Texas A&M to join SEC

Don't know whether many of you would be following the possibility of conference expansion in college football, but it appears that the Aggies will be joining the SEC next year.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/6939017/texas-aggies-accepted-sec-legal-threat-delays-move

This could have big consequences on the future of the Big 12, as they have only 9 teams committed beyond this year. The Pac-12 are rumoured to be trying to woo Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, while Texas remains the biggest player, but would need a lot of negotiation due to their deal with ESPN.

Any thoughts on where college football goes now?

Two super conferences in the SEC and PAC-12. Saw this on the NFLuk forums a few weeks back.

I've been following it and i'm not sure i'm a fan of the move. Especially if there talking about Texas and Oklahoma going separate ways if the full scale split goes ahead. It's basically costing college football a bunch of rivalries.

Presumably the SEC will have to chase another member now or else it will have inbalenced sub-conferences.

Wonder also what it means for the "BCS Busters" like Boise Stats who potentially will get left out as they don't have the fan bases.

I think the Big 12 is doomed. The Pac 10 (last year) tried to bring in Texas, the Oklahomas, and Texas Tech but Texas decided to stay in the Big 12. Now it looks like it's going the other way with schools approaching leagues. I think now that the 1st domino has fallen, it's just a matter of time. It looks like the Oklahoma schools are making rumblings about leaving and I think Texas is seeing what they do. There is talk that Texas might go independent, but I have no idea how practical that would be for them.

Don't be surprised if there is an announcement about the new Pac-16 in the next few weeks.

Mangler as a US poster hopefully you can answer a question for me. What is the nature of ESPN's deal with Texas? I know they have the Longhorn network but does it mean that they can't join another conference unless they scrap the deal, as I believe the Pac-12 and SEC both have their own tv deals.

I'm not sure. It's very complicated. The Pac-12 has partnerships with ESPN and Fox, and it's just established a Pac-12 national network and six regional networks in partnership with four cable providers. They'll combine to carry all Pac-12 sports that aren't going to be shown on ESPN and Fox (it was something like 800 events on the regional networks and 300 of those on the national).

Texas has the Longhorn network in partnership with ESPN. I'm sure ESPN is heavily involved in the reshaping of the college football landscape. If it makes marketing sense for them to restructure any of these deals to get Texas into a super conference, it'll get done. The way I see it, if Texas wants into a future Pac-16, the Longhorn Network will become part of the regional network that ties into the national Pac-12 (future Pac-16) network.

But I'm far from an expert on the situation.

What's the point in them all moving conferences is it just to get more money?

Money plays a big part of it. I know Texas A&M was upset at all the $$ falling into Texas' lap and the perceived advantage in recruiting that the Longhorn Network would bring them. Nebraska left last year because of revenue sharing concerns and the thought that other schools might leave (and Colorado did jump ship to the Pac-10). And once one team jumps, that causes concern among the other schools as they eye each other nervously. No one wants to be left behind in a rump conference if schools start bailing and so they each start trying to plan for their individual future, making backdoor deals. Think of it as the Titanic - you want to make sure you get into one of the few lifeboats and for those who don't, well 'tough luck, suckers!'.

Looks like Baylor is making noise about a lawsuit. The remaining Big 12 schools originally said they wouldn't litigate, but now Baylor has withdrawn its consent. The SEC doesn't want to get embroiled in any lawsuits, so things will be on hold.

Baylor was causing issues when it looked like they weren't going to be invited by the Pac-10 along with the other schools last year and now they're making waves to try and keep the Big 12 together so they're not left drifting.

If the Big 12 survives they either need to add more schools or change the name.

The Mangler US_UK wrote:I'm not sure. It's very complicated. The Pac-12 has partnerships with ESPN and Fox, and it's just established a Pac-12 national network and six regional networks in partnership with four cable providers. They'll combine to carry all Pac-12 sports that aren't going to be shown on ESPN and Fox (it was something like 800 events on the regional networks and 300 of those on the national).

Texas has the Longhorn network in partnership with ESPN. I'm sure ESPN is heavily involved in the reshaping of the college football landscape. If it makes marketing sense for them to restructure any of these deals to get Texas into a super conference, it'll get done. The way I see it, if Texas wants into a future Pac-16, the Longhorn Network will become part of the regional network that ties into the national Pac-12 (future Pac-16) network.

But I'm far from an expert on the situation.

Makes a bit more sense now thanks Mangler. I did read something about the regional networks but couldn't quite get my head around it, but with a country the size of the US it probably makes a lot of sense

Having read this thread yesterday i googled College Football to try to understand it better. Blimey, its a right mess!! Big 8, Big 10, Pac 10, Pac 16 etc..etc.. Then theres the Bowls

I wonder if the NFL might get more involved esp as substantial money is filtering down into College Football.

Haha I agree it is a big mess! I could try and explain but I would probably be here all day. Basically the big conferences are the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Big East, these conferences have automatic entry into the BCS Bowls, which are the best bowl games.

The whole bowl system is kind of ridiculous as the top 4 teams at the end of the year will probably not have played each other, but the 5 BCS bowls are

Fiesta Bowl
Rose Bowl
Sugar Bowl
Orange Bowl
National Championship

The other bowls are just random, and they just want the best possible teams playing, but those 5 are the games that everyone wants to be in at the end of the year.

I don't think the NFL has the power to get involved to be honest, the NCAA tend not to listen to anyone other than themselves

bambamwillis wrote:Haha I agree it is a big mess! I could try and explain but I would probably be here all day.

lol, i imagine its like trying to explain the finer points of cricket

so does the winner of, say, the Big 10 play the winner of SEC in one of the Bowls?!?

you would of thought that the NCAA would mirror the NFL, with regional conferences (to maintain/promote rivalries) that feed into the BCS

listening to Tom Maclin on H&J (talksport) he says that lots of colleges now pay huge sums to intice the best players to their college

The confusion only gets worse when your consider that the Big 12 has 10 teams (soon to be 9) and the Big 10 has 12 teams... ridiculous logic there (I know its all about the historic names!)

and yes to TM Moots point... the Bowls are generally based on a pairing between specific conference (e.g. 1st in Big 10 vs 1st in Sec or in smaller bowls 4th in WAC vs 5th in PAC-12)

I would try and explain i a little more detail, but I've got to go to work now!

TM Moot wrote:

so does the winner of, say, the Big 10 play the winner of SEC in one of the Bowls?!?

As far as I understand it, some of the bowls are tied to specific conferences, I will try and give a quick run through

Sugar Bowl - SEC champion vs BCS at large (SEC champion has gone to national championship last 5 years so they chose the next best SEC side team)

Rose Bowl - Pac-12 champion vs Big Ten Champion (They try to maintain this, but for example, last year the Pac-10 champion the Oregon Ducks went to the national championship so they chose the next highest ranked team, TCU, to play against the Big Ten champion Wisconsin)

Fiesta Bowl - Big 12 champion vs BCS at large

Orange Bowl - ACC champion vs BCS at large (forgot the ACC when I mentioned the big conferences!)

The whole at large thing is based on the weekly rankings

TM Moot wrote:you would of thought that the NCAA would mirror the NFL, with regional conferences (to maintain/promote rivalries) that feed into the BCS

The conferences are fairly regional, Pac-12 is the Pacific 12 so is all west coast teams like USC, Oregon, Arizona, Washington etc while the SEC is short for South Eastern Conference so teams like Alabama, Florida, LSU etc

TM Moot wrote:listening to Tom Maclin on H&J (talksport) he says that lots of colleges now pay huge sums to intice the best players to their college

That is probably true but it is illegal! College sports are meant to be strictly amateur and there have been huge scandals (Cam Newton) with players rumoured to have been paid for their services

i feel educated..!!

cheers chaps

Now you have just got to pick a team and start watching!

Moot

Remember that College is school, therefore the students are (supposedly) there for their education which is why a player can't get into college if his grades aren't up to scratch (though I'm sure this is manilulated).
This is also why students can't get paid to play.
The TV and advertising revenues are enormous as well as 100,000 capacity stadiums selling out at $70 a ticket, there has always been a question where the funds go.
Famously Reggie Bush had his Heisman trophy taken away after it was discovered that University of Southern California gave Bushes family a house, transport and paid him around £100k to play.
USC were unlucky as I'm sure it goes on everywhere.
Aren't Ohio State banned from Bowl games for 2 years for a similar scandal ?

Watched a great south park episode last night that compared college sports to slave labour. Hilarious!

For years, the colleges just had the Bowl system at the end of the year to pit attractive match ups and the winner of the Pac-10 and the Big-10 would play in the Rose Bowl each year. But the people always wanted to know who was best and so polls started coming out, such as the coaches poll and the AP poll which became the premier ones, to rank teams and that was how the champion was determined each year. Normally the AP and coaches polls would pick the same team as champion but occasionally there would end up being co-champions and a lot of people bitched that the top teams should play. And so the Bowl Championship Series was born in all its misguided glory (well that was the final form it took after it finally convinced the Big-10 and Pac-10 to play along).

The BCS uses polls and computer rankings to determine the top teams who then square off in the major membership Bowls and the number 1 and 2 teams play in a championship game. But a lot of people don't like the BCS because good mid-major teams who aren't in BCS conferences have never been invited to the championship game (Boise State and TCU for example) and want a playoff system. But the BCS is making money hand over fist, so it doesn't want things to change. However, if super conferences come about, we may very well see a true playoff system. I think the current BCS agreement ends soon.

Side note, a couple years ago, the AP Poll asked to be removed from the formula used by the BCS to rank teams.