“Big Changes”
by Rick Jones

NOVEMBER ISSUE

It was a fascinating summer watching the all the speculation and ultimately the changes in the collegiate conference landscape. At one time, it seemed that most every school was interested in moving into another conference or at least interested in what this migration was going to mean to them. The raid on the Big XII by both the Big Ten and the Pac 10 largely fueled the media frenzy. It seemed that the Big XII would cease to exist with multiple schools moving to other conferences.

Ultimately, Armageddon was avoided as only a hand-full of schools moved to new conferences – Colorado and Utah to the Pac 10 and Nebraska to the Big Ten giving both of these conferences the magical number of 12 schools needed for a football playoff game.

Additionally, the Mountain West added Boise State, Nevada and Fresno State (with that conference’s BYU considering going independent as we write this) creating a football playoff opportunity for that conference.

The Big XII survived with 10 remaining schools eliminating their football playoff game, but creating a true football champion through a round robin regular season schedule. It appears that Texas was the big winner with a disproportion of the buy-outs fees from Nebraska and Colorado going to Texas and the blessing from the Conference to start a Texas-only cable network.

The WAC seems to be the most vulnerable conference by losing Fresno and Nevada. They now only have 7 remaining schools and could lose their charter.
Two interesting questions arise.

Firstly, what drove the movement and secondly, is it over?
Football was the primary driver for the conferences’ realignments. The Big Ten, Pac 10 and Mountain West additions provided an opportunity for each conference to hold a football playoff game. Jim Delaney, Commissioner of the Big Ten, now is shopping his playoff game to the highest bidding television network. Larry Scott of the Pac 10 and Craig Thompson of the Mountain West will be doing the same thing soon.

Additionally, the desire to either create or broaden the geographic reach of a Conference owned and operated television network drove the speculation of multiple schools migrations. The Big Ten Network has become a huge success for that conference and a significant money maker for the Big Ten and its member institutions. There was much speculation of the desire to increase that network’s footprint eastward to the key northeastern states through adding several Big East schools including Pittsburg, Rutgers and Syracuse, and southward through the addition of Missouri (adding key cities of St. Louis and Kansas City).

Neither the Big XII nor the Pac 10 currently have conference networks and both desire to create and monetize their own networks. Larry Scott’s attempts to add 6 additional Big XII schools could have created a significant owned and operated conference network west of the Mississippi. Additionally there was speculation that Fox Network would have provided a 5 PM EST time slot for a weekly Pac 10 (or dare I say Pac 16) football game of the week. Fox is the only broadcast network that could own this time slot due to their lack of affiliate local news programming restrictions.
But, at the end of the day, none of this happened.
Why did this not happen?

Texas ultimately held the Big XII together winning the concessions we have earlier described. And, much to everyone’s surprise, the Big Ten ultimately only took Nebraska.

Some speculation involves state and federal government concerns. Powerful Iowa politicians weighed into the fray, trying to protect Iowa State from being left at the altar. And many congressmen and senators began renewed discussions about eliminating the tax exempt status for collegiate athletic departments and making noise about anti-trust issues. The current Democratic administration is seeking new tax funds from multiple places and college sports may be one of those places. Some have suggested a more conservative administration may make conference consolidation easier to swallow.

So, is it over? I personally don’t think so.

I believe the Big XII will miss the funding and notoriety that comes from their football playoff game and will seek to add two new schools soon - maybe as early as their next TV contract. Additionally, the Big Ten will want to look east for the lucrative television markets there. The Big Ten is made up currently of only schools that belong to the prestigious AAU academic organization and their presidents seem intent to protect the academic integrity of their conference by insisting that only other AAU schools be considered for entry to the conference. Pittsburg, Rutgers, Syracuse, Iowa State and Missouri all are AAU member schools.

Should the Big Ten look eastward for new schools, then the future of the Big East may be at risk? And, should any major conference (like the Big Ten or Big XII) add new football playing schools above the current 12, this could lead to pressures on the both the ACC and SEC to add new schools, too.

The fun may be just starting!

In the interest of full disclosure, FishBait worked with one school through the process and feel we have great insights to help additional schools (and even conferences) review and analyze their options going forward. Let us know if we can help you in any way.