2013 College Football Coaching Carousel thread...

Albany hired Greg Gattuso.

 

A quite logical argument. But not one that is persuasive in some quarters. Colorado State is trying to come up with 225 million to build a new stadium. One of the arguments is that they can leverage the new facility into a power conference (really). As I said self-delusion is a power drug.

 

Yeah, I'll believe that power conference part when I see it when it comes to Colorado State.

 

He has serious serious work ahead. There is growing sentiment that EMU should either drop football altogether or go down to D-II.

If he's no more successful than Ron English (11-46 in 5 seasons) he may be the last EMU football coach.

 

Why would anyone take that job? I can't imagine it pays that much, in addition to all of the other disadvantages there.

 

Because if you make something of it there, you can get a pretty spiffy next job. And in the MAC, it doesn't take miracles to at least get competitive. Hell, Eastern wasn't even the weakest directional Michigan this season, and their two wins were as many as Western, UMass and Miami-O combined).

 

If Colorado State could deliver ratings in the Denver market, I could see the Big 12 being interested. That was one of the reasons the Pac-12 wanted Colorado so badly.

But interest in CSU in Denver is not high or at least not consistently high.

 

Exactly. TCU isn't exactly the darling of the Dallas-Ft. Worth market, either. But they made sense geographically, had shown they wouldn't be an embarrassment athletically and the other schools wanted someone they could kick around for a while.

I really wonder about the whole TV market strategy. Do people in, say, the Big Ten, really think that by adding Maryland and Rutgers, that more viewers in Washington and NYC are going to tune in to watch Wisconsin vs. Purdue? Heck, I'm skeptical that they'll even tune in to watch Rutgers vs. Purdue.

 

It's bonkers how often the driving forces behind conference realignment can be explained and discussed here yet some people keep making the same silly arguments.

1. TCU is in the Big 12 strictly because the conference needed somebody who would say yes with minimal negotiation right away. A date, I think maybe it was July 1, was approaching by which the Big 12 had to add a ninth team or it would have been in breach of its TV contracts. That essentially meant take TCU right that instant or forfeit all that sweet, sweet Fox and ESPN moolah.

2. The Big Ten doesn't care if people in DC watch a Purdue-Wisconsin game. It cares if local DC cable companies carry the Big Ten Network.

3. The one thing Colorado State has going for it is the possibility of getting the Denver market back. BUT -- huge Kardashian-sized but(t) -- market size doesn't mean anywhere near as much to the Big 12 as it does the Big Ten. The Big 12 doesn't have its own network it is trying to get on Denver cable. What matters much more to the Big 12 and its partners, ESPN and Fox, is that lots of people watch the game broadcast on those networks. They don't care if the viewers live in Kansas City or Kalamazoo. That is why West Virginia was added despite having roughly 5,000 TV sets in the whole state. Mountaineer athletics is a recognizable brand and a Oklahoma-WVU football game or Kansas-WVU basketball game plays a lot better to the ESPN promo monkeys and looks a lot more enticing on your DirecTV guide than Colorado State vs. anyone.

4. That is why the Big 12 is content to sit at 10 teams right now. Louisville, Florida State and Clemson seem to be off the table now and it's hard to think of any other program that would bring enough to the table to force ESPN and Fox to renegotiate a deal that would make it worth splitting the pot with another school or two. BYU seems like the only program out there that could possibly move the needle that much, but even that is doubtful.

 

Who's done anything at Eastern?

Western's had decent teams in the past 10 or 15 years, including one that went late into the season undefeated IIRC. Miami has a history of success. UMass has the wrong coach and a horrible stadium situation.

 

So who carries those networks, anyway? I have never lived anywhere that carried any of them: Big Ten network, Longhorn Network, SEC TV, pac-12 Network, Fox Sports 1, or any of them. Hell, I had to beg to get TNT, NBC Sports Network and Golf Channel. I think one is available on a premium tier with some others (like NFL Network, etc.) that you can purchase for an additional price.

Comcast Sports Network started its network last year when it got the rights to a local MLB and NBA team... then couldn't get any non-Comcast carriers to carry the network.

Are cable systems in DC actually going to carry the Big Ten Network? Would anyone give two shits if they did?

They just don't seem to offer enough stuff to warrant buying it.

 

Yeah, playing your home games 75 miles from campus as UMass does isn't a real good idea.