TheColonyEagle

Any scoop on the QB battle? Three way battle according to some. Anyone stepping up? I’m assuming the starter will need to be named in the next couple of weeks as they move to game planning for Cal.

Technically it doesn’t…..

I’ll buy that….

I don’t know…. I’ll believe it when I see it. Then I still might not believe it. I’m not sure I see the complete upside. For us or them. Outside of avoiding AAC schools going the other way. I guess Competition gets a little better. I just have a hard time seeing Stanford joining a Conference with UT San Antonio. (Forget their academics, UTSA has arguably the worst overall athletic program in the AAC) then compare that to a Stanford. Imagine how they would feel. I just think they would go Indy before they did that. “Best option if the 4 want to stay together” do they? Why? Stanford has no attachment to Wash St or Oregon St outside of geography (which obviously means nothing anymore) and conference affiliation (see geography) I don’t see it happening. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong.

that would probably make more sense (travel wise) But we probably need to stop trying to inject logic into any of these discussions.....

So if I'm an (enter sport here) recruit and I'm looking at going to Stanford or Cal and they're in the ACC... "Sorry Momma....if you want to watch a road game.....check out flights from SFO to Raleigh." I just think that is an absolute disaster waiting to happen for Stanford and Cal recruiting wise. Who wants to fly 3,000 miles for every single conference road game?

From a perception standpoint I think the game has become a little more important with everything that’s going on. And it’s probably bigger for Cal than us. I would imagine anyone that cares about Cal football is moaning and rolling their eyes at even being mentioned in the same breath as the AAC. That becomes a little more difficult if they come to Denton and get beat by one of those lowly AAC teams.

Seems like this first game vs Cal just had a little more meaning now…. Just has that feeling. Would be a good look for us to win that game. Bad look for them.

This is why all of the: “they’ll just pluck MWC and AAC teams” talk is foolish. The bowls aren’t waiting around for the PAC. They don’t have to. This is yet another example that proves the PAC has zero leverage. So let’s all go jump to a conference with no TV deal, no name teams, no media exposure and no bowl tie ins. But they have *squints*: “AQ status?” For how much longer?

I love it. It makes too much sense. However you have to remove Texas and Texas A&M. They’re just in another stratosphere financially. The issue is TT, Baylor, TCU…..they THINK they’re UT’s equal because they’ve been in the same conference with them. They’re not. Take conference affiliation out of it and they’re no where close to those two. And TCU even made the champ game last season. Doesn’t matter. Not today. They stole the hearts of Fort Worth and that is Fort Worth’s team. But go outside Tarrant County and they don’t have NFL like appeal that a UT has. Is that kinda sad? Sure. But it’s facts. And that’s the crux of this whole thing. The UT’s, Ohio States, Bama, USC’s have been carrying the mid tier and lower teams for years and they’re tired of it. They want all the money for themselves. USC and Washington State may have shared a conference. But they share nothing else. In today’s world, the nostalgia if a great game in the 70s when there was a ranked matchup and a win would’ve put one at #1 in the AP, etc. means nothing anymore. Money is all that matters. If TTech and TCU and Baylor are millionaires. They’re trying to associate with Billionaires (UT and A&M). The SWC is long gone. Back to the original subject of a Texas conference. What I think this highlights is that the second tier (TCU, TTech, NC State, Oklahoma St…..programs that have good local, regional relevance) and the lower tier (G5s…..Memphis, Boise St, UNT, SDSU, SMU, Rice, etc) need to figure out how to move forward in this new world, our ego aside (will never happen) and focus on going regional. No one not in that upper echelon (top 25-30 programs) has a national appeal which means they are not going to get big TV deals. That model failed. Go regional and build geographic support.

I wouldn’t think so

Haven’t seen that anywhere. And Apple will be coming with waaay less than $20 million per school. I don’t see how they can afford to pay enough to make it worth any MWC/AAC program’s time. Those 4 Pac leftovers don’t add enough to warrant more money.

But what happens when 4/5 of this group decides that 1/5 isn’t relevant anymore and they want to eliminate their say. How difficult would that be? I guess they could take them to court…

Kind of what I was wondering

Which is basically what they want anyway… I’m sure none of the of the big programs or Networks really wanted USC playing Tulane in the Cotton Bowl regardless of what the structure currently in place allows.

So it seems the only thing these Pac4 teams can hope for it the Pac keeps its name and whatever auto bid status it evidently has (per @Cerebus) If that’s the case, that’s the only leverage the PAC has (and it’s not much) which goes to the Apple deal. If it was $23 mil per school. That deal was for the PAC before it lost all its remaining name programs. So that deal is no longer on the table. Any new deal has to be combined with “we are an auto bid conference” and that has to be attractive enough to pull any AAC or MWC teams over. I don’t see Apple offering enough money for a conference made up to who is available to make who is available jump.

I 100% agree here. If the Cartel wants to stay in power this is the easiest thing to do. Just do away with auto bids and “autonomy”. Have a selection committee and they just pick the 12 teams they want in. It would be pretty easy for them to justify putting in a 3 or 4 loss SEC team over an undefeated AAC team. Do away with the auto bids then they can do what they want. Who gets in, an 8-3 Ole Miss team with say….losses to Bama, LSU, and Texas? Or a 12-0 UNT with a win over a Wyoming, Tulane and UTSA. I think that’s an easy decision for the committee and the media will back them. 12 spots. 10 of them will be from the new mega conferences and a couple from ACC (unless Notre Dame goes 10-2 or maybe 9-3….then they’re in)

Being in the same conference as us has broken their brains they want out so bad. They’d probably take a CUSA invite at this point.

As for raiding G5s…..Pete Thamel said on ESPN that any thoughts of the Pac 12 “just adding from the MWC” wouldn’t work because it would cost $30+ million per school to join. That’s not gonna happen. I don’t know what it would cost to leave the AAC (I’m assuming less than that) but why add a bunch of travel expenses and pay an exit fee to join a conference that used to have a good name and has no media deal. What’s the upside? Playing Stanford? That’s not worth it. The “Pac12” name doesn’t mean anything anymore.

Regardless of Utah's view of BYU....it makes too much sense for them to just go to the Big 12.

That was freaking awesome

I'm not sleeping on Jace Ruder.....

That's 100% correct. It's my argument on "what are these media companies getting for their investment?" These programs and sports teams have been living off and depending on this money for a long time. And that money is not there anymore. Bally's and the Rangers, is a good example of what's about to happen to college football. Thank GOODNESS the Rangers are now winning and relevant and selling out that stadium. They are playing themselves into relevance and sustaining revenue based on their own performance. Tickets, parking, concessions and apparel may not be enough on it's own...but I would bet it's more than double what it was last year when the Rangers were horrible. I think we're going to see this in college football in the near future. Teams are going to have to generate their OWN revenue and not be able to depend so heavily on any "big brothers" and conference mates to supplement them. For example, the TV dollars that Oregon's profile brought to the Pac12 aren't going to be there for Oregon St anymore. Oregon St is going to have to sell tickets and be responsible for themselves. Same can be said for all the big conferences. The Pac12 just got into a horrible timing situation and I would bet the other conferences are paying attention. That's why Clemson and Florida St are sniffing around elsewhere. Then...the Wake Forests of the world, etc will be in the same situation Oregon St is in eventually. And the thoughts that eventually big time College Football will be 50 teams or so will come true. I say all that to say if some of these programs are smart (and I put our program in this too), the future is going to be regional. These programs are going to have to think with their heads and not their pride and make smart financial decisions. And we may eventually be thinking how lucky we are to be in Texas with so many programs close.