College Football 2022: “Here’s a twenty, bury two.”

[dxmnkd316]

USC is 3rd overall in total team championships, so don't sell them too short there.

Overall fact is, I don't think Stanford or Washington would have ever felt the Pac-12 was holding them back enough that they absolutely had to blow up college sports on the west coast to win a title. And of course by title, we mean football, at the sacrifice of all other sports. But USC feels it is their god-given right to always be a top 5 team in football and were more than willing to throw everything else out to have maybe a 10% better chance of making the playoffs each year.

And I'm not saying that Stanford or Washington won't follow suit now that the dominoes are falling. The other choice is to basically become a I-AA school, and both have sunk too much money into their facilities over the years to allow for that.

Yeah, I guess i meant in terms of overall sports. But your point about football is well taken.

 

[Kepler]

Of course it isn't only based on R&D dollars. But if Washington and Stanford both thought they could ****hole-conference-backdoor their way into playoffs and/or control the conference like Texas did in the Big 12, that would have absolutely factored into their decision to apply or not.

Fact is, Stanford and Washington are far, far better schools than USC both in terms of athletics and research. If they had applied to the Big Ten, they would have been welcomed with open arms.

All of that said, research is king. Big Ten schools often get more in NSF research alone every year than the entire athletic conference distributes amongst members. Academics is king and the regents of the vast majority of schools in the Big Ten understand that. Athletics is a feather in the hat that can help attract people to a more complete package of a school.

Never confuse grant dollars and academic excellence. They are very different animals.

R&D is one particularly narrow avenue of one particularly narrow range of academia. It just happens to coincide with the interests of big business and its alliance with government to secure public funding of private profit. But that should not be confused with education or the creation of new knowledge, which is academia's mission. Grant dollars are rocket fuel for certain applied fields and a bathtub for the most powerful and well-connected interests to soak their shares in.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Never confuse grant dollars and academic excellence. They are very different animals.

R&D is one particularly narrow avenue of one particularly narrow range of academia. It just happens to coincide with the interests of big business and its alliance with government to secure public funding of private profit. But that should not be confused with education or the creation of new knowledge, which is academia's mission. Grant dollars are rocket fuel for certain applied fields and a bathtub for the most powerful and well-connected interests to soak their shares in.

I don't think I did. I'm not saying academic excellence is exclusively what they're after. It's dollars and knowledge.

And you're wrong about the creation of new knowledge. You just are. Normally I just brush it off, but even i'm put off by the smarm and condescension of that comment. And I'm not sure the grad students, post-docs, and professors whose research is only possible through these grants would take too kindly to your classification of their effort and research.

I get it, you want pure research science and that's fine. The problem is that 99% of academic research isn't that. It's cool to find new types of quarks and solving the Poincare conjecture, but that's no more important than finding crops that are resistant to fireblight or discovering new ways to optimize the Haber Bosch process or whatever else you can find to sneer at as second-class research.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

I have understood our desire to remain Independent, but I'm afraid this is it. And assuming the question becomes not whether to join a conference but which to join, USC going to the Big Ten ended that. The ACC is a joke. We have only one potential conference home.

In the dawn of the era of the super conferences, I don't get why ND keeps insisting on being independent. It can't help their recruiting (just the opposite, in fact). Despite how much political and financial clout they now have, it's going to dwindle as the super conferences overwhelm them in those categories. And soon I suspect, those super conferences are going to eventually tell ND they no longer have any "easy" route to getting a bid to the football playoffs, and ND will have no ability to resist that movement. ND has got to see the writing on the wall. They can't be that stubborn. Can they?

(Mind you, I despise everything there is about ND and all it stands for. So, if they want to shoot themselves in the foot, I'll laugh my ass off.)

 

[RaceBoarder]

In the dawn of the era of the super conferences, I don't get why ND keeps insisting on being independent. It can't help their recruiting (just the opposite, in fact). Despite how much political and financial clout they now have, it's going to dwindle as the super conferences overwhelm them in those categories. And soon I suspect, those super conferences are going to eventually tell ND they no longer have any "easy" route to getting a bid to the football playoffs, and ND will have no ability to resist that movement. ND has got to see the writing on the wall. They can't be that stubborn. Can they?

(Mind you, I despise everything there is about ND and all it stands for. So, if they want to shoot themselves in the foot, I'll laugh my *** off.)

I think it's just recently being realized that the conference TV money dwarfs what ND signed on their own. That was a big part of their initial holdout 10 years ago.

 

[Kepler]

In the dawn of the era of the super conferences, I don't get why ND keeps insisting on being independent. It can't help their recruiting (just the opposite, in fact). Despite how much political and financial clout they now have, it's going to dwindle as the super conferences overwhelm them in those categories. And soon I suspect, those super conferences are going to eventually tell ND they no longer have any "easy" route to getting a bid to the football playoffs, and ND will have no ability to resist that movement. ND has got to see the writing on the wall. They can't be that stubborn. Can they?

(Mind you, I despise everything there is about ND and all it stands for. So, if they want to shoot themselves in the foot, I'll laugh my *** off.)

I lurk on ND boards because of this birth defect I inherited from father. There is no way to underestimate the stubbornness, arrogance, and delusion of Notre Dame's administration and apparatchiks. What if the Rexist Party ran a fossil fuel company.

 

[Kepler]

I think it's just recently being realized that the conference TV money dwarfs what ND signed on their own. That was a big part of their initial holdout 10 years ago.

Yes. Although the alumni worship the idea of Notre Dame Above It All, the president and the trustees are about $$$.

I would genuinely love if Notre Dame joined the Big Ten. It is where we have belonged since the 1990s. We would play Michigan, Michigan State, and Northwestern again. Games against the rest of the Big Ten wouldn't be that bad and some like Indiana, Pedo State, and Iowa would have historical echoes.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

After reports last night Arizona would be accepted into the Big XII as early as today, Nicole Auerbach is reporting that UO and UW to the Big Ten is slowing and Brett McMurphy is saying that the remaining Pac schools are close to signing a Grant of Rights, including Arizona. So much so that someone said Arizona’s president should win an Oscar if they leave.

So if that happens, then we get to go back to discussing who they raid out of the American and Mountain West.

 

[French Rage]

If the Big 12 is indeed going west, then yeah, hard to see a world where they don't add Utah/UA/ASU to go with Colorado. No brainer for both sides of the equation there.

 

[SonofSouthie]

Be a great addition to the BB side of the conf. I don't think their football team is all that.

Arizona is in deep discussions about joining the Big 12, sources told ESPN, with a deal expected to be finalized in the near future.

The school is amid the final steps, sources said, including detailing the move in an Arizona board of regents meeting Thursday night. Big 12 presidents and CEOs met Thursday to vote on approving the move, sources confirmed to ESPN, another sign of the likelihood of it happening.

Barring an unexpected turn in the board of regents meeting, Arizona's decision is expected be formalized soon, sources said.

 

[Kepler]

Be a great addition to the BB side of the conf. I don't think their football team is all that.

UA and ASU football are a hot mess.

So if I am reading this right, it's supposed to go down thusly:

Big 10: USC, UCLA, UO, UW

Big 12: UA, ASU

Screwed: WSU, OSU, Cal, Stanford


The Ivies should kick out Dartmouth and add Stanford.

 

[SonofSouthie]

I think Arizona's decision will push Ariz St(was watching The Rounders the other night and they had a scene at a rodeo where the Arizona State 'College' band was playing, but I digress)and Utah to get off the pot and go to the Big how many is it?

 

[Kepler]

IINM the AZ regents have said UA and ASU are linked at the hip forever. One cannot move without the other.

I was shocked Washington and Oregon apparently do not have the same restriction. Granted, UW barely acknowledges the existence of WSU, but UO/OSU are the most tightly-bound of those three pairings. It would be a shame to separate the Ducks and Beavers, as OSU would completely fall apart immediately without UO to compete against (and raise development dollars against).

 

[Kepler]

I think Arizona's decision will push Ariz St(was watching The Rounders the other night and they had a scene at a rodeo where the Arizona State 'College' band was playing, but I digress)and Utah to get off the pot and go to the Big how many is it?

The current 14 plus Colorado, ASU, UA, Utah makes 18. UO and UW are also targeted if the Big 10 doesn't take them.

Other fun rumors: UConn (LOL), San Diego State (I totally see this since they lost CA to the Big Ten), UNLV and Memphis.

So hey let's take them all. 24!

 

[SonofSouthie]

The current 14 plus Colorado, ASU, UA, Utah makes 18. UO and UW are also targeted if the Big 10 doesn't take them.

Other fun rumors: UConn (LOL), San Diego State (I totally see this since they lost CA to the Big Ten), UNLV and Memphis.

So hey let's take them all. 24!

That would be the super duperest of BB conferences.

 

[unofan]

UConn just rejoined the Big East two years ago to put the focus back on hoops and won a national title. They aren't going anywhere.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

After reports last night Arizona would be accepted into the Big XII as early as today, Nicole Auerbach is reporting that UO and UW to the Big Ten is slowing and Brett McMurphy is saying that the remaining Pac schools are close to signing a Grant of Rights, including Arizona. So much so that someone said Arizona’s president should win an Oscar if they leave.

So if that happens, then we get to go back to discussing who they raid out of the American and Mountain West.

…and that fell apart fast. Oregon and Washington now joining the Big Ten.

So there are now 6 teams left if the Arizona news happens soon.

ASU
Utah
Cal
Stanford
OSU
WSU

I am not too well versed in what being an autonomous conference means if you have a severe drop in revenue, since having way more money seemed to be the driver in the P5 becoming autonomous conferences, but I would think the ability to bring about rules changes to votes with just one conference would still be valuable.

If it does become a Pac 2, I would still expect the brand to be important enough to try to raid the Mountain West and AAC to get the FBS minimum 8.

 

[bronconick]

The Big Ten fought so hard protecting the Rose Bowl for decades only to gut the conference they were supposed to play in it.

 

[SonofSouthie]

Sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel that Utah and Arizona State applied for formal membership in the Big 12 Friday following the news of Washington and Oregon's departure.
Interesting read,

https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...-florida-state

 

[MichVandal]

Just got an email from Michigan athletics- Washington and Oregon to join Big 10 in 24.