Guys, it’s here.
greatest shoe on grass #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/8L8z5rBs79
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) July 5, 2022
Word of the day: Latent.
THE ALLIANCE, PT. II. The first “loose partnership” the Pac-12 agreed to resulted in a quick backstab courtesy of the Big Ten when it poached USC and UCLA. So the Pac-12’s answer is … to join another free agency?
What would a “loose partnership” with ACC look like? It could include a shared media rights deal with ESPN, which currently works with both organizations. Also, it could result in the 10 remaining Pac-12 teams staying together and the winner of that “10-team division” playing in an ACC championship game against the Pac-12 in Las Vegas at the end of the season. Additionally, there could be some attractive regular-season crossover games between the football and men’s basketball entities.
“Geography aside,” Thompson told me Tuesday, “(the ACC) has significantly better TV markets than the Big 12.”
As funny as this is, does it sound great as a college football fan? I mean, if there’s anything at all that’s going to get me interested in the Pac-12 and the ACC in the middle of the Big Ten and the SEC just pretending to be college football, it’s a combined conference title game in Vegas at the end of the year.
Someone is going to be the first team in college football history to win two conferences in one season, and that’s a rule. I love the new college football.
THIS IS MY LAST CHOICE. For any of you hoping that this wave of conference realignment will be the thing that finally pushes Notre Dame into the Big Ten, don’t hold your breath.
You’d be shocked to hear that it sounds like the Irish have no interest in joining a conference basically until college football as we know it ceases to exist.
A source familiar with the school’s thinking told Sports Illustrated that “independence remains the club’s preference and leader.” It will take a long time to dislodge Notre Dame from its treasured identity, but the instability of the entire landscape remains a problem and may further affect the Irish outlook.
Two areas to watch: The fate of both the College Football Playoff and the Atlantic Coast Conference. If either or both collapse, Notre Dame could be forced into the Big Ten. Under its current contract, the playoff ceases to exist in January 2026. There is no guarantee another iteration of it will take its place, regardless of size. “Most of the writing suggests a playoff and that he’s going to get bigger,” the industry source said. “I’m not sure about that assumption.”
The most interesting thing here to me is actually this part of the college football playoff, because somehow I hadn’t even thought about how this whole absurdity would affect the playoff.
I guess if the playoff dies, the winner of the new Big Ten could play the winner of the new SEC for the title every year. That sounds kind of dodgy, but realistically, that would probably give us a playoff spot.
THE BRAND IS STRONG. If you want to know why Ohio State is still attractive to recruits looking for that precious NIL money, even though the Buckeyes aren’t splashing around that collective NIL money like other schools, it’s really quite simple – the brand.
Ohio State’s national brand and social reach absolutely surpasses any other team in the country.
College football programs generating the most interactions on official team social accounts in June 2022 pic.twitter.com/WGjWB5eRZp
— SkullSparks (@SkullSparks) July 5, 2022
With this huge engaged fanbase, a star player with the Buckeyes will always, always command a hefty price in the NIL market.
THE SAVIOR OF UCLA. The Big Ten may have just saved the UCLA athletic department.
The timing is uncertain and the number of teams that would be affected is not known, but the Bruins are headed for Olympic sports Armageddon without the infusion of money that will accompany their departure from the Pac-12 Conference in 2024.
Now its 25 teams and more than 700 athletes can breathe easy knowing their futures are secured, making the cross-country flights and cold winter temperatures in Big Ten country much more bearable.
“If you love Olympic sports, you have to be a fan of this move,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond told The Times on Tuesday. “When your program is in significant debt, it’s hard to just maintain, never mind invest. This not only preserves the programs now – which was not a given – but will also allow us to invest in them. This move allows us to reimagine what UCLA athletics can be with more strategic investment and resources.”
Over the last three fiscal years, UCLA’s athletic department had racked up a $102.8 million deficit, which was only expected to get worse given the school’s declining football attendance and paltry Pac-12 payouts that lagged behind its peers. major conferences. Now, it’s possible the Bruins could get $100 million a year from the Big Ten if the expanded conference is able to snag a planned $1 billion media rights deal, which is set to begin in 2024.
That’s a big reason why I thought Stanford would be interested in following USC and UCLA to the Big Ten — it’s another absolutely massive athletic program that could certainly use an infusion of cash to keep all 36 of its varsity sports .
SONG OF THE DAY. “The Pursuit of Happyness” by Kid Cudi.
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