****The Official NEW new new conference realignment & shit talk thread****

[Saul Good]

Let's do it.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Mizzous motivation was to better themselves. Largely, I think they succeeded. Their ulterior motivation was to screw their old rivals. Largely, they failed miserably.


The only salient point is what Fox Network thought. FOIA documents showed Beebe telling league officers that Fox only valued Texas in the deal. They were the linchpin. ATM obv didn't like hearing that but it was Beebes message. Had MU stayed or left, that dynamic wouldn't change. Ergo MU did nothing for the Big 12 holdovers. Zip.

Do you have evidence for this claim, or are you simply lying again?

[Prison Bitch]

Fair point. I will rephrase that to say "MUs ulterior motivation was to screw Kansas based on a multitude of Internet posts and radio call ins". Even you, I think, heard the cacophony of Mizzouchebags predicting the death of the League. There's a reason they wanted that, and its obv to anyone with a brain.

[WilliamTheIrish]

That's true. Most of the MUtt fans were openly cheering for a complete dissolution of the league. He'll, they still are cheering for it.

[Bambi]

What they thought was their greatest achievement has only turned up roses for KU.

It's so mizzou you can't make it up.

[TribalElder]

It's about to be football season, shouldn't KU fans be in hibernation until midnight at the phog

[bdj23]

So, you guys are a football school this year?

[KChiefs1]

The 2014 SEC spring meetings are officially in the books, and here are the biggest takeaways from a cordial few days in Destin, Florida:

A new division
Mike Slive rang the NCAA’s bell. Prior to the start of the meetings, Slive said he anticipated most of the conversation to center around Big Five conference autonomy, meaning the five power conferences want to decide how their own legislative process works. While that did happen and was much of the discussion, Slive also threw in a negotiation tactic regarding creating a Divison IV, where the power conferences would pull away from the NCAA. The NCAA Board of Directors is set to vote on the NCAA restructuring in August.

Is Slive threatening the NCAA? I don’t think it’s a threat as much as a negotiation tactic at this point. Autonomy doesn’t mean the end of the NCAA, at least not yet. Big Five schools will spend more money how they see fit, and it will benefit the players. Full cost of attendance or stipends, travel expenses for family members and broader insurance policies have all been discussed. Slive wants the NCAA to give them autonomy, but he reminds them they can absolutely create their own autonomy by breaking away.

Revenue
The SEC announced a record $309.6 million in revenue, which will be distributed to the schools to the tune of $20.9 million. This gives you an idea of just how much money is pouring in over the last several years: 2009 ($165.9 million); 2010 ($233.3 million); 2011 ($248.1 million); 2012 ($256.9 million); 2013 ($304.7 million).

In an interview this week with ESPN senior VP for college networks Justin Connolly, he said the network could be worth as much as $500 million to the conference per year, or $35.7 million per school once distribution is achieved. The SEC currently gets about $20 million per year in TV revenue. So, um, that’s a huge bump.

Coaches’ ’unanimous’ support for early signing period
The SEC coaches are in favor of having an additional signing period the first Monday after Thanksgiving, but the league isn’t in full support yet. The ACC proposed to have one in August, but the SEC coaches are not in favor of that, especially when things are gearing up for the season. Much debate has taken place about whether this is good for the schools or the prospects. The bottom line is that it’s not for every prospect, just the minority who are ready to have the process behind them. Any inkling of doubt from a prospect would cause him not to sign early, but if he did sign early, he couldn’t take any more visits. The SEC will keep the current recruiting calendar intact, but if change is necessary, the first Monday after Thanksgiving is the day preferred.

10-second proposal
We knew this one wasn’t going away anytime soon. The coaches discussed it, but things were cordial and nobody got punched. I’m kidding, kind of. Gus Malzahn said there was a healthy debate. Not all agreed, but it was ‘healthy’. 2015 is a rules change year, and unless there’s sufficient data to change the rule under the umbrella of player safety, it won’t happen. But that leads me into the next topic…

8th referee
The league will experiment in 2014 with a single eight-man officiating crew. The added official is called the ‘center judge’. The center judge is assigned to spot the football in an orderly and accurate fashion. Could this be the middle ground to the 10-second proposal differences? At this point it’s just an experiment.

Other notes:

CLANGA! The new SEC rule allows teams to play music and artificial noisemakers until the center is over the football. How will the referees police this? Nonetheless, Mississippi State wins the day!

The SEC is allowing the 14 member schools to choose whether or not they want FCS teams on their schedules. The Big Ten instituted a rule to play no more FCS schools, but the SEC isn’t following suite.

The SEC modified its bylaws to implement an automatic waiver process for graduate school transfer student-athletes with less than two years of eligibility remaining.

[KChiefs1]

Rabalais: Frequently asked questions about the SEC Network

DESTIN, Fla. — The switch flips on for the SEC Network on Aug. 14 — that’s 11 weeks from Thursday — a channel that will focus on the Southeastern Conference 24/7/365.

With something this new, this vast (there are 8,760 hours in a year, and the SEC Network will be on for every one), there are tons of questions even this close to launch.

We sat down at this week’s SEC Spring Meeting with Justin Connolly, ESPN senior vice president for college networks (ESPN is producing the SEC channel) to try to answer some of them. Here’s what we learned:

How long is the deal between the SEC and ESPN?

Twenty years, through 2034.

How much will the network cost me to get?

According to Sports Business Journal, carriers in the 11-state SEC footprint are expected to pay $1.30 per month per subscription. In non-SEC states, the license fee would be only 25 cents, according to SBJ.

How much is the network going to be worth to each school?

It’s hard to count that high.

Based on the rate within SEC states alone, if you multiply $1.30 times 12 months times the estimated 30 million subscribers in that footprint, you get $468 million. That would be $33.4 million per school — per year. And that’s without counting advertising revenue or subscribers from non-SEC states. Factor that in, and the SEC Network could easily be worth $500 million per year or $35.7 million per school once full distribution is achieved.

Currently, each SEC school gets about $20 million per year in TV revenue, so it’s easy to see what a huge impact the network will have on SEC bottom lines. LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva has said he hopes revenue from the SEC Network will reduce or at least postpone the need for raising ticket prices.

How can I get the SEC Network?

Currently, the only major carriers in south Louisiana who carry the network are AT&T U-Verse and Dish Network.

ESPN and Cox officials are tight-lipped about negotiations at this point, which are taking place with Cox’s national headquarters in Atlanta.

Meanwhile, Eatel is a one of about 1,000 local providers across the nation who are negotiating for SEC Network through an organization called the National Cable Television Cooperative.

“We fully anticipate having it when it launches in August,” Eatel spokesman Trae Russell said Thursday.

Will the SEC Network meet its distribution goals by Aug. 14?

Unlikely. At this point, Connolly said the network is at about 20-25 percent of its goal and he didn’t sound panicked about that number.

“If you look back at new networks as a whole, holes are filled toward the end,” Connolly said.

“The next 75 days are about trying to have productive conversations with people.”

In other words, expect a lot of 11th-hour deals, at least before the network’s really critical date: Aug. 28. That’s when it will show an SEC football doubleheader — Texas A&M at South Carolina and Temple at Vanderbilt.

Meanwhile, people like Alleva and SEC Commissioner Mike Slive suggested the network is available to any and all who want to drop their current provider and switch to AT&T or Dish Network. That rather cavalier attitude reflects the SEC’s hard line and confident bargaining position.

The cable and satellite providers will sign up eventually. They know who their subscribers are and what they want. But it will probably take time.

LSU had 30 regular-season baseball games televised this season. How will the SEC Network possibly air them all?

It can’t. Connolly talked about having midweek baseball games on the SEC Network and televising as many as four SEC series per weekend, but the fact is LSU baseball fans will get fewer televised games than they have in the past. The SEC Network’s website touts 75 baseball games per season. Total.

Consider that this weekend’s NCAA Baton Rouge regional is webcast on ESPN3.com. More than half of the SEC Network’s 1,000 events will shown on its website.

That includes baseball. A lot of baseball.

Alleva said LSU is spending about $2 million to get its video production facilities up to SEC Network standards. How did they do?

“LSU’s in a good spot,” Connolly said. “They have a great video department there. We did a couple of (test) baseball games on ESPN3 and feel really good about it. We should be in good shape there.”

Connolly said only two of the SEC’s 14 schools (he declined to name them) still have work to do to be up to speed by Aug. 14. Each school is expected to provide high-definition capabilities from all its sports venues and a TV production studio. But as we said earlier, the return should be well worth it.

What about TigerVision football games or Sunday night LSU replays on CST?

Those are a thing of the past. Connolly said there will be rebroadcasts of football games in morning blocks during the week and on an on-demand basis online.

“Florida and LSU are where we’ve heard the most about this,” Connolly said. “We need to be careful not to put the same team in the same block every week, but at the same time find a way to serve fans to make it available to them and use our digital outlet to do that.”

Could the occasional a midweek baseball or a women’s basketball game could be passed on to a local provider?

“We’ve had conversations with some local folks,” Connolly said, “but at this point, we see it as one-stop shopping. If you want to see an SEC event in any sport, save the CBS package, the SEC Network or ESPN is where it’s at.”

Or at least it will be once all those pesky distribution deals are wrapped up.

Follow Scott Rabalais on Twitter: @RabalaisAdv

[kepp]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

Rabalais: Frequently asked questions about the SEC Network

DESTIN, Fla. — The switch flips on for the SEC Network on Aug. 14 — that’s 11 weeks from Thursday — a channel that will focus on the Southeastern Conference 24/7/365.
...
Follow Scott Rabalais on Twitter: @RabalaisAdv

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Fair point. I will rephrase that to say "MUs ulterior motivation was to screw Kansas based on a multitude of Internet posts and radio call ins". Even you, I think, heard the cacophony of Mizzouchebags predicting the death of the League. There's a reason they wanted that, and its obv to anyone with a brain.

Were fans potentially excited about that? Yeah, there were some. I'll admit to enjoying the idea that some rivals might not come out of realignment as well. I was actually against moving when Missouri did, but I understand the reasons the administrators and decision makers did it.

The primary motivation of Chancellor Deaton and other administrators wasn't to screw everybody else and relegate rivals to the Mountain West or etc. This was a stability issue, plain and simple. Missouri had a chance to play its own cards rather than sitting around and waiting to see what Texas did (and how everything shook out from there).

The movement of Texas A&M and Missouri (as well as Nebraska and Colorado) and resulting instability forced the Big 12 to change some of its operating policies, including how Tier 1 and Tier 2 revenue is split, to survive.

If schools like Iowa State like the money they're receiving under this revenue model, they can't demonize or mock the schools that left. It probably wouldn't have happened this way otherwise.

It also looks more and more like the SEC Network is going to be a significant financial windfall that compensates SEC schools at an extremely high level. I don't buy the $500 million-to-the-conference stuff that's being thrown around, but I could see $250 million ($17.5 million per school). Even at $150 million, you're still looking at $10 million+ per school. That's impressive T3 rights money for everyone except Texas (or at least was the last time we saw T3 numbers thrown around).

Long-term, that MORE than makes up for 2-3 years of getting $2-3 million less in revenue for Texas A&M and Missouri (not sure if that even plays out that way, though... my understanding is each school's cut is $20.9 million this year, but that is before bowl revenue is distributed).

[Prison Bitch]

Of course MU's main goal was self-determination (a goal they don't want Kansas to exercise of course). I just point out that the MU fans were going bonkers with glee and were very outspoken about Kansas ending up in some shit league. Regardless of PittGorilla and whoever claiming that RockNation and Tigerboard et al don't represent all fans. That's a moronic point since-well-what exactly does? Thousands of posters and tons of radio callers count for a lot.


As to the contract you forgot to mention Nebraska was the biggest opponent of revenue sharing and for good cause. So their departure if anything was because they couldn't hoard more. Mizzou and Colorado didn't matter just like WVU and TCU don't. I'm not sure on ATM.


Sec contract will be good for those schools. Lets suppose you pass Kansas sitting at $30m. What does it matter if you don't win? UCONN fans don't care about tv money or conference affiliation- they don't have to!

[Bambi]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Of course MU's main goal was self-determination (a goal they don't want Kansas to exercise of course). I just point out that the MU fans were going bonkers with glee and were very outspoken about Kansas ending up in some shit league. Regardless of PittGorilla and whoever claiming that RockNation and Tigerboard et al don't represent all fans. That's a moronic point since-well-what exactly does? Thousands of posters and tons of radio callers count for a lot.


As to the contract you forgot to mention Nebraska was the biggest opponent of revenue sharing and for good cause. So their departure if anything was because they couldn't hoard more. Mizzou and Colorado didn't matter just like WVU and TCU don't. I'm not sure on ATM.


Sec contract will be good for those schools. Lets suppose you pass Kansas sitting at $30m. What does it matter if you don't win? UCONN fans don't care about tv money or conference affiliation- they don't have to!

Is there any way to figure exactly how much Kansas is making with all their contracts combined? I can't really find a clear source on it.

[blake5676]

Originally Posted by Bambi

Is there any way to figure exactly how much Kansas is making with all their contracts combined? I can't really find a clear source on it.

Why not just make up the numbers on your own? No matter what you find when you look for it, I'm confident you'll either misinterpret or misrepresent them to make the point you're after anyhow. That's your schtick.

And furthermore, what exactly is the endgame for this argument anyways? Does it matter to either school if one or the other is bringing in an extra million or two? All of these schools are making boatloads of cash! I suppose if it makes you feel like a winner on a message board you can argue whether the exact numbers have significant meaning and pat yourself on the back. In the end though, Missouri did what was best for them both financially and more importantly (as has been pointed out to you two morons) for long term stability.

Fans (especially internet smack champions) are by and large oblivious to the fact that this was a business decision. Anyone who thinks that screwing over Kansas or the Big XII had any role in going to the SEC is a goddamn idiot.

[Prison Bitch]

Except nobody once argued the MU brass considered that, only that your trash fan base did. Try reading the posts so you don't make faulty arguments.

[KChiefs1]

Mizzou is in better shape now than they were four years ago. Enough said.