguably, no conference has been hit harder by realignment than the Big 12. Before the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns made their joint announcement that they’d be leaving the conference for the SEC, the Big 12 had already been robbed of four of their programs.

Amidst the last round of realignment, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas A&M, and Missouri left for the Pac-12, Big 10, and SEC. Two major brands in college football walked out the door and the Big 12 was left struggling for answers.

With just eight schools left, they decided expanding to 10 was the only move that made sense at the time and added TCU and West Virginia to their ranks. It was a move they had to make, but in light of who left, the Big 12 certainly took a net loss.

And here we are a decade later and the Big 12 is looking at the loss of their two premier programs, but are getting a bit more proactive at expansion to replace Oklahoma and Texas.

According to a report from The Athletic (subscription required), the Big 12 is looking at adding BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF to their ranks.

They’re moving swiftly to respond to the loss of OU and Texas and here are five thoughts on the latest talks of Big 12 expansion.

Report: Big 12 seriously considering BYU for expansion

The Big 12’s only option is to expand its own conference over the next half decade. According to a report, BYU is being heavily considered.

If you wrote a script where the entire premise was to kill the Big 12, I don’t think it would have been anywhere close to what has unfolded over the past month. Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has lost his two biggest programs to the SEC only to be left out of The Alliance by the ACC/Big Ten/Pac-12.

Even worse for the remaining eight schools within the conference? It seems as if neither of the other four Power Five conferences are willing to accept them. The Pac-12 came out of Thursday saying there are no intentions of expansion at all. Being in agreement with the west coast conference, there is little chance the ACC or Big Ten will listen either.

The Big 12’s only option is to expand its own conference and pray the product is good enough for lucrative television contracts within the next half-decade. Texas and Oklahoma’s departure to the SEC could speed things up but for now, the current TV deal expires after the 2024 season.

One candidate to join the Big 12 according to The Athletic is BYU. Currently an independent school, the Cougars have as big of a following as any school in the country thanks to their religious views. Per the report, BYU drew in around the same viewers per game as the other eight Big 12 schools when appearing on ABC, ESPN, or FOX.

Currently being an independent will work in favor of BYU as well. Unlike Texas and Oklahoma, no buyout fee to a conference could potentially delay a move. The Cougars are currently in a deal with ESPN through the 2026 season after renewing in January 2020. Since the worldwide leader already has a contract with the Big 12, there should be no issue transitioning over.

This would bring the conference’s member total to nine, assuming Texas and Oklahoma leave after this season. One more school would be needed to be added before being considered a Power Five conference again. The American Athletic Conference seems to be the most likely candidate to be poached from.

Swinney a step ahead on conference realignment

Last week Dabo Swinney shifted gears from talking about the 12-team playoff to discussing potential changes to the structure of college athletics. “I think the bigger question is where is college football going from a structural standpoint?,” …

Last week Dabo Swinney shifted gears from talking about the 12-team playoff to discussing potential changes to the structure of college athletics.

“I think the bigger question is where is college football going from a structural standpoint?,” Swinney asked at the Clemson Football Media Outing. “If it’s a 40-team league but with 130 teams and one trophy it’s not like basketball where you bring in a couple of guys and all the sudden you make a run at it.”

He went on to suggest college football could operate like the Premier League in soccer with a smaller pool of elite teams competing for a title.

The comments seemed odd last Tuesday but as details emerged about the plan for Texas and Oklahoma to leave the Big 12 and join the SEC, Swinney’s questions about the structure of the sport seem much more realistic.

On Tuesday night at the annual Fisher DeBerry Coaches for Charity event Swinney dove deeper into the future of college football with conference realignment.

“I think the first dominoes are falling and ultimately the more expansion you have the more you are going to have super conferences somewhere down the road,” Swinney said in audio obtained by The Clemson Insider. “I don’t know when it is probably five years or 10 years there probably will be some kind of 40, 50, 60 team league that has their own commissioner or whatever with a 12 or 16 team playoff.”

At the beginning of the interview South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer joked that any questions about the College Football Playoff and conference realignment go to Swinney.

The Clemson head coach did not shy away from the questions but again emphasized that his focus remains on the Tigers’ opener against Georgia and that he will play in whatever structure shakes out at the top.

“I don’t know ultimately where it’s going and right now, we’re all about getting ready for Georgia,” Swinney said. “It is what it is and, in our roles, we don’t really have any input in that our job is to get our teams ready and play by whatever rules they give us.”

The SEC announced it received formal requests from Texas and Oklahoma to join the conference at the start of the 2025-26 academic year.

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Report: Iowa State and Kansas are talking to the Big Ten

The losers of this whole debacle are the other eight Big 12 schools. At least two schools are being proactive, reaching out to the Big Ten.

Conference realignment hit college football like a freight train on Wednesday. The biggest news is Texas and Oklahoma looking at joining the SEC.

Processing those two not in the Big 12 is enough for everybody’s brain. The Red River schools have been the staple of the conference since it began in 1996. Them leaving is going to leave ripples for years to come.

Some of the biggest losers of this whole debacle are the remaining eight teams in the Big 12. Texas and Oklahoma may have their next destinations, but Iowa State, the three Texas schools, the Kansas schools, Oklahoma State and West Virginia are being left out to dry.

At least two schools are being proactive. According to Mike Vernon, Iowa State and Kansas are attempting to get on calls with the Big Ten. The Jayhawks are leading the charge with the Cyclones tagging along.

For Kansas, the biggest attraction is basketball. A conference such as the Big Ten values the sport more than others, possibly just a tier below football. Welcoming an elite program such as Bill Self’s would be an easy decision for Big Ten presidents/athletic directors.

Iowa State is in a position where its in-state rival already resides in the Big Ten. Will Iowa be like Texas A&M, where it does not want to share the state? Or will the CyHawk rivalry be embraced within the conference?

The two have been playing each other every year since 1977 after a 43-year hiatus. Neither has been in the same conference during that period.

Unlike Texas/Oklahoma in the SEC, nothing is close to being complete. If the Big 12 as we know it ends in 2022, Kansas and Iowa State will have at least a year to be voted into the Big Ten.

Jimbo Fisher comments on Texas reportedly wanting to join the SEC

Jimbo Fisher was getting set to begin talking during SEC media days when the biggest college football story of the offseason dropped.

Jimbo Fisher was getting set to begin talking during SEC media days when the biggest college football story of the offseason dropped. While it does not have anything to do with Texas A&M, it certainly impacts them.

According to Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle, Texas and Oklahoma are looking to join the SEC. This would mean the triangle of former Big 12 rivals would be back in the same conference, competition against one another on the football field.

When asked about Texas and Oklahoma wanting to join the SEC, Fisher responded with “I bet they would. We got the greatest league in ball.”

To some Aggie fans, this might come as a little bit of an own, claiming Texas and Oklahoma want to get on their level. But Fisher is right. The SEC is the pinnacle of college football at the moment. Two of the biggest programs in the country would be foolish to stay away.

Fisher also joined The Paul Finebaum Show, discussing the possibility.

While Fisher does not directly comment on whether or not he would be in favor of Texas/Oklahoma joining, athletic director Ross Bjork did. He made it clear Texas A&M wants to be the only team from the state in the SEC.

A vote of 75% would be needed for the report to become true. Texas A&M will be doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make sure their wishes stay true.

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Texas A&M AD Ross Bjork on Texas joining the SEC: “We want to be the only SEC team from the state”

Texas A&M would surely vote against the addition of UT to the SEC. AD Ross Bjork has already made it clear where he stands on the addition.

Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle dropped a bombshell Wednesday afternoon, reporting Texas and Oklahoma could be looking to join the SEC. The two premiere Big 12 schools would join the already 14 team league, making what some might call a “super conference”.

While nothing is close to official, an announcement could be coming within a couple of weeks. The Longhorns and Sooners would be leave behind eight other football programs scrambling to retain their Power Five status. Not something they want to do.

You can add a ninth program that would be against Texas and Oklahoma abandoning the Big 12 ship.

Texas A&M would surely vote against the addition of the Red River rivals if a vote is called upon in the SEC. In fact, athletic director Ross Bjork has already made it clear where he stands on the possible expansion.

Since leaving the Big 12 in 2012, Texas A&M has been able to build up its brand better than if it had stayed. Staying away from the “shadow” of the Longhorns was always the goal.

Bjork doubled down on the sentiments, saying the Aggies got away from the Big 12 for those exact reasons.

“There’s a reason why Texas A&M left the Big 12 – to be stand alone & have our own identity. That’s our feeling.”

Texas A&M may have a difficult time getting other affiliate schools on board with rejecting Texas and Oklahoma, however. Two of the top named programs in the country joining the conference would help more than hurt.

From a football standpoint, and what this is really all about — money — it is a no-brainer.

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