A new and better FBS thread

[MWC]

From John Canzano..

This guy is a Pac 10 centered guy but he is fairly tapped into the western college sports landscape.

Here is an excerpt about the MW


A few thoughts for your Sunday:

• Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez told me on Saturday that her conference is exploring a number of expansion scenarios.

“The Mountain West has been meeting regularly to survey the landscape and explore expansion options,” she said.

• MWC member San Diego State already sort of has one foot out the door. The Aztecs held a public celebration for their men’s Final Four basketball season at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday. Fun was had by all. University President Adela de la Torre used the occasion to drop a hint: “Who knows? Maybe in the near future we will be somewhere else.”

• Fresno State’s President has had regular contact with the Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark over the last five months, campus sources tell me. Boise State could also be an eventual Big 12 target, although I’m told there hasn’t been frequent and regular contact. There were also some recent murmurs about possible Big 12 interest in UNLV, but based on my conversations I don’t think it’s particularly serious.

• Feels like the Big 12 will wait to see what happens with the Pac-12’s media rights deal before doing anything itself. That’s what I would do, at least.

• Anyone else think Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark is eventually going to want something to show for all the bluster and talk?

• As I reported earlier this week, the Pac-12 isn’t expected to finalize its media deal this month. It could be May or even June before there’s a resolution.

• Pass the beer nuts.

• Who should the Mountain West Conference be exploring as potential expansion targets? My mind immediately went to a handful of California-based Big Sky Conference members such as UC Davis, Cal Poly and Sacramento State. But I’m told by an industry insider that those options won’t easily fly.

• There could be firm opposition from San Jose State, Nevada and Fresno State, who all regularly recruit California, per the source. Also, there’s a sizeable investment required to make the jump up.

• The same insider waved off current Big Sky member Montana as a possible Mountain West Conference target. He said: “Montana and Montana State will stay together.”

• I reached out to Big Sky Conference commissioner Tom Wistrcill on Sunday. There’s a domino-effect in play here. Wistrcill told me: “We’re always monitoring the changing landscape of college athletics. Our President’s Council discusses various schools and potential movements at every meeting. You have to be ready for anything.”

• It’s possible that the Mountain West Conference could lose San Diego State to the Pac-12/Big 12 and decide to stay at 10 full-time members (11 in football as Hawaii is football-only). But the ultimate play for the MWC may be in Texas (i.e. Sam Houston, UTEP, UTSA, etc.).

• Keep in mind, Nevarez — the MWC commissioner — used to be the commissioner of the West Coast Conference. She’d welcome Gonzaga with open arms if it ever decided it wanted to join the Mountain West.

[NDSU92]

Is the PAC just dragging their feet out of spite or are they coming to the conclusion that they're going to get raided immediately after what apparently is not a very good deal? Cripes they've been at this forever now.

Interesting points about the recruiting in Cali. Would the MW schools rather gain 170 FBS scholarships in their backyard that they now need to compete against or try to fend off a few more scholarships from out of state institutions. Out of state institutions also open up new recruiting grounds that aren't currently tapped. Then you have the non-Cali schools who with all of the recent political stuff may be wanting to hedge their conference away from being Cali-heavy.

I've heard that the MW has reached out to NDSU as part of the due diligence. Honestly I expected them to and I don't think it means anything other than the new commissioner is doing her job. It's a shame about the Montana thing. Us and Montana (or even Montana State) would've been great additions to the conference in terms of the whole package. From top to bottom the presidents, faculty, students, fans and community would be completely on board and understand the importance. While we wouldn't replace the loss of SDSU, really could've helped stop the bleeding. If the state of Montana could support two FBS teams (I personally have no idea), I think it would be great for the MW. Meanwhile, I would probably go lie down in front of traffic. Which brings me to my next point...

Anything below SMU and a conference isn't really getting anything out of "being in Texas". UTEP, Sam Houston, Texas State, UTSA, etc. are all nothing-burgers to people here. Unless they beat an SEC or B12 school, then everyone laughs at the P5 school. All have virtually no brand recognition in their own state. I don't think moving to the MW changes that in the least bit. Have fun training your cameramen to never zoom out or pan up, lest you want people seeing completely empty stands.

For that reason alone the brand hit to the MW would be monumental. Better to pick up schools that care and have room to grow in my obviously biased opinion.

[MWC]

The MW is a basketball conference that plays football. The "brand" doesn't really exist. I am pretty sure SDSU will be gone soon..I am not as convinced others will, but maybe..

I wouldn't mind a conference with 9 members. I am not keen on seeing it spread out all over..The next media deal will likely be smaller and streaming. No sense trying to chase the dollars.

[El_Chapo]

I talked to this guy tonight online. he didn't know about NDSU & mountain west being a possible connection because he's a pac 10 guy he said. he said he's gonna ask his contacts. so let's gooo

[NDSU92]

The MW is a basketball conference that plays football. The "brand" doesn't really exist. I am pretty sure SDSU will be gone soon..I am not as convinced others will, but maybe..

I wouldn't mind a conference with 9 members. I am not keen on seeing it spread out all over..The next media deal will likely be smaller and streaming. No sense trying to chase the dollars.

You say that, but then why look at UTEP, UTSA, Sammy, etc.? Surely it's not for their basketball teams. And if it's for the population piece, there could be a billion people in Texas and still no one would watch Sam Houston State basketball. B10 learned that lesson the hard way with Rutgers and Maryland. Even then, it's all streaming - not like you're getting more casual eyeballs on games or anything.

If I were in your shoes, I'd agree with you. Only add if absolutely necessary. Losing your best peers and replacing them with worse ones is an unenviable situation. It's what we're going through with FCS as a whole and why there are more NDSU fans than ever wanting out of it.

For me, I get to hope that the MW gets gutted enough to force them to expand, while not getting gutted too much so that the conference retains its quality and reputation. Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. Fun times.

[IndyBison]

You say that, but then why look at UTEP, UTSA, Sammy, etc.? Surely it's not for their basketball teams. And if it's for the population piece, there could be a billion people in Texas and still no one would watch Sam Houston State basketball. B10 learned that lesson the hard way with Rutgers and Maryland. Even then, it's all streaming - not like you're getting more casual eyeballs on games or anything.

If I were in your shoes, I'd agree with you. Only add if absolutely necessary. Losing your best peers and replacing them with worse ones is an unenviable situation. It's what we're going through with FCS as a whole and why there are more NDSU fans than ever wanting out of it.

For me, I get to hope that the MW gets gutted enough to force them to expand, while not getting gutted too much so that the conference retains its quality and reputation. Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. Fun times.

Rutgers and Maryland want to get a bunch of Rutgers and Maryland fans to watch the B1G. It was to give them a compelling reason to get the B1G network into NYC, Baltimore and DC. With the growth of streaming that's less critical. That math also becomes less relevant with G5 conferences. A school like NDSU will do well in that conversation due to the number of eyeballs their contracts will bring. But huge money but better than most possible schools.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[bisonaudit]

It will be interesting to see how far the viewership models evolve. The giant cable packages with hundreds of channels are probably on the way out but I don’t think we’re going to end up with a fully a la carte model either. Hard to say at this point what ends up getting packaged together and where but kit does seem like it’s going to be more about engagement and not just market size.

[MWC]

I don't know that the MW is looking toward Texas at all..They could have had every one of the Texas schools that are headed to the AAC and chose not to. One thing that is hanging out there is the huge exit fees MW schools would have to pay to leave the conference. 32 million with one year's notice, 16 million with 2 years notice..If 3 or 4 schools leave that will provide a nice windfall to the remaining schools. That would give them some breathing room to decide if they really want to expand for football at all..

If 4 schools leave, the MW would have to add 1 to get an 8 game conference schedule. It wouldn't matter much at all who that might be..Nobody would be a game changer..Just a schedule filler.

If less than 4 leave it makes little to no sense to add anyone..

[NDSU92]

I don't know that the MW is looking toward Texas at all..They could have had every one of the Texas schools that are headed to the AAC and chose not to. One thing that is hanging out there is the huge exit fees MW schools would have to pay to leave the conference. 32 million with one year's notice, 16 million with 2 years notice..If 3 or 4 schools leave that will provide a nice windfall to the remaining schools. That would give them some breathing room to decide if they really want to expand for football at all..

If 4 schools leave, the MW would have to add 1 to get an 8 game conference schedule. It wouldn't matter much at all who that might be..Nobody would be a game changer..Just a schedule filler.

If less than 4 leave it makes little to no sense to add anyone..

Isn’t the MW at 11 football members? So they’d need 9 members to have an 8 game schedule?

[NDSU92]

Rutgers and Maryland want to get a bunch of Rutgers and Maryland fans to watch the B1G. It was to give them a compelling reason to get the B1G network into NYC, Baltimore and DC. With the growth of streaming that's less critical. That math also becomes less relevant with G5 conferences. A school like NDSU will do well in that conversation due to the number of eyeballs their contracts will bring. But huge money but better than most possible schools.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

The additions of Maryland and Rutgers have been an unmitigated disaster for the B10. Of course those schools wanted in, light years ahead of each of where they were before.

It will be interesting to see how the cord-cutting/streaming continues to shake out. Seems like everything is slowly moving forward to it still, but one cannot discount the fact that these companies love bundling junk and making people pay for stuff they don’t want.

I think G5 will be relegated to the streaming platforms and off-Saturday games if they want to be on standard cable TV. These P5 media deals are so large the networks can’t afford to have anything else playing on saturdays