TSL Podcast 243: Conference Realignment Has Hokies Concerned

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1. Chris has nailed it. Many of us were arguing these same points 20+ years ago when conference realignment was in the air. The ACC and Big East back in the day, were so focused on market and academics, they neglected the the most important thing….A MARKETABLE PRODUCT, which has always been college football’s best….big schools, tailgates, excitement, and pageantry….football isn’t the product, you can watch football on the NFL or high school, the EVENT is the product in college football. Those of us for pulling for WVU back in 2004, they brought a host of rivalry games to the ACC with VT, Pitt, UVA, and at the time, Miami.

   The backwards way of thinking back then (and now) is why the ACC continues to wither on the vine.

2. There was talk about the schools/conferences figuring out what the add/move payout values are. Let’s be clear – it is the networks that really do that math and it’s ALL about TV. Games that draw 2M+, 5M+… They will pay for TV viewers and couldn’t care less how many seats in the stadium are filled or empty. The other factors – academics, olympic sports, geography have some minor calculation but in the Power2 – It’s about ESPN, Fox, and whatever they can grab from the other networks. If we end up in a P2 keep in mind that the revamped playoff dynamic has changed. Big10 and SEC can now say – “It’s cute that you think you get the same vote as us”. They could conceivably take their product between them. One other wildcard. With rare exceptions (Texas in the B12), the standard idea is that every school gets the same conference payout. That is NOT set in stone forever if both parties want to agree for additional schools – so even the idea that you have to add $XXM of value to be worth the payout may not hold.

3. Pertaining to the B10, methinks that jetlag will be hard on student athletes. During exams do you want to take a jet from Penn State to UCLA? To offset jetlag then send the kids 2-3 days ahead of time, but miss classes and exams, or take exams early? It gonna be a clusterf*&%$ for academics. Football and basketball players not so bad but the olympic sports kids won’t stand for it because they are real students.

4. The negativity in this one is palatable. We can beat these guys. We have in the past and can will continue to do so in the future.

5. I think a distinction to be made is that if 8 teams were to be added to the P2 that the B1G is adding 4 and the SEC is adding 4. If that is the case, we might not be in the top 8 of the P2, but we could be in the top 4 of the SEC.

   Whatever happens, I think your later discussion about if the current conference model changes and we end up playing our more regional, comparable schools that would work fine for us. The environment that created 1999 is long gone.

6. “The law of diminishing returns is an economic principle stating that as investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment, after a certain point, cannot continue to increase if other variables remain at a constant.”

   The money fed into the conference furnace is exclusively stocked by television ad dollars which affords ESPN the means to do so. I envision the day when greed will diminish interest and the current model will implode.

   UCLA student athletes flying to MD to play volleyball? Good God almighty! Have lost our minds?

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