The Future of College Football

[Kirk Herbstreet]

Howdy all! After quiting the dumpster fire that is Utefans a few months back, I am happy to find a new home here during football season.

I have been thinking about college football’s future ever since the move to the PAC 12. I think there will be some pretty dramatic changes and that these changes will come in steps.

1. BIG 12 will announce in the next few days that they are expanding by four teams: Houston, Cincy, Colorado State and BYU. This is purely a money grab by Texas and Oklahoma. They will reap most of the benefit of these new additions. The four new schools will be given so little money that it will make Utah’s build up to full revenue look generous by comparison.
2. By 2024, the Big 12 (as we know it) will cease to exist. Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, West Virginia, and Iowa State (as hard as it is to imagine) will be divided up between the PAC, SEC and B1G. Notre Dame and UConn will be invited to join the ACC.
3. Believe it or not, the PAC 12 will have advantages over the other conferences (in terms of selecting the best candidates for expansion) because of the PAC 12 Network. In seven years, cord cutters will dominate the market; the PAC 12 Network will be able to provide access to games ala cart ($4 a game) or users can subscribe to the channel(s) for $15 a month (and how many of you wouldn’t do that?). Because the conference has retained full rights to the network, its tier three (and eventually all tiers) will be worth a whole lot of money.
4. Those who are familiar with Nebraska and Missouri know that while neither is unhappy with their moves in conferences, neither is particularly happy either. Missouri is an AAU institution and its academics really wanted the B1G the first time (and still do). Nebraska feels like a fish out of water and misses its association with Oklahoma.
5. In ten years the conferences will look something like this:
   1. PAC 12 will remain largely the same, but will add Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
   2. B1G will add Kansas, Missouri (restoring a heated rivalry) and Iowa State (AAU status).
   3. ACC will add Notre Dame and UCONN.
   4. SEC will add West Virginia, Oklahoma State (T-Boone) and Kansas State.
6. With its four new additions the PAC 12 Network will, in a dramatic switch, be one of the most valuable sport networks around.
7. Eventually, all PAC 16 football games will be seen exclusively on the network.

[Anonymous]

The politics are insufferable over at Utefans.net. Lovers at that site will say there’s no traffic over here. Reality is, if you scrubbed out all the BS and Political posts over there, you have the thoughtful sports related posts which you have provided here. Thank you for the contribution.

[Tony (admin)]

Welcome to the site Kirk. I’m your host. Thanks for stopping in and posting. Regardless of what other sites do or don’t do; regardless of how much traffic they do or don’t have… I’m here to try and make this the best Ute fans site on the planet. Ute Hub works great on mobile, doesn’t crash your browser, doesn’t bring your phone to it’s knees with ads and redirects, doesn’t have zoob trolls… It does have a great community of Ute fans who engage in great conversation!

[Puget Ute]

Great post Kirk*! (I am a lifelong Pens, especially Mario fan…)

I will buy the PAC-12 network, right now from my phone, for $15/Mo. And i would pay $4/game if they can stream 4K (or whatever will be the standard in a few years). And i have to think millions of other people would do that happily. I dumped cable a free months ago but kept HBO-Now, just because I liked the programming.

Interesting on there PAC network being so valuable in the future. I didn’t think about it that way. I suspect you are correct.

I love the thought of having UT and Oklahoma in the PAC, despite the headaches they will bring. Those two schools alone would nearly double there fanbase of the conference. (Side note, if you want to see some REAL politics and sports trash talk, check out the UT boards. They make uf.n look like a bunch of genteel pikers by comparison).

The future is bright. And I am glad that we are already in the big boys club!

*Tony, for some reason I can only see posters’ login name on Tapatalk, and not their preferred avatar name. Is there a way to remedy this?

[Kirk Herbstreet]

Any fan of Lemieux, can be a friend of mine.

I am very bullish on the future of the PAC 12 Network. I think if the fans, administrators, and conference big wigs can be patient for a few years, it will pay off mightily. As it is, I don’t have TV service of any kind (I am considering getting Playstation TV, as there is no contract and it is hand over fist cheaper than any other option) but would gladly pay to have PAC 12 Network during football and probably basketball seasons.

[89ute]

Good article here, Jon Wilner interview with Larry Scott about the Pac-12 Nets.

Link

There are other good articles there too, like this one regarding Larry’s thought on the tv revenue disparity between us and the BIG/SEC.

[Tony (admin)]

Mario bought me a steak dinner a few years ago. It was pretty cool. He was sitting at a table next to mine at a steakhouse in Palm Springs. He picked up our table’s check!

[leftyjace]

Count me as one that would pay for the PAC-12 network online.
I also cut the cable a while ago. Having season tickets to both football and basketball makes it easier, but there are still other games I have strong interest in.