How a Pac-12/Big 12 conference merger would play football

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There’s at least one viable scenario in which both the Big 12 and Pac-12 could leverage the latter’s current instability, slmandel writes. They could merge. Here's what it could look like:

As you can see, travel shouldn’t be nearly as difficult for most of these schools as it will be for USC and UCLA in the Big Ten — especially in the non-revenue schools — as they’ll still be able to play most games within one time zone of their own. East-West crossovers will be minimal.Nine conference games in total, eight of which are prescheduled.

Those games follow a 5 + 1 + 1 + 1 model: Five games within your pod, and one each against the others.The four teams that finish first in each pod will have their ninth game become a conference championship semifinal on Thanksgiving weekend.The other 20 teams get paired off in cross-pod matchups based on similar records — for example, the second-place Pacific team plays the second-place Mountain team for their regular-season finales.

It’s anyone’s guess what kind of dollar figures this configuration would fetch, but the laws of leverage suggest it would be higher per school than if the current leagues negotiate separately. ESPN would have one chance, not two, to retain rights to these 24 programs, which between them produced four of the top-12 teams in last season’s final AP poll (No. 4 Cincinnati, No. 5

 

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slmandel Did Utah not qualify for Big 12 when they won the PAC 12?

slmandel

slmandel lol. You were quick to write the obit for the Big12 last year, but now magically want to save the Pac12 using the Big12 as savior? Can you say two-faced? We don’t want the Pac12, only poach the ones we want. GoBig12 Big12

slmandel Not gonna happen. PAC about to crumble.

slmandel Replace SDSU with Boise, SMU with Memphis, change Central/East to North/South and this is perfect

slmandel Why would B12 want P12s trash?

slmandel Ridiculous. You introduce so much overlap of saturated media markets. You basically divide the same size pie into more slices. Outdated thinking.

slmandel Stewart’s a fool lol

slmandel How is Oregon State in, and Washington State isn’t, in this scenario? It’s also worth noting that a lot of the college sports viewership in the Seattle market is Cougar fans.

slmandel Gee, it wasn't long ago Tha Athletic and slmandel were talking about how the Big brought no value to the table and we, as a conference, were dead.

slmandel Hard pass. Athletic can suck it from all b12 fans.

slmandel SDSU? Wazzu? SMU? Oregon St.? Do you guys even look at TV ratings?

slmandel For those wanting to know how to get past paywall without paying, DM

slmandel Or... the Big 12 eats and leaves the bones for the MWC

slmandel Big Pac 24

slmandel I love that conference

slmandel The fact they have SMU included invalidates this scenerio

slmandel No way would the hateful 8 let stanford and/or cal in our conference. No way under the sun

slmandel CraigSmoak DavidSmoak Boise state to the Mountain Pod and Memphis to the Eastern pod. This way you can move Iowa state to the Central pod. How does that sound? Just pretty nervous/scared as a Boise fan to be left out, thats all.

slmandel No. You laughed at the Big 1e last year. Now you're trying to save some form of the Pac configuration? Nope

slmandel TJAltimore As this is starting to brew gain, tell me what you think about this idea. What if you add Boise and Memphis, instead of SDSU and SMU. This way you add Boise to the Mountain Pod and Memphis to the Eastern pod. How would you feel about this? A Boise snub would scare me.

slmandel Boise and Memphis would fit the best. This way you add Boise to the Mountain Pod and Memphis to the Eastern pod. This would be the best situation, I believe.

slmandel Lol no

slmandel LOL. San Diego is in the 'mountains'? I mean you can see them from the beach but according tot he USGS the city sits at 62 feet above sea level. How about you take your 'save the PAC' article and shove it up the same hole last years 'LOL Big12' article came from.

slmandel BIG 12 to the PAC 10…..

slmandel What was Stewie writing just a year ago? How invaluable Big 12 schools were.

slmandel get SMU the fuck out of my conference

slmandel I think The Athletic is more unstable than the Big 12. You are becoming another MSNBC!

slmandel Big12 will not add Washington st, Oregon st. Cal & Stanford might need to learn a little humility. Plus I’m not sure the Big12 needs to Arizona or utah schools.

slmandel The west coast can rot.

slmandel SMU and San Diego State…nahhhhhhh lol

slmandel “Let’s just throw SMU and Wash St. in there. No one will notice.”

slmandel This isn't the summer of 2021 The Big 12 isn't unstable. The Big 12 has all of the leverage here. STOP pretending otherwise!!!

slmandel P2 expect future $100 million annual per team media rights. To become relevant 3 and add/merge in “additive and not dilutive” way is the issue. Apple/Amazon streaming pathway could help

slmandel Pods based on proximity have a big flaw, no fan appeal. This is one of the biggest reasons the Southwest Conference failed. Recreating the SWC would suffer from lack of regional or national appeal. Good idea? Perhaps less focus on proximity

slmandel The Texas schools, and Ok State, should be in the same pod. It would keep some of the regional rivalry intact. If the money works, I wouldn’t mind this. Call it the coast to coast conference

JeffPikna slmandel So the Pacific gets to keep all of its Pac 12 rivalries, the Mountain gets some old and some new but at least shares an actual region, the Central is OK and TX schools that are (comparatively) across the street from each other and Iowa State to UCF is an in-pod trip. Hard pass.

slmandel Why do we want anything but your best fb teams.

slmandel Does Stanford add anything?

slmandel Does Colorado add anything?

slmandel With BYU the Big12 doesn’t need Utah. Plus we only need one school from Arizona.

slmandel PAC12 has a lot of dead weight. Oregon st, Washington st, cal… No thanks

slmandel Fuck the B12

slmandel Probably the best conference realignment idea I've seen. But replace SMU with Memphis. The conference needs another in the east. (Very unlikely to get an ACC team).

slmandel There is no way they go to 24 teams, so SMU and SD State are definitely out… Going to 22 Teams is highly doubtful as well, since magic number is 20. So that means Ore St & Wash St left out (Mtn West( or Cal & Stanford to Big 10

slmandel Make it happen!

slmandel You’re living in fantasy land if you think big12 teams would do this

slmandel The “Eastern” Pod

slmandel This doesn't do anything for the Big 12.

slmandel That's a heck of a lot of teams

slmandel I’m okay with this, only I’d like to see Boise State switch with SDSU. Or even Utah

slmandel 4 of the 6 teams in the Pacific pod do not belong

slmandel Washington State seems more “mountain” to me than San Diego State 🤷🏼‍♂️

slmandel gobeavs 🦫😢😭

slmandel

slmandel Basketball conference

slmandel This would be epic college football

slmandel There's...not really a point? The B12 Is actually pretty decent now even after losing OK and Texas. The P12 is weak but geographically they can just steal the best teams in the MW I guess, they don't have much of a choice

slmandel I… would actually love this…

slmandel It’s amazing how many people think that Stanford would get into the B1G w/o Cal.

slmandel Speaking as a Colorado alum and fan: Stanford and Cal can stay the hell in the MWC. They disrespected the Big 12 a few times. Let em die and become irrelevant in a G5 conference.

slmandel That works. It isn’t quite a P2 Conf. but it’s close. Just needs more elite teams.

slmandel Make this happen.

slmandel This would be super cool tbh

Show__lumni slmandel And, what a basketball conference this would be as well!!!

Show__lumni slmandel This is a fantastic conference….if they can get it done!

slmandel So many fantasy scenarios of conferences and divisions these past few years. I am uninterested in them all. None of them will be right. Anyone can throw darts at names or colleges and write an article about it.

slmandel BIG PAC!

CFB_Dugout slmandel No chance in hell they add SDSU, without also adding Boise State. Why eouldyou take the 2nd biggest brand in the Mw and ignore the 1st one? 😂

slmandel Lol No You declared the Big12 finished and the remaining schools dead weight last summer. Watching them gut the corpse of the PAC12 a year later will be fun.

slmandel But would it generate enough revenue? That's a LOT of mouths to feed. The old WAC-16 couldn't make it for that very reason. Just throwing a bunch of teams together isn't enough. TV has to be willing to pony up for those rights.

slmandel Never happen. Cal and Stanford want no part of any football conference with BYU in it...they've made that very clear for the last 40 years or so.

MStevenson11 slmandel Please do this.

slmandel Doubtful, but if this happens it must be called the Big 12 Pac

slmandel Better would be 20 schools. West of Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Cal, Colorado, Oregon, SDSU, Stanford, Utah & Washington. East of Baylor, Central Florida, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech & one Eastern Time Zone school.

slmandel Makes too much sense for it to ever happen

slmandel This is an awful idea. No reason for the big 12 to add the PACs bottom feeders

slmandel Why carry dead weight?

slmandel Call it the Big Pac Week 7 start inter-pod playoffs 1 vs 4, 2vs 3 etc…

slmandel This would be awesome

slmandel This would give all the negotiation power to the Big12Pac conference, rather than to the networks. The conference would control the entire western inventory (with some eastern representation as well).

slmandel Makes a lot of sense.

slmandel Does this assume that Utah goes to the B1G?

slmandel I like this because we don’t leave people behind

CFB slmandel Do the current rules governing divisions allow for that last week playoff matchup? I know a few conferences were concerned about some of the crazy ideas thrown around the internet at the time. I want to say it's limited to divisions with round-robins and division-less.

slmandel The Eastern Pod is kind of the wonkiest since it's going all the way from Kansas to Florida while the other pods at least make sense as regional pairings.

fightforsd slmandel Make it happen!

slmandel This makes so much sense and would be a really cool league, which means it will probably never happen.

slmandel Your BIg XII SDSU AztecFB considerations and rationale. 🔴⚫️🏈🔒

CFB slmandel Good piece…could work! It all depends on what the TV guys think and are willing to pay!

slmandel I’m in

slmandel Honestly liking this a lot. There are some interesting historic/legacy match ups as well as some new ones. I think this also might “hold-up” as a semi-decent basketball conference… not that anyone else may care 😭

slmandel I like this a lot 👀

CougarStats slmandel I like this a lot, see if you can make it happen 😁

slmandel Sign me up

slmandel If Stanford joins BIG with Notre Dame, move SDSU to Stanford's spot and add Boise St in SDSU's spot. Only other option to get to 20 would be adding 1 of Oregon St Wash St, or Colorado St, or add another Eastern team like Memphis or USF. SMU is a logical add to the Texas grouping

CougarStats slmandel

LaMikeBlack slmandel I actually kind of like this. Makes the most sense logically and geographically. Just need to iron out the $$$ factor. pac12 Big12Conference BIGPAC 👀

CFB slmandel Why the hell would The 4 corner Pac-12 schools give up playing the west coast Pac-12 schools ?

slmandel that central pod will be ttttough (expect for SMU).

CFB slmandel THEY WILL NOT MERGE STU

slmandel No one wants cal and Stanford's academic baggage.

slmandel Boise over SDSU, Memphis over SMU

CFB slmandel Its ridiculous that pac 10 and big 12 don’t see the landscape and merge the top 8 programs from each already.

slmandel None of the schools in the Eastern pod should be there except UCF. Southeastern pod (or Gulf pod) should be UCF, Texas Tech, TCU, SMU, Baylor, Houston. Western pod (or Midwest pod) should be OSU, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, and WVU.

CFB slmandel Who’s going to replace Stanford when they go to the B1G?

CFB slmandel I’d love to see SDSU in the Big 12 Pac conference.

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