Country Roads Confidential

Celina, I also believe realignment is inevetible and nescessary. I think the popular choices are Louisville and Cincinnati, but I would personally rather add Clemson and Florida State first. Although for ultimate conference stability I would like to see 14 or 16.

CH, Chris touched on it in the mailbag and I think he is spot on, we prob won't see/hear much until the new commish is in place, after that then any new members will have to bring some serious value to the conference so everyone still gets a large cut in the payouts.

Personally it can't happen quick enough for me if FSU and Clemson are indeed the top targets, FSU gets the B12 footprint in Florida much like the SEC got theirs in Texas and we get a nice tv market(though a friend of mine said if we are looking for tv market AND program and your raiding the ACC anyway, then why not the U?), Clemson is alot like us, terrific fanbase, not a great tv add but very good for the quality of the conference. If we go 14 after those two then UL IMO would have to be first in line and another good add then prob BYU (assuming Notre Dame is off the table). If the goal is big time tv market (which is why Mizzu is sitting in the SEC now) then who knows, Rutgers may be on the Radar..

If it does go down let's hope it happens during the offseason so we can actually focus on the games this year.

good grief gwinn I swear I didnt mean to do that, Ill just go catch up on my sleep now wow...

You know, I haven't heard anymore about that either.

Big 12 should put the full court pressure on Florida State, Clemson and GT, IMO. Throw the big figures at them, sell the conference as a football first conference and see if they bite.

If FSU & Clemson go, I could see VaTech checking out the B12. The ACC's football cred is barely better than the Big East. Take out FSU & Clemson and they'll give the MAC a run for their money.

I think if the conference goes any more West (BYU) it will never fit geographically. Also the ACC needs to be destroyed. 4 Super Conferences are coming and the ACC and big12 are fighting to be the 4th. If the big 12 can get some of the ACC now, the big10, SEC.

Big 10 wants in North East and or big markerts- BC, CUse, Pitt, Rutgers, Marland or GT (4 of those)

SEC wants in NC- Duke and UNC

big12 wants tradition- Clemson, Florida State, Miami, VT- and or big markets of Maryland or GT

The key is getting the right combination of ACC to keep attandence high. ACC has such attandence problems if you get the wrong ones it can literly board your leauge to death and kill it like the current ACC. On paper it looks good but most BC, Pitt, UVA, Cuse, Duke, Wake, Miami etc games have half empty stadiums.

The ACC is right for the taking with a new contract worth only about 60% of the big12 deal

There are those in our conference that do not want 16 teams, but if we wait the other conferences will go to 16 first and we will be back to playing catch up again. I believe we were fortunate last time to get TCU and WV, because the combination of both are an upgrade from what we lost. Also, the right combination of schools will put us in geographical competition with the ACC, Big 10 and SEC, and in my opinion that would be huge for recruiting and TV.

This pretty much jives with everything we've heard. Although my personal opinion is that Luck was working both sides the whole time -- trying to strengthen the Big East while also looking for a way out.

WVU and Pitt were pushing to jump to the ACC last summer, but it was tough to get support for WVU among the ACC snob schools (I think we can all guess which ones were for WVU and which ones were against WVU).

At some point early in September, something changed and WVU withdrew from the ACC push. Most likely it became clear that WVU would not have the votes to get into the ACC, although some still think it's because WVU had strong indications that they were the SEC's pick for #14. Either way, WVU to the ACC was done and that's when you saw Pitt and Syracuse make the jump.

What happened in late September and early October is cloudy. It's never been clear whether WVU was definitely the SEC's #2 pick for the 14th spot, but it sure seems that way. It also isn't clear how close Missouri was to actually staying in the Big 12. Either way, when it became clear that Missouri was definitely jumping to the SEC, that's when we saw WVU to the Big 12 heat up.

I agreed with that perception, because it was a reality. Bebee was "perceived" to be a puppet for Dodds. Its one of the reasons he is out now & Neinas was brought in to stabilize the situation. Plus Texas had the lopsided revenue sharing on the Tier 1 & 2 rights with the rest of the conference. That just wasn't going to fly if the Big12 wanted to remain together.

Once Texas flirted with going fully Independent, they realized that it wouldn't work with the direction that NCAA football will eventually be going to with the four "super-conferences". Everyone knows that ND is going to have to join a conference once that happens.

Now that the Grant of Rights deal has been signed, with all teams agreeing to 6 years, possibly even being 13 years with the new Fox & ESPN deals, the Big12 is as stable as any conference out there. This is where the real fun begins and we can start to go "big game hunting" for other teams and bring the TV $$ package on par or exceed what the SEC & B1G have.

I think with the grant of rights and the hiring of a commissioner that understands how to market a conference with a large footprint, it will be game on. Because, unless the SEC expands beyond 16 teams they must be very selective of whom they add. Because I believe Florida will vote against Florida State, South Carolina will vote against Clemson, Georgia will vote against Georgia Tech and I do not see North Carolina going without Duke. But I was wrong about A&M leaving without Texas.

I would give the Big 10 the big cities in east, because I do not see them as a culture fit with the mid atlantic, midwest and south and trying to blend cultures will be difficult. And the ACC views themselves as a basketball conference.

I believe the Big 12 should give ND a deadline and not look back if they don’t join. We provide the opportunity for them to join a conference with a good source of money and they can still have a TV network as an alternate source of money.

You are right. If we bring in quality teams, then the pay out increases. Expansion is inevitable.