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Originally Posted by Solecismic
The numbers people are throwing around with these new television deals effectively prove the Pac 10-12 was acting irrationally in its quest for Texas.
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Couldn't disagree more strongly Jim. Grabbing Texas - and the HUGE TV interest that the Longhorns bring with them, as well as Oklahoma - not only would have brought a great deal of additional eyeballs to the Pac-16 (even considering the dilution of the additional schools needed to make it happen) and thus driven up the overall attractiveness of the conference from a TV rights perspective, it would have also effectively killed the Big-12 as a major conference.
THAT would have had even greater implications in the current TV deal windfall we're seeing, and it's exactly why the Big-12 was able to get promises from the networks that mollified Texas and thus saved the conference. One less major conference would have meant that much less "product" out there for sports networks, and thus driven up the price for the Pac-16 even more than just adding Texas and Oklahoma would have done in a vacuum.
http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/e...202/28551497/1
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If the time arrives for 16-school conferences, the Big Ten and the SEC will decide whether the ACC or the Big 12 gets eaten along with the Big East.
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Incorrect. As always, it will be Texas and Notre Dame that control whether the major conferences attempt to expand to 16. Texas is the big fish and lynch-pin to the Big-12 surviving as a major conference. If and when they decide to bolt for greener pastures, it will be them making the call and the Pac-12, Big Ten and SEC doing their best to lure them in. Same thing with Notre Dame.
And I see no good reason why a major conference couldn't handle managing 16 teams; if the Pac-12 is able in the future to lure Texas and Oklahoma (and whatever other two teams are required to make that happen - likely Oklahoma State and Texas Tech), I think what we'll see is effectively two 8-team conferences with their own division leadership and a shared, conference-wide commissioner.