FSU to B12?

[macphisto]

Clemson BOT issued statement through it's chair David Wilkins. It reads like a the informative Paul Simon song "30 ways to leave your conference". Like someone said to me "if you were to go on TV and say, "I love my wife, but if someone cute came along and made me an offer I couldn't refuse...." you might want to sleep with one eye open.

“If we were contacted by a conference, we would obviously listen to what they had to say,†Wilkins said. “And then we would make a reasonable decision. We aren’t seeking that, and we aren’t making any overtures about that. I think we have a responsibility to consider any viable component that would come our way. But we haven’t been contacted by anybody. We just want Clemson athletics to be the best they can be. This board is committed to Clemson athletics.â€

http://www.tigernet....ory.do?id=10631

I wonder where ESPN will end up in all of this. They do have part of the Big XII under contract, but not all of the games - I think they have tier 1. They have all the ACC. If the ACC dissolves and cannot honor its contract because the Big XII picks off some teams, would they sue them while also still airing their games? Could be a genius ploy by ESPN to increase their payouts and then sue to get some money back.

What ESPN has come to realize is that through this process they can jettison some under performing products(Big East and ACC lower tier teams) and move the premium product into vehicles where they can offer them nice increases in annual payouts while reducing their overall payout and freezing out potential competitors. I'm not saying that they are excellently performing this Machiavellian feat, but they are definitely reading the tea leaves each day and strategizing the next set of moves. I mean these guys have Billions of dollars riding on this and they know they better not screw it up.ESPN made a very public statement the other day they talked about a composition clause that is standard in their contracts. In other words the minute the BE or ACC loses a team, their contract is subject to renegotiation. Boom goes the dynamite. Two scenarios, the Big East loses a ton of it's negotiating leverage because they lose teams to the ACC, or the ACC collapses when the BE picks over the scraps by offering a windfall in their new TV deal. Either way, ESPN saves money and captures the premium content market.

I think the basketball schools are a big drag on the structure of the BE. At the same time, there is some NYC influence with the BE that is helpful.

I think the ACC schools all bail on the conference if FSU, Clemson, and some others leave. My gut says the most likely scenario is that the B1G stays put. They've added one team in the last 20 years and before that had nine core members with Michigan State added in the Fifties to bring them back to ten after Chicago left. They just don't tend to like to rock the boat and I'm not sure if they'd move for anyone other than Notre Dame.

ND can do something, but they are far enough in the future to not really influence anything for now. Pitt going with them or GT or whoever would not be until 2016. A conference member would be dumb to announce too far in advance because they'd probably get booted from their current conference.

I think we see Clemson and FSU go BXII then VT and NC State go SEC. Why not UNC? They're snobby academically. That leaves the ACC at ten.

So, at that point do you expand to save the conference? Do some teams look at the BE? Or do BE teams and ACC teams look at the prospect of bailing their conferences and forming a new venture? A 16 team continental conference could be interesting.

My thought for a while has been the idea of a 16 team football conference with four divisions and a six team playoff (if you can get NCAA approval) to determine conference winner. I think that could be a big revenue generator, though it would cause other conferences to want to go to 16. My ideal system would have the conference playoffs feed into a final playoff system. Imagine if you have six conferences that generate a winner through a playoff and then those six teams playoff for the title?

[bulls phanatic]

Article in USA today,

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/story/2012-05-28/florida-state-big-12-meetings/55249830/1?csp=34sports

Though it remains a hot topic in the billion-dollar business of college athletics, the rumored courtship between Florida State University and the Big 12 Conference has - at least publicly - been reduced to a junior-high romance.

While neither side has formally marked the "yes" or "no" box, it appears this relationship is still in the "maybe" stage.

"We have not heard a thing and we have not approached them and they have not approached us," said Andy Haggard, the chair of FSU's Board of Trustees. "If anybody approaches us, we are certainly going to listen to them. We have an obligation to Florida State to listen. You can't close the door."

The door to a possible relationship may begin to open this week when the Big 12 conducts its annual meetings in Kansas City, Mo.

Though it appears unlikely Big 12 representatives will offer any public acknowledgement of expansion talks, the meetings will allow the league to decide whether it wants to explore another round of additions just one year after accepting TCU and West Virginia as new members.

Those additions helped offset the defections of Texas A&M and Missouri, which will compete as members of the Southeastern Conference beginning this fall. The Big 12 also saw former member schools Nebraska (Big 10) and Colorado (PAC 12) compete in their new conferences this past year.

The meetings may also help shed some light on the league's revised television contract.

Sports Business Journal reported two months ago the Big 12 had finalized a deal that would pay each of its member schools $20 million annually, but no deal has been announced. That has fueled rumors that the league may be waiting to see if expansion may add even more revenue to the contract.

The Big 12's television contract - and its payouts to member schools - is certainly a topic FSU stakeholders will find interesting.

The FSU athletics department's board of directors approved earlier this month a 2012-13 budget that contains a $2.4-million shortfall.

Apparently, Florida State's money woes run even deeper than that. The Democrat has learned that the department is unlikely to balance its 2011-12 budget, which closes June 30.

FSU's budget issues will get a boost from the Atlantic Coast Conference's new television deal with ESPN/ABC that will pay each school an average of $17.1 million annually - a significant jump from the $12.9 million league teams received this past year.

But the ACC payouts will not jump to that $17.1 million payout in the first year of the contract and will instead escalate annually beginning with a $1.2 million increase this year.

The Big 12's current contract pays out about $15 million annually. But according to the terms of their entry to the conference, new members West Virginia and TCU only receive 50 percent of what other league schools are paid this year. It will take several years of escalating payments until the two schools earn a full share.

That revenue sharing - as well as a $20-million buyout from the ACC - would be a key focus of negotiations should FSU consider a move to the Big 12.

In spite of the uncertainty of how FSU would fare financially with a conference move, several key decision-makers - including Haggard and head football coach Jimbo Fisher - are open to Big 12 talks because of their concerns with the ACC's position as a major player in the BCS.

The BCS announced in April it would consider voting in a playoff system when its members meet June 20. Both Haggard and Fisher, multiple sources have said, are afraid that the ACC could be left out of a proposed four-team playoff. Their fear is based in part on the speculation that the conference champions from the Big Ten, Big 12, PAC 12 and SEC would have favorable placement in three of the four playoff spots.

Haggard, however, repeated to the Democrat that he has had no discussions with the Big 12 and would not comment specifically on any rumors linking FSU to the Big 12.

"There are so many rumors and so many things out there," Haggard said. "There's nothing to talk about really."

[Joe]

You mean the ACC hasn't blown up yet?

[GaUSFBull]

You mean the ACC hasn't blown up yet?

Oh don't worry ... it's still a done deal. FSU and the Big 12 just don't know it yet.

[Who'sYourData?]

LOL. I'm amazed that people actually believe the stuff said by the schools and the conference. A&M denied it up until the day they announced they were leaving the Big12. Then they pretended they had not talked to the SEC at all.

They have to deny, or they open themselves up to lawsuits and reduce their leverage. It's the oldest game in town. Been happening thousands of years.

[GaUSFBull]

Please try and find a post where I said I believe the schools and conference spokespeople ...

All I'm saying, and have said, is that the imminent move by FSU and/or the Big 12 has been highly overstated and exaggerated. I haven't said any more than that.

[Reliable Source]

You mean the ACC hasn't blown up yet?

Oh don't worry ... it's still a done deal. FSU and the Big 12 just don't know it yet.

Yeah, I mean if USA Today doesn't know it yet, it couldn't possibly be happening. Too funny. Even Chadd Scott apologist extraordinaire for the ACC has reversed his opinion. That bet still offered, Georgia, put your money where your mouth is. Edited May 29, 2012 by Bullwinkle

[Joe]

LOL. I'm amazed that people actually believe the stuff said by the schools and the conference. A&M denied it up until the day they announced they were leaving the Big12. Then they pretended they had not talked to the SEC at all.

They have to deny, or they open themselves up to lawsuits and reduce their leverage. It's the oldest game in town. Been happening thousands of years.

No. No. Texas A&M took the same stance FSU did.

[GaUSFBull]

You mean the ACC hasn't blown up yet?

Oh don't worry ... it's still a done deal. FSU and the Big 12 just don't know it yet.

Yeah, I mean if USA Today doesn't know it yet, it couldn't possibly be happening. Too funny. Even Chadd Scott apologist extraordinaire for the ACC has reversed his opinion. That bet still offered, Georgia, put your money where your mouth is.

Chadd Scott, apologist for the ACC??? He used to be a producer for one of the sports talk radio stations here in Atlanta until he got fired about a year ago - but I believe he's an Auburn grad. I'll have to check that out.

You must have trouble reading the English language. I've declined the bet about 5 times now. Move on please.

[Reliable Source]

You mean the ACC hasn't blown up yet?

Oh don't worry ... it's still a done deal. FSU and the Big 12 just don't know it yet.

Yeah, I mean if USA Today doesn't know it yet, it couldn't possibly be happening. Too funny. Even Chadd Scott apologist extraordinaire for the ACC has reversed his opinion. That bet still offered, Georgia, put your money where your mouth is.

Chadd Scott, apologist for the ACC??? He used to be a producer for one of the sports talk radio stations here in Atlanta until he got fired about a year ago - but I believe he's an Auburn grad. I'll have to check that out.

You must have trouble reading the English language. I've declined the bet about 5 times now. Move on please.

Well Chadd, like you, said this story was just some made up twitter fantasy and none of the Main Stream sports media was reporting it. Now that over 1000 newspaper articles have been written, are you still clinging to the fact that this is a made up story? I mean, why can't you admit that you were just wrong? Oh and the bet was just for a couple of little football tickets, surely you have enough conviction in your statements to wager a small sum like that. Edited May 29, 2012 by Bullwinkle