Yeah, but three gentlemen shook hands and looked each other in the eye and whatnot…… you know, the “alliance.”
Warren played the ACC and P12 for complete fools. Now you have essentially the AFC and NFC.
Still though, who would have thought this time last year that the Big 12 might be the third conference to survive?
ND is not joining the ACC. Too much money and now too many historical rivals for them in the Big 10.
The ACC is on borrowed time. The GOR just lets them kick the can down the road. The only thing that can save them now is raiding the Big 12 for about 6 teams, renegotiate their TV contract, and extend the GOR to about 2060… if they can convince everyone to get onboard with extending it. But, you know UNC, UVA, and GT know the Big 10 covets them. VT, Clemson, FSU and NC State would join the SEC today.
Oregon and Washington are the only thing that could save the P12, but nobody in the B12 will ever believe they are committed to staying in the P12 and will jump at the B10 the first chance they get.
So the Big 12, once thought for dead, is in position to scoop up the remnants of the P12 and ACC and become a potentially 20+ team super conference where legitimately every team has an equal chance to rise to the top. No “most favored nation” status for the likes of Texas or Ohio State.
Conservatively forecasting, the current Big 12 ( I do not include OU/UT, and do include the new 4) could pick up any combination (or all) from a pool of…
P12 - Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, Washington State, Oregon State and California.
ACC - Pitt, Louisville, Syracuse, BC, Wake Forest and Duke.
Notes: If the Big 10 doesn’t want Kansas, I can’t see them coveting Duke. And, Cal has issues joining the Big 12 because the state of California has laws in place that prevent public universities from using state funding to travel to states California deems as discriminatory towards gay people. (Oklahoma has specifically been pointed out.)
This projection was put out PRIOR to the UCLA/USC announcement, but AFTER the Texas/Oklahoma announcement.
Our team estimated the rise in average Power 5 conference payouts over the next 8 years. You can see from the chart above that each conference’s average payout is expected […]
nvgt.com
Adding a boatload of power 5 schools should positively affect that number, plus there will be more money available because there will be three leagues instead of five.
Not to mention there are more bidders this go round than 10 years ago. Apple TV just signed a $2.5 Billion deal with Major League Soccer, so broadcasters are in the market for live sports content and are willing to pay for it.
Potential suitors include:
CBS/Paramount+
NBC/Peacock
ABC/ESPN/2/U/+
Fox/FS1/FS2/FX
Apple TV
Amazon Prime
The future of the Big 12 looks a lot brighter potentially, right now, than it did a year ago. Bringing in UCF, Houston, Cincinnati and BYU last year stabilized the league to the point where it is in a position of strength to poach others when the time comes.