PAC-10 To Issue Invites - Is this the beginning of Conference Expansion?

[South_Florida_Flip]

Are you kidding, it would help the Big 10 significantly.

They get 5 cents per month per subscriber in New Jersey - but adding Rutgers they could ask for 80 cents per month per subscriber.  They also might be included in a broader "tier" so more cable subscribers.

The Big Ten doesn't care if people WATCH the channel as much as they SUBSCRIBE to it.

Heck, there are people here in Tampa who only have Bright House because many USF games are on the Bright House Sports Network.  Otherwise, these people would switch to Verizon or even satellite.  You can't tell me that Bright House doesn't know the value of having the hometown team on their exclusive cable station.

As for your second point, aTm will not get an SEC invite.  The SEC will only take aTm if they can get UT.   (In fact, the SEC was ready to invite Texas in the 1990s  but the TX Legislature said UT couldn't accept unless aTm was invited as well.)

aTm's AD is only posturing so they can get some scheduling concessions from other Pac 10 schools -- especially for the Olympic sports teams.

No, I am not kidding. Let's say the Big Ten adds the 3 programs most mentioned (Rutgers, Missouri and Nebraska). You're going to have a difficult time convincing me that all 14 programs are going to be seeing $22 million coming their way through the Big Ten network. Delaney's comment a couple of weeks ago still lead me to believe what I have thought from the outset; that the Big Ten is only going after 1 program in order to have a Football Championship game.

[SANJAY]

The Big East though...stayed tuned...we're going to hear something VERY soon.

Coy.  Very coy.

[Bull94]

Are you kidding, it would help the Big 10 significantly.

They get 5 cents per month per subscriber in New Jersey - but adding Rutgers they could ask for 80 cents per month per subscriber.  They also might be included in a broader "tier" so more cable subscribers.

The Big Ten doesn't care if people WATCH the channel as much as they SUBSCRIBE to it.

Heck, there are people here in Tampa who only have Bright House because many USF games are on the Bright House Sports Network.  Otherwise, these people would switch to Verizon or even satellite.  You can't tell me that Bright House doesn't know the value of having the hometown team on their exclusive cable station.

As for your second point, aTm will not get an SEC invite.  The SEC will only take aTm if they can get UT.   (In fact, the SEC was ready to invite Texas in the 1990s  but the TX Legislature said UT couldn't accept unless aTm was invited as well.)

aTm's AD is only posturing so they can get some scheduling concessions from other Pac 10 schools -- especially for the Olympic sports teams.

No, I am not kidding. Let's say the Big Ten adds the 3 programs most mentioned (Rutgers, Missouri and Nebraska). You're going to have a difficult time convincing me that all 14 programs are going to be seeing $22 million coming their way through the Big Ten network. Delaney's comment a couple of weeks ago still lead me to believe what I have thought from the outset; that the Big Ten is only going after 1 program in order to have a Football Championship game.

Jim is right. They are expanding for TV. It has very little to do with a championship game. The SEC championship brought $13.7M to the conference. That's not enough to offset a new add. Rutgers, Mizzou, and Nebraska could bring 5M new subscribers at .80c per month to the conference. That's $48M a year. BTW the big ten network doesn't pay out $22M per. that's their total payout with bowl revenues and additional ESPN money included. The big ten network was projected to pay out $6.5M per team last year. That doesn't even count for half of their total tv money of $15M each.

http://www.huskerextra.com/articles/2010/05/30/football/doc4c01a916a5279026544191.txt

[South_Florida_Flip]

Good read there with the Husker article.

I know that they are expanding for TV purposes, hence a big reason why Delaney said what he did at the end of the Big 10 meetings. His comments alone all but eliminated Syracuse and Pitt from the discussion of expansion (Syracuse won't capture the NY market and the Pitt market is already there with Penn State). ND isn't going, so that would leave Rutgers as the only program I could see leaving.

As Carolina mentioned, any mass chaos is good for USF. If the PAC 10 gets 6 programs, then the Big 10 and SEC will follow and USF will be in a good position for an ACC/Big East conference.

[Guest]

Good read there with the Husker article.

I know that they are expanding for TV purposes, hence a big reason why Delaney said what he did at the end of the Big 10 meetings. His comments alone all but eliminated Syracuse and Pitt from the discussion of expansion (Syracuse won't capture the NY market and the Pitt market is already there with Penn State). ND isn't going, so that would leave Rutgers as the only program I could see leaving.

As Carolina mentioned, any mass chaos is good for USF. If the PAC 10 gets 6 programs, then the Big 10 and SEC will follow and USF will be in a good position for an ACC/Big East conference.

See, and I think you're wrong about Syracuse.  Sure, Syracuse will not capture the New York CITY market -- but it will add markets in Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton, Buffalo, Watertown, Rome  - even as far east as Schenectady and Albany.  That is a potential for MILLIONS of subscribers.  Syrcause will add enough cable market subscribers to cover the $7 million per year they need to bring to the table.  (All it would take is an increase of 75 cents for 800,000 or so subscribers).

Pittsburgh may be left out, but Connecticut could replace them for the same reasons as Syracuse - a state full (maybe two with Rhode Islanders) of cable subscribers.

[usf97]

More Speculation

Washington AD says:

"There is an enormous amount of speculation about conference expansion right now and I think with the Pac-10 that anything is possible, all the way from remaining with the status quo, where we are today, to a full merger with the Big 12 and anything in between,'' Woodward said Thursday afternoon. "All possibilities are viable and open for discussion.''

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskyfootballblog/2012026345_woodward_talks_about_expansion.html

[tampabull]

I see the big 10 inviting maryland and unc over syracuse and pitt. 

[South_Florida_Flip]

I see the big 10 inviting maryland and unc over syracuse and pitt. 

Maryland was the first program I thought of when Delaney mentioned that the Big 10 would be looking South.

[usf97]

Good read there with the Husker article.

I know that they are expanding for TV purposes, hence a big reason why Delaney said what he did at the end of the Big 10 meetings. His comments alone all but eliminated Syracuse and Pitt from the discussion of expansion (Syracuse won't capture the NY market and the Pitt market is already there with Penn State). ND isn't going, so that would leave Rutgers as the only program I could see leaving.

As Carolina mentioned, any mass chaos is good for USF. If the PAC 10 gets 6 programs, then the Big 10 and SEC will follow and USF will be in a good position for an ACC/Big East conference.

See, and I think you're wrong about Syracuse.  Sure, Syracuse will not capture the New York CITY market -- but it will add markets in Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton, Buffalo, Watertown, Rome  - even as far east as Schenectady and Albany.  That is a potential for MILLIONS of subscribers.  Syrcause will add enough cable market subscribers to cover the $7 million per year they need to bring to the table.  (All it would take is an increase of 75 cents for 800,000 or so subscribers).

Pittsburgh may be left out, but Connecticut could replace them for the same reasons as Syracuse - a state full (maybe two with Rhode Islanders) of cable subscribers.

I see value with Rutgers and Syracuse but my question when I keep seeing Pitt and UConn is: 1) Will the Big Ten really invite a Non-AAU member in UConn that could be on probation in basketball when all is said and done, 2) What does Pitt bring to the Big Ten that they don't already have in Penn State?

That is my problem with seeing the Big Ten get to 16 (assuming ND is not involved). I can see Mizzou, Rutgers and Syracuse. Then lets say Nebraska.  Then who? Maybe you take Kansas for it's basketball program?  

[813knight]

Forget about facility upgrades for a second.

I know money doesn't grow on trees, but USF should announce next week that they are starting men's and women's lacrosse programs.  They should drop some decent coin to get a known commodity in coaching circles like the Duke men's coach who was hastily fired when Duke overreacted in the **** hoax debacle (he sued and settled).

Make the announcement, hire a known guy (ladies coach can be a non-splash hire) and get the program tracking before the dominoes fall in the coming months/years.

Does USF already have a club lax team? UCF does, went to a few games. It's under 'club' designation I think(not official D1) but they did travel and I think they got a little funding from the school but not sure how they funded everything else.

I would like to see this Pac 16 scenario go through just to rile up arrogant SEC fans that think college football revolves around them. Texas will fit in better with the Pac 16 academically and culturally than the Big 10 or SEC. That would be a fun conference to watch, USC vs Texas matchups every few years during the regular season would be a ratings giant