Article from ACC country by Bart Wright of the Greenville News (SC) 5/14/2012

ACC Turmoil- "Noles in need of Perspective - Poor ACC TV deal not enough to cause move.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article ... ck_check=1

Why do Texas and Oklahoma have to be in the same division when there can be a permanent cross over game for football for the Red River Rivalry?

North

Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State
WVU
Virginia Tech (?)

South

Texas
Texas Tech
Baylor
TCU
Florida State (?)
Miami (?)
Clemson (?)

SI article discussing FSU/Big 12 situation at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/w ... index.html

FSU President addresses the ACC at today's 1st day of meetings.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... y/19044164

Highlights addressed by President Barron

In support of a move are four basic factors argued by many alumni:

1. The ACC is more basketball than it is football, and many of our alumni view us as more football oriented than the ACC
2. The ACC is too North Carolina centric and the contract advantages basketball and hence advantages the North Carolina schools
3. The Big 12 has some big football schools that match up with FSU
4. The Big 12 contract (which actually isn't signed yet) is rumored to be $2.9M more per year than the ACC contract. We need this money to be competitive.

But, in contrast:

1. The information presented about the ACC contract that initiated the blogosphere discussion was not correct. The ACC is an equal share conference and this applies to football and to basketball ­ there is no preferential treatment of any university with the exception of 3rd tier rights for women's basketball and Olympic sports. FSU is advantaged by that aspect of the contract over the majority of other ACC schools.
2. Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas A&M left the Big 12, at least in part because the Big 12 is not an equal share conference. Texas has considerably more resource avenues and gains a larger share (and I say this as a former dean of the University of Texas at Austin - I watched the Big 12 disintegration with interest). So, when fans realize that Texas would get more dollars than FSU, always having a competitive advantage, it would be interesting to see the fan reaction.
3. Much is being made of the extra $2.9M that the Big 12 contract (which hasn't been inked yet) gets over the ACC contract. Given that the Texas schools are expected to play each other (the Big 12 is at least as Texas centered than the ACC is North Carolina centered), the most likely scenario has FSU playing Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and West Virginia on a recurring basis and the other teams sporadically (and one more unnamed team has to join to allow the Big 12 to regain a championship game), we realize that our sports teams can no longer travel by bus to most games ­ the estimate is that the travel by plane required by FSU to be in the Big 12 appears to exceed the $2.9M difference in the contract ­actually giving us fewer dollars than we have now to be competitive with the Big 12 teams, who obviously do not have to travel as far. Any renegotiated amount depends not just on FSU but the caliber of any other new team to the Big 12.
4. Few believe that the above teams will fill our stadium with fans of these teams and so our lack of sales and ticket revenue would continue.
5. We would lose the rivalry with University of Miami that does fill our stadium
6. It will cost between $20M and $25M to leave the ACC ­ we have no idea where that money would come from. It would have to come from the Boosters which currently are unable to support our current University athletic budget, hence the 2% cut in that budget.
7. The faculty are adamantly opposed to joining a league that is academically weaker ­ and in fact, many of them resent the fact that a 2% ($2.4M) deficit in the athletics budget receives so much attention from concerned Seminoles, but the loss of 25% of the academic budget (105M) gets none when it is the most critical concern of this University in terms
of its successful future.

Very good article by Dennis Dodd

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... onferences

I think my suggestion would do it.

Big 16 North-Notre Dame, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland (or Iowa State)
Big 16 South-FSU, Miami, Georgia Tech, Clemson
Big 16 West-Texas, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor
Big 16 Central-Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, K State

Hey Big 12, go bold, take all the ACC "football" schools.

Counterpoint http://www.tomahawknation.com/2012/5/14 ... to-big-xii

_________________
Fan of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference and...

The counterpoints made by tomahawk nation are pretty week.

Example #3

"I have heard that the Big XII shares travel expenses, and the increase in dollars would certainly be more than $2.9M."

What do you mean you heard. Is it true or not true?

Latest Brett McMurphy FSU/Big 12 article at http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... -not-today

Chip Brown Big 12/FSU update at http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID ... &PT=4&PR=2

Oh, Chip. You make it so easy to show why no school in their right mind would want to work with this crew:



Some say? So, in other words, if UT and OU aren't on board, it doesn't happen, and nobody is going to tell them otherwise.

"Iowa State, you have to travel to Morgantown, Tallahassee, and Provo. As for us, we just have to go to Waco and Ft. Worth aaaaand Stillwater. WHAT?! Don't like it? Oh well, let me call Larry and see what he thinks about an alternative for us here in Austin. We'd knew you'd understand."

Yeah, correcting their corrections is just nuts.

PREZ: Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas A&M left the Big 12, at least in part because the Big 12 is not an equal share conference.

THN: The Big XII is an equal revenue share conference. They make more money on their tier 3 rights, but that is something unique to each school.

REALITY: They're BOTH half-right/half-wrong.
The Big 12 wasn't equal share, which is partially why Colorado and Nebraska left.
The Big 12 IS NOW an equal share conference with the exception of Tier 3 rights, no different than the ACC.

And it's not insulting a potential new conference, it's A FACT. The ACC academically is superior.

_________________
1897-1898 | 1900-06 | 1926-27 | 1929-30 | 1939 | 1942

If the B12 & Bowlsby want an "electronic" footprint in Florida, they can go back to the BE and pursue USF and/or UCF. Busch Gardens & Disney World are so much more fun than Tallahassee.

What is an "electronic" footprint anyway? Market to market connections? National telecasts? The Internet? Twitter & Facebook? A new cell phone plan? A power grid? Waiting for Bowlsby to explain the details. It may be what one says when the footprint will no longer be all contiguous by States.

An electronic footprint would be one that would track their team by means of alternative media/technology if they didn't necessarily live within the school's designated television market. Essentially...the tech-savvy loyalist.



Absolute truth. The Big XII of old was academically similar to the ACC in terms of quality, with over half the conference being AAU members and Top 100 universities (Baylor). They lost four of their best schools (read: not programs), and while TCU is a fine institution, there will be no academic equivalency to make up for TAMU and Colorado. No school will make up for the loss of Academic All-Americans that Nebraska brought.

But even when the Big XII had that, if you were a student and had a fully free ride from Colorado or Wake Forest, you'd probably take Wake. BC and Baylor? BC in a heartbeat. Only UT could pitch the academic heat in that conference...I doubt even they could compete with UVA.

They were NEVER in the same class.

Still More from Chip Brown on possible future Big 12 expansion at http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1366140&PT=2

The Big 12 made a very good hire with the new commissioner Bob Bowlsby. This guy really seems level headed and has a calm demeanor about him that shows good traits with leadership. This is especially true in college football alignments where the NCAA has little control and there is no clear commissioner such as the NFL to keep everyone in line.

http://espn.go.com/blog/big12/post/_/id ... -on-agenda

Bowlsby wants to take a pause with expansion, however, as we have learned over the years that is not easy to pause expansion where schools are always looking for a better opportunity to generate additional money.

While I agree with 10 team conferences and round robin in major revenue sports, it is not easy to keep this format.

It will be an interesting leadership test for Bowlsby to navigate through the exercise of expansion as it is almost imminent the Big 12 will get back to 12 schools sooner than later.

There is always going to be the 800 pound gorilla in the room wearing burnt orange. With the signing of Tier rights, this gorilla is restrained from leaving the room, however, it does make it important to ensure the gorilla is kept calm and orderly. It is also important to understand the gorilla is a star attraction and needs a lot of attention. Good Leaders are accustomed to these type of personalities and are able to use this to their advantage.

If you want something approved, getting buy in from Texas becomes more of an asset and less of liability.

Texas wants to remain at 10 schools and we all know that is not going to be possible, so which two schools will make Texas happy is the first step to getting something accomplished.

Oklahoma wants to expand back to 12. This really helps keep the other strong voice in the room happing if a Florida State just drops into your lap (i.e. Texas A&M to the SEC)

Notre Dame is a Texas preference type school and would most likely be approved. The problem Notre Dame is going to hold out with independence with the BCS final four most likely keeping one at large bid open for non conference champions.

First big question if you get Florida State as number 11, which school would be a good fit for number 12?

If Florida State and Notre Dame are a no go, which two schools could Texas be convinced of that would bring the conference back to full set of 12.

Since Oklahoma prefers Louisville, can Texas be convinced Louisville is a good addition.

I would predict Texas would agree on both Florida State and Louisville keeping everyone in the conference happy with expansion back to 12.

Florida State will be in no position to demand a travel partner unless the Big 12 likes the school.

With the above issues Florida State could option to remain in the ACC or for other reasons as well..

If yes, then the Big 12 may just want to take Cincinnati for 12 and cal it a day.

The Big 12 is back to 12 schools which somehow in today’s college world demonstrates stability. Perception is everything in college football.

Amazing how a conference football championship game has captured our imagination and at the same time caused so many issues with conference alignments.