For Funsies: Conference Reallignment/Creation

WillWeaverRVA · Tuesday at 8:39 AM

Wolfpack Ram said:
For those people out there that were bashing the ACC for adding SMU, they just raised $100 million in 7 days from 30 donors to help defray their loss of ACC TV revenue for 9 years. That is a crazy amount of money to be raised in one week. And SMU says the school isn't expecting the fundraising efforts to slow down anytime soon. SMU has stated their goal is to raise $200 million to defray the loss of TV revenue in the ACC for 9 years and it will NOT a problem. It scares me to think how much NIL money they could also be raising to be very competitive in the ACC. The school has a very large revenue source in it's alumni/donor base.

SMU raises $100 million in seven-day stretch from key donors to support upcoming ACC move

The Mustangs won't receive TV revenue from the ACC for up to nine years upon joining in 2024

www.cbssports.com

SMU in the ACC could be a major step up from where it was before if its donor base has that much money.

AlienAiden · Wednesday at 10:01 AM

PuddinDaStunna said:
Conference realignment "Rumors" "tweets" "etc"

www.thebullspen.com

Speculation (and hope), on the USF boards that the olympic member is VCU.

I post on he old A10 message board and a UMass fan seems to be active on the AAC boards or at least perusing them daily. After I posted the Dayton reporter's preseason article he quoted me and posted this.....
___________________

AlienAiden, glad to see Dayton being back to old form. Don't think the flyers would go to the AAC. Iffy, but think VCU would take a hard look, as 30% of 7M is 2.1M. That's a nice bump in media cash and think the AAC could earn around the same even with the 75% distribution in the A10. Think St. Louis is the biggest risk. There is always if the Big East expands, but St. Louis exited CUSA. The AAC is now made up of a lot of those former members. Wichita State is also a good draw.

N Mollen · Wednesday at 10:18 AM

AlienAiden said:
I post on he old A10 message board and a UMass fan seems to be active on the AAC boards or at least perusing them daily. After I posted the Dayton reporter's preseason article he quoted me and posted this.....
___________________

AlienAiden, glad to see Dayton being back to old form. Don't think the flyers would go to the AAC. Iffy, but think VCU would take a hard look, as 30% of 7M is 2.1M. That's a nice bump in media cash and think the AAC could earn around the same even with the 75% distribution in the A10. Think St. Louis is the biggest risk. There is always if the Big East expands, but St. Louis exited CUSA. The AAC is now made up of a lot of those former members. Wichita State is also a good draw.

The AAC

AlienAiden · Wednesday at 10:25 AM

N Mollen said:
The AAC

Yeah. I am not into it either but I do know one thing about all of this.....Who knows what Ed is thinking. He kept the CAA to A10 move quiet and then boom.

N Mollen · Wednesday at 10:39 AM

AlienAiden said:
Yeah. I am not into it either but I do know one thing about all of this.....Who knows what Ed is thinking. He kept the CAA to A10 move quiet and then boom.

If they could make the money work, AND got a no-fault exit from the AAC the minute Houston and Memphis left, it might be worth considering. Maybe. But trading a weak but relatively stable conference for a weak and highly unstable conference makes little sense to me.

Ramlove81 · Wednesday at 10:44 AM

N Mollen said:
If they could make the money work, AND got a no-fault exit from the AAC the minute Houston and Memphis left, it might be worth considering. Maybe. But trading a weak but relatively stable conference for a weak and highly unstable conference makes little sense to me.

That makes sense to me. Yet, I wonder sometimes if the A10 is stable because we don't have many programs other conferences want to add. In this time when conferences are turning upside, growing, disappearing, stretching from sea to shinning sea as it were, I'm wondering if stability is just an illusion. But part of me is hoping for something that is still stable.

N Mollen · Wednesday at 10:53 AM

Ramlove81 said:
That makes sense to me. Yet, I wonder sometimes if the A10 is stable because we don't have many programs other conferences want to add. In this time when conferences are turning upside, growing, disappearing, stretching from sea to shinning sea as it were, I'm wondering if stability is just an illusion. But part of me is hoping for something that is still stable.

I am pretty sure the AD sees the BE as the only real movement that makes sense for us, and we have no control over when/if they decide to add. I am absolutely certain that we'd be all-in if the opportunity became available.

Beyond that it is hard to see any movement that would be worth the risk. It is worth saying, though, that the entire college sports landscape is so unsettled that opportunities could open that we can't envision at the moment. I saw some "expert" predict recently that in the next 5 years or so 100 or more colleges may get out of the football business altogether. So who knows

AlienAiden · Wednesday at 11:03 AM

Ramlove81 said:
That makes sense to me. Yet, I wonder sometimes if the A10 is stable

UMass wants out due to football. UD, VCU and SLU all would move if the right opportunity arose.

Ramlove81 · Wednesday at 11:05 AM

N Mollen said:
I am pretty sure the AD sees the BE as the only real movement that makes sense for us, and we have no control over when/if they decide to add. I am absolutely certain that we'd be all-in if the opportunity became available.

Beyond that it is hard to see any movement that would be worth the risk. It is worth saying, though, that the entire college sports landscape is so unsettled that opportunities could open that we can't envision at the moment. I saw some "expert" predict recently that in the next 5 years or so 100 or more colleges may get out of the football business altogether. So who knows

I wonder sometimes if football splitting off into a whole separate organization from the rest of college sports wouldn't be a good thing.

Three years ago, most thought the PAC was as solid and stable as any conference. Next year it won't exist anymore. How ironic that with this being the last year of the PAC, it just might be the best football conference in the land, see 8 of 12 teams in the top 25, including the only two that no other conference wanted to poach.

Basketball seems to have less of the pressures that are making conferences more chaotic now. Thought that would probably change if separated from football. That NCAA tourney thing is awfully profitable.

Mercury · Wednesday at 11:10 AM

AlienAiden said:
UMass wants out due to football. UD, VCU and SLU all would move if the right opportunity arose.

I'm sure all 3 have had varying degrees of talks with The Big East. Val & co value exclusivity but that can't be the case forever. Assuming all schools know where they stand in the ranking order I would not be surprised to see the odd man out jump to the AAC early.

Ramlove81 · Wednesday at 11:10 AM

AlienAiden said:
UMass wants out due to football. UD, VCU and SLU all would move if the right opportunity arose.

Thus, as I said, so far it seems the most pickable fruit from the A10 are not wanted by other conferences. I would love to see VCU in the BE. Is that something the BE would love? That's the question. Under the right circumstances, I think the BE would be open to all three of those schools. Those circumstances haven't happened yet. With everything else going on right now the volatility just might open up an opportunity. I hope so anyway.

SteveMM · Wednesday at 11:14 AM

During the last round of openings in the AAC (maybe 3-5 years ago) didn't Ed come out and say VCU was not interested in moving to the AAC? Did that happen or is my Mandela Effect showing?

Wolfpack Ram · Wednesday at 11:45 AM

N Mollen said:
If they could make the money work, AND got a no-fault exit from the AAC the minute Houston and Memphis left, it might be worth considering. Maybe. But trading a weak but relatively stable conference for a weak and highly unstable conference makes little sense to me.

Houston is already gone. They are now in the Big 12.

RowdyPkunk · Wednesday at 12:40 PM

Ramlove81 said:
I wonder sometimes if football splitting off into a whole separate organization from the rest of college sports wouldn't be a good thing.

Three years ago, most thought the PAC was as solid and stable as any conference. Next year it won't exist anymore. How ironic that with this being the last year of the PAC, it just might be the best football conference in the land, see 8 of 12 teams in the top 25, including the only two that no other conference wanted to poach.

Basketball seems to have less of the pressures that are making conferences more chaotic now. Thought that would probably change if separated from football. That NCAA tourney thing is awfully profitable.

Wasn't that part of the whole Big East split into the New Big East & AAC back in the day?

Gopher+RamFan · Wednesday at 12:55 PM

SteveMM said:
During the last round of openings in the AAC (maybe 3-5 years ago) didn't Ed come out and say VCU was not interested in moving to the AAC? Did that happen or is my Mandela Effect showing?

I seem to recall that too but can't find a reference. I doubt he'd openly say that in an interview (but maybe), more likely he told someone who let it slip on here or twitter?