TCU to Big 12

[Nukem2]

Per CBS

[79Warrior]

Per CBS

Wait, what happened to the "Unity"?????? The football schools cant get out fast enough. I hope we are working hard to lure Xavier for basketball.

[TallTitan34]

This is why we need to dump the football schools.  If we stay with them, we are just going to have the same problem a few years down the road when a power conference needs another team.

[dw3dw3dw3]

I agree... Problem is... How do you dump Uconn, Ville, Cincinnati, Rutgers, USF, WVU, etc.. if no one wants them? For basketball, they still make you a top 3 conference.

[TallTitan34]

You make no effort to add any more football schools.  They will have to leave.

[Canadian Dimes]

You make no effort to add any more football schools.  They will have to leave.

problem with that is MArinatto, the BE, and the Presidents would need to make a philosophical shift.  Currently, the philosphy is to add football teams to get to 10-12 football teams.  What you are asking for is 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

Does marinatoo want to be the commish of a football conference and does the BE want to be a football or basketball conference.  Until the decision is made to be a basketball conference that wont happen.

[GGGG]

Bball schools need to show the balls to leave this bunch behind and start their own conference with 3-5 quality basketball schools.  Dimes is right...the BE and its football schools care about football first and foremost.

[TallTitan34]

Last weekend all the football schools were "united" to maintaining the Big East.  Obviously not.  

Time to change their philosophy.

[GGGG]

TT, if they have a football team, they are going to be worried about that first because of the $$$ involved.  The BE is in danger of potentially losing their AQ status, and that scares the sh*t out of them. 

[Aughnanure]

Bball schools need to show the balls to leave this bunch behind and start their own conference with 3-5 quality basketball schools.  Dimes is right...the BE and its football schools care about football first and foremost.

Agree, but we must wait for this all to fall apart. The Big East name is more valuable to the basketball schools, and it will really help the league remain relevant when the football schools go wherever they go.

[TallTitan34]

Their AQ status is gone.  Adding crappy teams isn't going to help.

They need to realize this and change their philosophy.

[texaswarrior74]

All over ESPN Dallas radio shows right now. They're saying that TCU has been invited to join the Big 12. Timing of the announcement is very interesting as well since this is Texas/OU weekend in Dallas. ESPN Gameday will be here on Saturday (actually arriving today) so there will be lots of coverage from the Cotton Bowl/State Fair.

After Patterson went off on June Jones and SMU on Tuesday and vowed "never to help them again" and to "do anything he could do to block SMU's path to the Big East" I wouldn't be surprised to see TCU blot from the BE and accept the Big 12 invitation.

FWIW, even Patterson's biggest fans in the media around here have been roundly criticizing his rant about SMU and have all openly expressed that they hope that TCU censures him in some way. He soundly like a whiny little girl after totally not understanding that Jones was complimenting the "system"/program that Patterson had built at TCU.

It's the first time I've seen the media here really come down hard on any local coach since the whole SMU/Bobby Collins fiasco in the 80s.

[Aughnanure]

Another announcement coming soon?

https://twitter.com/#!/DaveSittler/status/121965274219028480

Rumor is that its most likely the conference signing their 6-year tv rights away.

[ecompt]

BE teams have to realize their football conference is always going to be crapola, but it can still be a terrific basketball conference. No one in BE cities gives a rat's behind about college football.

[GGGG]

It's not what people "care" about.  It is about $$$ - money that is used to support a great portion of their athletic budgets.  These programs made assumptions about revenue, expense, etc. and made all sorts of plans accordingly.  They can't just turn around and change their "philosophy" to "well, we kind of suck and football and no one cares anyway, so let's just concentrate on being a great basketball conference no matter that it could cost us $10 million."  And I am not exaggerating on that figure.

In the grand scheme of things in college athletics, men's basketball is a distant...way distant...second to football.  That's simply the reality of the world we live in. 

[TallTitan34]

The money will be gone if they don't have AQ status.

[ecompt]

Yet, Sultan, the NCAA makes an absolute fortune off March Madness. The basketball schools in the BE should just say FU to the football schools and let them go play their meaningless games.

[T-Bone]

Anyone know if TCU will have to pay the buy-out?  I realize, a day late a dollar short and all that. 

[GGGG]

The money will be gone if they don't have AQ status.

Exactly...but they have to try to fight to keep it.  They are betting that adding the right football schools will do that.  They may be wrong, but they have to try.

Yet, Sultan, the NCAA makes an absolute fortune off March Madness.

The combined conference football rights dwarf the March Madness rights.  

[mugrad99]

March Madness is 14 yr 10.8 billion....Not sure what the TV rights are for regular season or conference tournaments.....

[Pakuni]

The combined conference football rights dwarf the March Madness rights.  

Not close to true.
The combined annual BCS conference rights (football and basketball) comes in at about $683 million per year, according to these figures.

http://www.walletgenius.com/2010/06/15/the-value-of-the-tv-contracts-of-the-6-major-ncaa-conferences/

I haven't done the full math, but it looks like these numbers here pretty much are the same ($205 million for SEC, $33 million Big East, etc.)

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college/2010/07/taking-a-closer-look-at-conference-television-contracts.html

Last year, the NCAA and CBS struck a deal in which the network will pay $11 billion over 14 years for tournament rights. That's $785 million a year.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2010/04/ncaa-reaches-14-year-deal-with-cbsturner/1

[ecompt]

Thanks for the research, pakuni.

[bilsu]

Anyone know if TCU will have to pay the buy-out?  I realize, a day late a dollar short and all that. 

$5,000,000 buyout.

[GGGG]

Those figures are old.  The Pac 12 figure is now $225M per year.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6471380

The Big 12 combo with Fox and ESPN is $150M per year

http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2011-04-13/big-12-strikes-landmark-lucrative-tv-contract-fox

The ACC contract is $155M per year.

http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt-newteel-acctv-0520,0,4065545.column

I am not sure why they got the ACC one wrong.  That was signed before the blog post.  But the Pac 12 and B12 deals are within the past year.

You add those all up and you get a shade over $1B per year.  Now obviously I was wrong when I say it "dwarfes" what March Madness gets, but it is still more.

And this doesn't include the revenue that conferences get from participating in the BCS to begin with.

[StillAWarrior]

Those figures are old.  The Pac 12 figure is now $225M per year.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6471380

The Big 12 combo with Fox and ESPN is $150M per year

http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2011-04-13/big-12-strikes-landmark-lucrative-tv-contract-fox

The ACC contract is $155M per year.

http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt-newteel-acctv-0520,0,4065545.column

I am not sure why they got the ACC one wrong.  That was signed before the blog post.  But the Pac 12 and B12 deals are within the past year.

You add those all up and you get a shade over $1B per year.  Now obviously I was wrong when I say it "dwarfes" what March Madness gets, but it is still more.

And this doesn't include the revenue that conferences get from participating in the BCS to begin with.

Is there also a distinction to be made that the football money goes directly to the conferences to be divided by the members, while the March Madness money goes to the NCAA and much of it is used for other purposes than payouts to the conferences/teams that participate?  I have a vague recollection that the NCAA uses part of that cash to run the tournaments for all the other sports.  Could be wrong about that.  Does anybody know what percentage of that March Madness money gets paid out, and what percentage gets used by the NCAA for other purposes?  Or am I completely wrong about this?