Comments on: Big 12 football: Louisville, we hardly knew thee

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:48:22 +0000

The Big 12 could benefit from adding BYU and Louisville. I’m sure there is still a way to get LV out of the ACC. That way, WVU and LV have a rivalry and TCU and BYU have a rivalry. BSU might be a good pick up if they can keep their coach and if they get rid of the blue turf.

BYU brings more eyeballs than Baylor, ISU, Tech, TCU, Kansas, KSU and possibly even OSU and WVU.

By: HaroldS

HaroldS — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 01:19:14 +0000

The two best, available expansion choices are these:

(1) BYU
(2) SAN DIEGO STATE

This gives you two, large fanbases, in the west (eyeballs for TV). BYU has a large, national fanbase, mostly in the west (UT, CA, ID, WA, OR, AZ, NV), and adding San Diego gives the Big12 regular games in the Southern California market, which benefits recruiting—Boise can’t offer that. San Diego State has much more upside than Boise State. SDSU plays in the Chargers NFL stadium, and has a great basketball team. You also get the large San Diego metro population (who isn’t all necessarily UCLA or USC fans). There is a reason that San Diego has an NFL team, and MLB team, and Boise doesn’t

Both of these schools, BYU and SDSU, could join as football only if necessary, as BYU is in the West Coast Conference, and SDSU is in the Big West conference. It also gives the Big-12 the chance for games in the Mountain and Pacific time zones (the TV partners like this).

The Big12 wins with getting a conference championship, and more dollars. The Pac-12 learned that without a conference championship, you will be on the outside looking in more often than not for the national championship game, especially if your team has 1 loss. (see Oregon).

The choice for expansion is clear: BYU and SDSU. It’s almost too bad that the Big12 added West Virginia, who is now an outlier (even though a great athletic program).

By: Big D

Big D — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:24:34 +0000

Spread the fire

http://www.pittscriptblog.com/2012-articles/may/why-pitt-should-pull-a-qtcuq-and-join-the-big-xii.html

By: Spencer

Spencer — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 05:28:36 +0000

It’s amazing to me how uninformed some people are. This whole idea of BYU being difficult to work with has been misstated and misrepresented by the media. BYU made some demands that could certainly be construed as exorbitant to the Big East but name me any program with BYUs fan base, revenue potential and tradition that WOULDN’T make those demands on the Big Least. To believe that BYU holds themselves as bigger or better than Texas and would make equal demands is preposterous. BYU wouldn’t commit to the Big 12 originally because the Big 12 was falling apart when BYU was initially approached and BYU was enjoying the exposure and branding that independence and ESPN was providing. I think you would find BYU much more inclined to concede the necessary things to be a member of the Big 12 now. And some of you propose that Louisville would provide something greater than BYU. This idea makes no sense either. BYU’s fan base is much larger than Louisville’s and the SLC market BYU resides in is much larger than Louisville also (look it up). Why do you think the Big 12 approached BYU before Louisville or TCU in the original expansion process? BYU is frankly the only viable and realistic option for the Big 12 right now unless Florida St jumps ship. And to those thinking Pitt could get out of their deal with the ACC without penalty please do your homework and ask TCU if they were able to get out of their big east deal before joining the Big 12 (they didn’t…they had to pay the Big East exit fee, just as Pitt would have to pay the ACC exit fee). Boise I think is a tougher sell but again, the Big 12 is running out of options and in the case of expansion you are either adding teams with value or becoming more vulnerable by sitting on your hands…there’s no third direction.

By: Chad

Chad — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 23:34:23 +0000

The perception of BYU being a mega-pain is overblown. Yes it has a no Sunday play issue, which can complicate some sports but not football. For decades it has found reasonable work-arounds for this.

It also was outspoken in the way The Mtn promised rights to rebroadcast games and then reneged on it once the deal was signed. To BYU, they could live with the paltry $1M yearly TV revenue because the church owned school is more interested in exposure than money. However, The Mtn only had 5M viewer and BYU only ended up on true national TV two times in five years. Anyone in the Big 12 wouldn’t have been happy with that either. Since going independent, they’ve been on ESPN 11 times each year and 1 time on BYUtv, and had same day rebroadcast rights from ESPN, which they’ve used to replay to the 55M BYUtv viewers world-wide.

The real mega-pain reputation came from teams like SDSU that were either bigoted toward the Mormon faith or were so tired of BYU dominating year after year in football, basketball and other olympic sports. If BYU were in the Big 12, none of these would be issues but would be an asset to the conference.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:13:26 +0000

BYU is perceived as a mega-pain in the buttocks to deal with. You think it’s tough dealing with the ‘horns? It was a no-brainer for the Pac-12 to add Utah and BYU, not CU, if they wanted a better football and basketball brand, a major rivalry addition to the must-see-tv lineup, and a national (CJCLDS) viewing audience. But the Pac-12 has said thanks-no thanks for years and years because of BYU’s demands. My impression is they think they carry as much, if not more, cache in college athletics than does Texas. How well do you think it would go over with DeLoss and gang if BYU came to the BigXII with a set of demands?

Personally, I think the addition of Louisville to the ACC is insurance against FSU and a team TBD leaving so they can at least remain at 12 teams in football. Clemson was a flat “no” for interest in the BigXII. But FSU was most definitely ready to give the ACC the heave ho if you listened to the drums.

What transpires over the next year no doubt will be very interesting.

By: Dave in Saudi

Dave in Saudi — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:22:06 +0000

OU and UT to the Pac 12? They already tried last year, and the PAC-12 wanted no part of them! Larry Scott said, “No thanks,” to what would have been the 2nd Grapes of Wrath Okie migration.

By: R

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 04:21:23 +0000

On media footprint, Big 10 has implicitly stated its admittance of Rutgers is in large part to attempt to gain access to the New York City media and cable interests. (Rutgers is 40 miles from Times Square.) Maryland, for the D.C. market. What do you get by adding BYU or Boise State? In the case of BYU, like many SEC locations, you have a large attendance. But maybe the business of this is no longer the “gate”, but the electronic attendance.

By: JohnBoy

JohnBoy — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 03:25:10 +0000

Just a quibble, but the expression is “…we hardly knew ye,” not “…we hardly knew thee.”

By: Kenny

Kenny — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 03:01:48 +0000

The Big 12 should add Arkansas State, Colorado State, New Mexico, and BYU. We need a bigger footprint and that would do it. It really doesn’t matter though because I believe when the GOR expires in 13 years OU will end up in the Pac or SEC anyway.