I am starting to think that expansiopocolypse won’t end until we have a “conference” of 64 teams, divided into 5 divisions and each division bifurcated into two sections.
The latest shots fired come from the Big 10, in what can only be considered to be their biggest “all about the money” move in this never-ending program shifting.
The University of Maryland is in serious negotiations to join the Big Ten Conference, sources told ESPN on Saturday.
If Maryland goes from the ACC to the Big Ten, Rutgers of the Big East is expected to follow suit. The addition of Maryland and Rutgers would give the Big Ten 14 members as the league gears toward negotiations on a new media rights deal when its first-tier rights expire in 2017.
No date has been set for a potential announcement, though it could come as soon as Monday. The Maryland board of regents will meet at 9 a.m. Monday morning to decide on the move, a source with direct knowledge told ESPN.com Sunday morning.
But there is not a consensus among athletic department officials. The source said the school is leaning toward the move but there is still time for the school to decide to stay in the ACC.
Except the biggest homers for Maryland and Rutgers — no one is pretending that this possibility is about anything other than money. Specifically, the Big Ten Network (BTN).
There can be speculation about how the move by ND to partial membership to the ACC spooked Jim Delaney and the Big 10, but the most that did was make it clear to the Big 10 powers that even considering waiting for ND is finished. This is all and completely a money play.
There is no perfect answer but Rutgers and Maryland do bring TV sets for the Big Ten Network to be placed on basic cable tiers, and thus generate millions in additional revenue. The states should also provide fresh recruiting ground for current members to fan out and potentially improve their rosters.
It certainly isn’t to immediately bolster football credibility.
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Still, the money from potentially being able to jam the Big Ten Network into the home of every cable subscriber in each state (combined population: 14.6 million), is significant. It also allows the league to extend some reach into major Eastern media markets such as Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and even New York City. That said, the Big Ten added the Terrapins and Scarlet Knights, not the Giants, Jets, Eagles, Ravens and Redskins. College football just isn’t that big of a deal.
The Maryland addition to the Big 10 has long been a speculated possibility. Rutgers was half-hearted, with the whole New York City market fools gold. Yet, there may be a just as enticing subplot that makes Rutgers a more logical addition — in terms of money: Fox.
Fox holds a partial ownership stake in BTN. They are also looking to take an interest in a very important cable channel in New York and New Jersey.
News Corp is expected to announce this week that it has taken a minority stake in the YES Network, a New York-based sports channel that broadcasts Yankee baseball and Nets basketball games. The deal could be announced as early as Friday, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.
The deal would expand News Corp’s network of 13 Fox regional sports channels and four other channels in which it is affiliated. Those channels have 67 million subscribers in Los Angeles, Houston and other cities.
The YES network is available in approximately 15 million homes.
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The deal would allow YES to raise the $2.99 monthly fee per subscriber it currently charges cable and satellite operators to carry the channel, said the person. News Corp could negotiate on its behalf with the operators as part of a larger package of sports channels.
[Emphasis added.]
Bundling is so very important. On its own, BTN would have a hard time getting a deal in New Jersey and especially New York City. But as part of a sports bundle that includes the New York Yankees network? Suddenly the BTN money train takes a huge jump.
The interesting thing is that the Big 10 is apparently given up most pretenses of anything but money with this move. Yes, both Rutgers and Maryland hold the nice AAU membership in addition to being good schools. But there is nothing competitively attractive about adding these teams. Unlike their past flirtations and words. Somewhere in Columbia, Missouri a chancellor is kicking his wall.
The domino is Maryland, though. The Big Ten won’t expand to just 13 or take Rutgers without the Terrapins. Rutgers is simply the best throw-in. Just as Mizzou was for the SEC when they took Texas A&M.
The money is obvious for Maryland, but they also have a $50 million exit fee to pay the ACC. And it isn’t clear if Maryland really wants to leave the ACC. The money might be too much to pass, but this isn’t the no-brainer of a Big East team fleeing to another conference.
Regarding the ACC exit fee of $50 million. Frank the Tank — who becomes required reading during expansiopocolypse scenarios — makes the salient point.
The $50 million exit fee that the ACC instituted back in September when Notre Dame joined as a non-football member is certainly a deterrent for Maryland to leave, but we have learned in conference realignment that no one has ever turned down a conference upgrade because of an exit fee. These types of exit penalties inevitably get negotiated down to lower figures. At the same time, it’s doubtful that Maryland (whose athletic department is about as solvent as Greece) will have to pay that exit fee out-of-pocket. The Big Ten might front some of that money and deduct an amount from Maryland’s conference earnings for several years. (This is what the Big 12 is doing with West Virginia.) So, $50 million might sound like a lot, but the reality is (1) that number will likely end up being much lower and (2) someone other than Maryland itself is probably going to be paying a lot of that in the beginning.
Paging Kevin Plank. Mr. Plank, please pick up the red and black courtesy phone.
As for what that means for the ACC if Maryland leaves? The assumption would be that UConn would get the call if the ACC wanted to stay at 14/15. But, the ACC could well decide to wait. Keeping at 13/14 means no extra expansion if/when ND finally has to join. And the fact is adding UConn wouldn’t make much of an impression one way or another. Well, other than putting the ACC closer to a configuration of half former Big East refugees.
Best guess, if Maryland leaves for the Big 10, the ACC holds for at least another year or two while UConn does everything it can to throw itself at the conference.
I am not a fan of mediocrity and Big East leftovers are mediocre at best.
WVU will jump at the first chance…you think Oliver Luck doesn’t blow with the prevailing breeze? I do.
PSU is certainly shooting for the stars, but if you don’t ask, you’ll never know.
what are your thoughts should we go to 15 and tell ND they have x amount of time to come on bord with football or stay at 14 with u conn.
so why would they go thru that to go to ACC WERE THEY MAKE LESS MONEY
My first reaction is sad. Was looking forward for Pitt and Maryland to become rivals in football and hoops. We played them in the 70’s, often wondered why we didn’t play them more, because of location.
It’s a done deal though, so, time to move on.
It is a pipe dream Frank, but, I agree with SFPITT, you have to at least ask Penn. State.
Will probably never happen, I agree. However, if you google “Penn State to the ACC”, there are allready articles on it. Pennlive is actually advocating it. The responses are about 50/50, some saying never happen, some wishing it would to rekindle old rivalries, better road trips and the old “we’ve always been a Big 10 step child”.
I don’t know, maybe with everything going on up there and all of the changes, maybe this would be a sign, especially since the ACC is the one better academic conference than the Big 10.
Ya, pipe dream, gotta send some feelers out though.
Who else, UCONN and Louisville, the usual suspects. Nothing sexy there, but might have to do.
I pontificated on this for the past year, but, I really wish the ACC would have pressured ND to be all in.
Obviously, I am no fly on the wall, but, when reading everything, putting everything together, there was no way ND was ever going to the Big 10, to just be one of 12 mid west schools.
ND to the Big 12, even for all sports except basketball, there was no way in hell that was ever gonna happen. When you take a step back, and look at it again, it is even more obvious. Notre Dame soccer and volleyball to Lubbock and Waco??? No effin’ way ever.
I just think Swofford should have walked away and let ND stew. Yep, football great again right now. Money, schmoney, ND people care about academics and they also care about their olympic sports. They were not gonna leave them in the Big East to wallow in the wind. They desperately needed a place for their olympic sports.
I don’t know, who else is out there??? I think the ACC needs to take their time, before just yanking out the welcome card to UCONN or Louisville.
Your going to have your pick of the remnants of the Big 12 after Texas + 3 leave for the PAC 12 if we EVER go to 16.
What the Little 11 just did was say they now admit to themselves they will NEVER get Texas & Notre Dame. Which is all their blowhardedness (is that a word, lol) they had the audacity to think these two behemoths were interested.
Don’t see that ever happening. Now somebody like Vanderbilt would fit in to the ACC, cause they certainly don’t fit into the SEC.
And they have a very good hoops program (don’t we know) and an up & coming football program under 1rst year coach James Franklin who just clobbered Tennessee.
ask peen state cant hurt but it isent going to happen this is all abought money and you dont leave 24 million fot 17 million and when the big ten move is going to make it more then then 24 million. just so you can play pitt no way that happens.
but i still think we should go for who we can get out of a small pool of teams before the outhers
get there pick of the small pool .
Just sayin!!! LOL Can’t believe we’re doing this again. Thought there was going to be a 3 or 5 year window of calm!!!
outher conferences will panic and start moveing to 16 teams.
and there are only abought 5 teams that are good enough to have and if we wait the outhers will grab them up like the big 10 is doeing now.
so i would like the ACC to grab what they think is the best 2 i think U CONN and L vill my self
but that is just my thought.
that would give us 15 and save a place for ND.
They will have to start thinking about it though, because once Md. leaves, they will need a team for scheduling and division balance.
Isn’t there anyone else out there, we haven’t thought about, someone sexier than Big East re-treads!!!
Yes, I am being selfish. Pitt and ‘Cuse got in, too bad!!! LOL
1) Do nothing
2) Add one more school to get to 14 fb schools (UCONN or UL are the obvious left overs)
3) Make a bold move and go to 16 and take the remaining viable schools off the board (You know that FSU is leaving for the B12 and UL is waiting)
Likely candidates are are UCONN, UL, and UC.
ACC will be fine. No worries for PITT. Would have taken a B10 invite but if they don’t want us then no time to sit around looking at that horse. I for one am happy with the ACC invite.
and if Rutgers goes… double ouch…
Rutgers and UConn were odds on favorite for expansion with Rutgers being 1st choice.
Clearly ACC will go after UConn… they have no other choice and UConn was begging the ACC to take them but BC blocked them.
ACC can’t go to Notre Dame and say “all in”… ND tooo powerful…
Question… how much does Big10 schools get versus ACC…
I thought the difference was only 5million/yr… but the issue is Big10 is up for renewal and ACC just renewed.
Nashville would also be a nice road trip, we could wear our country-western duds that weekend. 🙂
Welcome back Dan-o
Hi Frankie
Pitt fan in Atlanta
Always will be !
Dan is right. You get PSU the money skyrockets which is why WVU would leave.
Revenue is one thing, Profit is another and the lower expenses for WVU (assuming the ACC would take a junior college) and the higher figure you get with PSU makes up the difference.
If you only make one move here, you will do what PENNDOT did with the Fort Pitt tunnels: design them for the day they opened and not for anything after that.
Don’t misunderstand me….I don’t see where the Big ten improved competitively…they have not…they just gor Purdue in football and Iowa in basketball…but they do have a TV footprint that enhances a market they already penetrated.
If this is about TV sets, then go to the TV sets.
Don’t be surprised if ACC goes after Vandy!!!
Split the teams between Pac12 and SEC…
and WVU may be on the outside looking in!!
There you go, by two’s they go as if entering Noah’s Ark. 2 to the ACC, 2 to the SEC and 2 to the Little 11. Everything is solved.
ACC has 14 with ND as Football member so they only need 2 to get to 16.
L-Ville & Cincy go back to C-USA from wince they came. As does USF. And Temple goes back to the MAC along with Uconn. There they can finally develop a real rivalry with Umass. Ta dah.
See Emel solved everything
Yeah Maryland just went from being the red headed step child to North Carolina and Duke to a similar position to Ohio State and Michigan.
I wonder if the SEC would trade Vandy for FSU. That way the SEC could do away with all pretense that college sports has anything to do with academics.
Good riddance. Have fun getting steamrolled playing 1950’s football in the asshole of America.
when you think of a team you have to think of a team that will really come not pipe dreams.
go to rivals and look at there list of div 1 teams
then you will see who you can pick from not that many that is why you go with u conn for BB and
L VILLE FOR bb and FOOTBALL OR TULANE BECUSE THEY ARE A AAU SCHOOL for academics there are not more then 5 or 6 good schools to pick from.
who would really come forget schools in big 10 or big 12 or sec or pac 10 once you do that youwill see there are not that many to pick from forget the pipe dreams try to keep it real we are the 5th
best conference mony wise so be real.
The ACC will pick up Louisville or UConn, both of whom are huge academic and athletic upgrades. Maryland is buttawful both academically and athletically.
By spring no one will even remember the embarrassing burst of Chicken Little-ism that was the reaction of far too many to the worst university in the ACC leaving.
It’s just ridiculous. The ACC is not going to be around for a year or two, it’s going to be around for a long, long time. The Big Ten just added a steaming dumpster to its conference and people are saying that its the end of the world for the ACC?
u conn cinci and SF and that ACC might take 2 teams not just one like i said give us a total of
15
So does anyone other than Uconn to replace Maryland make sense ?
The big 50K watt talker radio station in the middle of ACC country is reporting that Uconn is the one !
That is how ridiculous these Little 11 ppl think in regards to their overrated, archaic conference.
Like Notre Dame in their own backyard, none of these other ACC teams need the Little 11 to rescue them financially. And like Notre Dame these schools would thumb their noses at the Little 11.
also ACC looking at L ville as well as u conn.
that ACC is in talks with 4 schools cenci and SF
also.
now ask yourself this can big east go on with the loss of 2 scools or the loss of 3 or is it dead.
Coach K does:
Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense.
Take a read: link to espn.go.com
ACC is the best academic conference as of 2011 rankings:
link to bleacherreport.com
We need to get over this self-doubting Bullshit.
Having lived in an area where I have to sell PITT , I have no doubts. You need to quit listening to the haters of PITT, which amounts to 50% of Pittsburgh and most of the media up there.
Stand tall my brothers and be proud. PITT is IT !
Veritas et Virtus !
Pitt IS a great university. I’ve lived a successful life in large part due to my Pitt degrees, even though I haven’t lived in Pgh for 30 years. I love Pitt.
And the ACC move was great at the time. It’s just that things are changing every 5 minutes now. That doesn’t mean the move was a mistake.
There will be, IMO, 4 super conferences with 16 teams each eventually, give or take, and one “leftover” – probably the ACC, since it is the weakest in football (which is the revenue engine of it all).
And that’s where Pitt will be, in a conference of mostly basketball schools that dabble in football. It’s not the end of the world. Many great schools will be there, including Pitt. But make no mistake, it will be a second fiddle conference.
THE ACC will be one of the 4 Superconferences.
Why do I say this, one only need look out west to the current PAC 12. They only can get to 16 by adding Texas plus her 3 consorts (Ok, OSU & TT).
So that means the BIg 12 (10 now) will be history.
If you figure out how the PAC 12 gets to 16 without Texas please let me know.
Hail to PITT.
Wherever we’ll be it will be a Great Conference.
I’ll have to admit I hadn’t considered that about the PAC 12. Thanks – that makes me feel a bit better. I think I’ll have a little libation – as Myron used to put it – and relax.
Hail to Pitt indeed.
Folks…Maryland left the ACC, not the Union. They are broke and they’re desperate.
Routers is leaving the Big East: who wouldn’t?
Conferences are looking to distribute their own products. Like Cambpells buying soup kitchens.
The real entity in trouble is ESPN. It is their distribution network that is being attacked.
ND essentially distributes it’s own sports. The ACC needs to think ahead and create ACCTV or whatever it is they want to call it.
Add a team near New York, finance the damn thing and pray your not for profit status does nor get challenged.
If I am stategizing for ESPN, that is where I set my sights.
Pitt is just fine but the real dollars are not in the Marylands of the world, they are in distributing your own product.
That way, you don’t have to pay ESPN an access fee.
My guess is that
1) they add UCONN immediately (easy decision)
2) they consider adding Louisville and possibly Cincinnati
ACC WILL BE THE FIRST CONFERENCE TO GO TO 16 giving the nod to everyone else to do the same. The B12 will be going after Lousiville (and possible Boise State) as they are not going to be left without additions. The real question is who gets to Lousville first (ACC or B12).
Next question will be doest the PAC 12 go to 16? (Texas, TTech, Oklahoma, Ok ST). If they do then the Big Whatever will reassess. The problem is that the Big Whatever is running out of choices of AAU schools in contiguous states.
The ACC will be fine. I will say that when Coach K shares concern then Swofford and the NC guys will listen. There next move will be more reactionary than anything. Reacting to the Big Whatever move and reacting to Coach K’s concern.
But yes, it’s a long shot, but ND could help.
Add USF (orlando), Louisville or Cincinnati. Throw in UCONN for a pseudo-NY market. This takes you to 16 + ND. Travel become easier for everyone as you go to North and South divisions.
Let’s be real about this. It isn’t about academics. Its about TV markets and TV appeal. UCONN gets in because of BBall. Louisville because of FBall and USF because of…well… Orlando.
