BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

Four power superconferences of 16 teams each, which will include the current versions of what we know as the Pac 12, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.

List em out.

 

Whatever comes after apoplectic, that's where Southern Miss fans are at online.

 

It's tricky because the Big 12 has made itself much more difficult to raid and where else is the Pac-12 going to go to get teams?

 

All 10 schools agreed to the grant of rights, meaning if they leave the Big 12 they get no Tier 1 or 2 money for 13 years.

 

SEC -- Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Vandy, Missouri, Texas A&M, Auburn, Alabama, Mississippi, Mississippi State, LSU, Arkansas, Virginia Tech, N.C. State

B1G -- Maryland, Penn State, Rutgers, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Virginia, North Carolina

Big 12 -- Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, TCU, West Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse, Boston College, Connecticut, Florida State, Clemson, Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Miami

Pac 12 -- Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Cal, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah, Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State

The Big 12 is situated fine for right now, but if we get the 4 megaconferences, they're screwed because about the only way it can happen is if the Pac 12 finally gets the OklaTex 4 to bail. Then they have to pull a Big East and snag as many schools as they can before the ACC beats them to the punch. Or they just flat-out merge once the SEC and B1G scarf up the Virginia and N.C. public schools.

Not sure what Notre Dame does in this situation. Perhaps they stay indy in football and Big 12/ACC in other sports. Perhaps Big 12/ACC in all sports. Perhaps indy in all sports.

The Big East and Conference USA merge (inb4 lol, didn't that already happen?) Cincinnati takes it in the shorts, though it could just as easily be Miami. Another possibility is the ACC and Big 12 divvy up the Big East football schools and pick out the few gems in Conference USA and the Mountain West to get to 16, thus giving us five conferences.

 

Can Texas sue their way out of it? The $50 million exit fee was supposed to guarantee stability in the ACC and we all saw where they got them.

 

Nope. There's no lawsuit to be had there. A grant of rights is far more effective than a $50 million exit fee.

Each school's Tier 1 and 2 TV rights belong to the conference through 2025, without them, they're worthless to would-be poaching conferences. Each school would have to buy those rights back.

So, $20 million annually x 13 years = $260 million. Know any schools with $260 million in their sofa cushions for a one-time payment? And that's if the Big 12 agrees to sell them back, they don't have to.

EDIT -- Probably also worth noting that Texas' LHN contract prohibits it from appearing on any Tier 3 networks owned by schools or conferences, so no chance of putting some Longhorn games on the BTN, Pac-12 Network, SEC Network, etc. I would imagine that would be a big point of contention for anyone who wanted Texas in its conference for TV sets (see: Maryland/Rutgers markets for BTN). It's not an issue in the Big 12, where everyone takes charge of their own Tier 3 rights.

 

Well, that puts a dagger in the super conference thing, then.

 

Maybe, but Maryland seemed to be playing its cards for a possible lawsuit from the beginning with the president voting against the exit fee, saying it wasn't contractually legal. Texas and all the rest of the Big 12 schools were all in favor of the grant of rights. I don't remember for sure, but Texas might have even been the one to propose it, basically saying look we'll give you stability if you leave the Longhorn Network alone.

Even if Texas, Oklahoma or whoever tried to sue their way out of the grant of rights it seems like it will be tough. Let's say the ACC and Maryland settle for a number less than $50 million, say $30 million. Maryland can pay that off relatively quick with the extra Big Ten TV money. Say Texas wants to leave and settles with the Big 12 for a five year grant of rights instead of 13, they are still forfeiting all that TV money for a significant amount of time with no real good way to make it up. Plus the Longhorn Network probably has to go to join the Pac.

The grant of rights deal seems to me to have been a pretty shrewd move by the Big 12 schools, much better than a straight exit fee.

 

Dennis Dodd points out that the Big 12 schools have 40 million reasons to stay at 10 conference members.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/dennis-dodd/21177715/why-the-big-12-is-happy-with-10-amid-the-latest-round-of-realignment

 

Western Kentucky and New Mexico State to Conference USA is a done deal, per the Twitterz. So now the Sun Belt scrambles, having lose three today.