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Irving, Texas — Bob Bowlsby was apprehensive when he first met with a group of Big 12 school presidents about becoming the league commissioner.
Like many other people, Bowlsby had an image of the Big 12 as being unstable after losing four schools over a two-year period. He says he found a group committed to each other and it put him at ease.
On Friday, the Stanford athletic director was formally introduced as the Big 12's new commissioner. He will take over his new role in mid-June.
"I am especially pleased we have chosen one of the country's most respected athletics directors to lead us," Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger said. "Bob Bowlsby has a solid vision and tremendous leadership qualities. This is a great day for the Big 12. There are a lot of good things happening in this conference, and he is the right person to lead us as we begin a new era of competitive and academic excellence."
Bowlsby says he's encouraged and impressed with the stability and mutual commitment of the league's 10 teams going into next season. That includes the additions of TCU and West Virginia when Texas A&M and Missouri leave for the SEC on July 1.
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Comments
STLJayhawk10 1 year ago
now add 2 more teams! louisville and someone else!
itdontmtrtome 1 year ago
Forget Louisville, add Clemson and Flor st.
Pitthawk34 1 year ago
Yes, Word is that interest in BYU is now at a all time low.
HouTexHawk 1 year ago
I am curious to how realistic the prospects of Clemson and FSU moving to the Big 12 is. That would be a huge coup ensuring that the Big 12 becomes the #4 conference in terms of stability.
I also wonder if the new BCS format goes to ensure that there will be 4 superconferences whose winner get a spot in the BCS final four. Each superconference would have a championship game which would essentially be the Elite Eight.
HouTexHawk 1 year ago
I am curious to how realistic the prospects of Clemson and FSU moving to the Big 12 is. That would be a huge coup ensuring that the Big 12 becomes the #4 conference in terms of stability.
I also wonder if the new BCS format goes to ensure that there will be 4 superconferences whose winner get a spot in the BCS final four. Each superconference would have a championship game which would essentially be the Elite Eight.
KGphoto 1 year ago
Bob Bowlsby replaces Beebe in Barnum and Bailey Big 12!
OakvilleJHawk 1 year ago
Kansas [KU, KSU], Iowa {ISU], Oklahoma {OU, OSU], Texas {UT, TT, TCU, BU] , West Virginia [WV]...it makes sense geographically by adding Kentucky [Louisville] and Ohio [Cincinnati] for the initial 12 then eventually go west for Utah [BYU] and Idaho [Boise State] and east for South Carolina [Clemson] and Florida [FSU].......unless the Big 10 comes knocking and wants an 8 team western division with KU included!!
That would be so awesome if the Big Ten came after us after giving Mizzou the middle finger!!!
wtf45 1 year ago
I dont know alot about all this superconference stuff but going west for teams doesnt seem like a good idea. It seems that nobody watches many games due to the time difference .I Iike the idea of teams from the east.
bradh 1 year ago
+1
jgkojak 1 year ago
1) Cincinatti is not on an academic par with the rest of the B12, and should not be added.
2) Boise State is certainly not on par with the B12. You don't want to give kids an opportunity to get their degree from a less than reliable academic institution like Boise St- no way Texas or Oklahoma want to recruit against that.
3) I really think if the ACC goes belly-up, UNC ends up in the B1G with MD and VA.
Jayhawker28 1 year ago
+1 Academics plays a role in this. Louisville and BYU are the most likely, in my mind. I think the Clemson & FSU talk is a bit premature.
mdfraz 1 year ago
As for UL, I'd MUCH prefer the Clemson-FSU, if at all feasible, for numerous reasons. Much stronger football, schools from a major conference, both with tradition and history, expansion of the conference footprint to two brand new areas. I could be making this up, but I think Louisville isn't exactly a top tier academic school. Not saying academics are a whole let better at FSU/Clemson (although they could be, I don't know) but given a whole lot of other upside, they are heads and shoulders above UL or Cincy as far as I'm concerned.
mpann1818 1 year ago
Geography is no longer a factor it seems...otherwise wvu would not have been chosen...there are countless other examples elsewhere
danmoore 1 year ago
I think our best chance of a Big Ten invite was just prior to the formation of the Big 12 and it would have included Missouri along with either Pitt or Rutgers. If four 16 team conferences is inevitable I wouldn't rule it out. BTW, lots of people have given Mizzou the middle finger.
danmoore 1 year ago
My preference is to keep the Big 12 intact which I believe is a viable option.
baldwinjhawk 1 year ago
The big 12 presidents don't seem interested in Boise State because the academic standards are even worse than KState.. like just above juco level.
HouTexHawk 1 year ago
Given that the Big 12 already has a foothold in the east, I think it makes sense to expand East. To me, it only makes sense to expand to twelve if you can get more money per team. The projection from the new TV deals gives the Big 12 schools the same $/team as the Pac-12's new deal.
billhawk 1 year ago
Totally agree. I like this hire too. Only expand if it adds big new markets and is at least projected to add the average dollars per school that we have now. No need to water down the cool aid.
dylans 1 year ago
Add another 200 teams change the conference name to the NCAA. Then pick your own schedule every year. Wait that would never work, unless you are Notre Dame. How big is big enough 10? 12? 16? 20? Unless the new teams create intrigue or vastly increase revenue for all why water down the legue. It doesn't make sence fot the non revenue producing sports teams to travel that much. The kids education would be forfeit for our entertainment.
chuckberry32 1 year ago
be fearful of the coming realignment. with a 4 team playoff the pace to get to four superconferences will quicken. winner of each one gets in the playoff. question now becomes what are the four?
sec b1g and pac? are pretty much locks. I think the big12 has a decent shot at number 4. I believe this will effectively kill the big east and the only question becomes can we make a stronger conference the acc.
lonestar_jayhawk 1 year ago
I don't agree with the Pac12 being a 'lock'. I think the 'locks' are SEC, B1G and the Big12.
BayHawkaholic 1 year ago
Agree with Chuckberry. The Pac 12 will be a player. Larry Scott negotiated the largest television rights package in college football history, $3 billion over 12 years; and begun the process of building a seven-channel television network.
It will be a long, messy march toward what he sees as inevitable: a single football conference consisting of as many as 72 teams, possessing as much negotiating leverage and commercial potential as the National Football League. “The market right now is inefficient. We have too many sellers and limited buyers. Imagine the kind of value we could unleash if there were only one seller. All six power conferences negotiating one deal. That’s where this is going.”
The SEC ('09), and Big 10, ('07), both signed multibillion-dollar television deals for regular national exposure, and even the ACC and Big 12 were getting their games into better national time slots. The Big Ten, in partnership with Fox Entertainment Group, had launched its own national TV network that generated $225 million in 2010. By 2009 the Pac-10 was fifth among the six major football conferences in revenue, taking in just $109 million, less than half what the SEC earned.
BayHawkaholic 1 year ago
Scott was able to sell the most lucrative television package in college sports history: $3 billion for 12 years to ESPN and Fox, which combined to make the deal in order to keep Comcast-NBC out of the college football business. In the first year the Pac-12 will take in about $180 million from the ESPN-Fox deal and at least $100 million from other sources, making it the richest conference in sports.
The deal reserved plenty of premium programming—namely, high-profile football and basketball games—for a future Pac-12 network. No conference has ever owned and operated its own television network. (The Big Ten Network was launched in partnership with Fox, which owned 49 percent of it.)
Although enthusiastic about owning their own network, the conference’s school presidents declined to give Scott the money to launch it. Instead, Scott has raised startup capital by preselling the rights to cable carriers throughout the West: Comcast, Time Warner (TWX), Cox Communications, and Bright House Networks agreed to $65 million in annual subscription fees. There will be millions more when the conference negotiates its satellite deals with DirecTV (DTV) or Dish Network (DISH).
Remember that argument about centralization vs. fragmentation? Scott has proved that centralization unleashes value at the conference level, and in future negotiations other conferences will take note. It is only a matter of time, Scott believes, before it happens throughout college football. The old multiconference structure will eventually collapse, giving rise to a single consortium, made up of America’s biggest football schools, that can negotiate collectively for the richest possible broadcasting deal.
If Larry Scott has his way, college football one day will be as lucrative as the professional version, rivaling the $6 billion a year in TV revenue the NFL will make in 2014. Reflecting on what he has already accomplished at the Pac-12, Scott says: “This deal is the benchmark. Until the next one.”
lonestar_jayhawk 1 year ago
Forget Cincy, Louisville and BYU for now.
The Big12 is a better Football Conference than the ACC. SOS will be greater in the Big12 than ACC. Big12 teams will have a better chance to make it to the Football Final Four than ACC teams. The TV $$$ is richer in the Big12 than the ACC.
Make a run at Clemson and Florida State. That will entice SEC to make a bid for North Carolina State and Va Tech. That will make Miami and Georgia Tech worried that the ACC is falling apart and knock on our door asking in the Big12. Worried that the ACC is about to be weaker than the BigEast, North Carolina, Duke, Maryland and Virgina jump to the B1G. Then we pick two from 'Cuse, Pitt, UConn, Tutgers, Wake Forrest, Louisville, Cincy or BYU for #15 and #16 teams.
The Football Final Four will be the winner of the Big12, SEC and B1G. The fourth and final spot will come from the PAC12, Notre Dame or the best at-large team.
HouTexHawk 1 year ago
At somepoint what is now FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) or Division 1 is going to have to split up. The Big East is bringing in marginal schools with very little resources to compete and cannot be considered a major conference. Sure Houston and Boise have had some good records and were ranked, but they played in Conference USA and the WAC. The Mountain West which used to have Utah and BYU is adding Utah State and San Jose State, when were they ever relevant and do they have a chance to become relevant. The WAC used to have Boise and are on life support. Conference USA is adding Texas-San Antonio and the University of North Texas. I see a split which includes the SEC, Big 10, Pac 12, Big 12 and ACC, along with Notre Dame and a couple of the original Big East schools.
LogicMan 1 year ago
Much, much more smoke today on the Interweb about FSU and Clemson to the Big 12 for 2013. Where there's thick smoke, there's likely a big fire. Even the North Carolina sites are debating what to do when they leave.
1) Georgia Tech and 2) Miami, Maryland, etc. should be knocking on our new commish's door about now, if they are wise since the SEC and B1G will likely grab ACC teams too.
I do hope that Louisville is part of the Big 12 plan, though. If they could bring Notre Dame with them, that would seal the deal. A difficult assignment for the UofL, though.
mpann1818 1 year ago
Louisville sux from a football standpoint...plus pitino won't be coaching bball forever. Clemson and FSU would be excellent football additions...
elan71 1 year ago
I could see it working out this way...
BIG 12 (love to see ISU leave for the Big 10) West Baylar, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, , TCU, Texas Tech East Duke, Maryland, UNC, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, West Virginia
Big 10 West Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin East Indiana, Louisville, Michigan, MSU, Notre Dame, OSU, Penn State, Pittsburgh
SEC West Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Ol Miss, Miss State, Tennessee, Vandy East Clemson, Florida, FSU, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Miami, South Carolina
dylans 1 year ago
You left out the big12 defectors tamu and mizzu.
inteldesign 1 year ago
Six of our current ten members are in the preseason rankings. Do we need to expand? No! Does having a conference championship game put a National Championship invite at risk? Yes. Is is worth it? That is the main question. Perhaps it is too soon to say. Last year alone is not long enough to make a good decision. There is no doubt that running the gauntlet in this conference is no small challenge. If a team is able to do that, one might argue, why put them at risk by making them play again? When K-State shocked OU in 2003 how did that benefit the conference? Sure it resulted in K-State getting a BCS bowl but overall I don't think the net benefit is there. I think it is going to come down to just how long are the power schools, namely OU and UT willing to turn over their TV rights. If they will go to 13 years as has been reported, then I would say we have a strong conference so lets stand pat. If they will not do that then I think we have to go back to looking at expansion. This is the central question. Who is only relevant if we cannot commit to granting the TV rights long-term. I see this as a big concern for Texas and OU. I think it is legit. Lets be patient and see how it works. OSU may have been screwed last year. If we go another year with a one-loss conference champion being locked out perhaps we need to add. Course now the BCS is talking four-team post-bowl playoff but the same applies. We could knock one team out of the top four teams if our top two play. With the BCS change we could actually be setting pretty, giving us the best chance of the major conferences to get two teams into a four-team playoff.
STLJayhawk10 1 year ago
i got through your first line and had to stop to reply. yes we need to expand so we can have a more viable conference. more teams = conference championship game = more money = we won't get poached from.
april28 1 year ago
As much as people love to hate Texas, the bottom line is this: No big-time realignment in D-1 sports happens without them involved. If Texas locks in as a long-term member of the conference, then the conference is protected. This is doubly-true if OU is included.
And.....let's give our own university a little credit. Although football is king, I don't think that the second-winningest basketball program in history will be left out.
So....I agree, let's not rush to add schools like Clemson. I think that we have a great new leader in charge of the conference. Maybe one with the stuff it would take to bring a certain shamrock school into the fold.
bwill 1 year ago
Mat, it sounds like the time for a percentage wheel is drawing near...
Chris1955 1 year ago
As someone mentioned earlier, I can foresee a scenario where the following major college footbal team components are segmented into fixed and variable components.
A 72 team national super conference is created with the strongest football components. To the greatest extent possible the existing conferences are left in place.
Now here is where it really gets interesting, each year after the season is completed, the composite 8 worst teams in the 72 team allotment are sent down into a "B" league arrangement with the top 8 teams of the "B" moved up into the 72 team national super conference. Think European soccer league concept.
Why this radical idea? Even great conferences have dog dropping football teams. For example, Indiana, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, Washington St., Kansas (based on the past two years) etc. are drags on their respective conferences. Teams are moved up and down based on performance. No one is immune to crappy seasons under this format. Automatic hype for each season created by newcomers. This is the future.
baldwinjhawk 1 year ago
Very creative...very crazy..but very creative. It stimulated my brain. Thanks
Graczyk 1 year ago
I was thinking about this the other day. I like this idea because it gives every school the potential for playing for a national championship if they put together a good enough program. This would help schools in small markets and that don't have the history - Boise comes to mind. Also, isn't this similar to how they manage some of the soccer leagues in Europe?
bayareajhawk 1 year ago
Promotion and relegation are fixtures in pretty much every European soccer league, and certainly in all of the major leagues. That would never happen in American professional sports for many reasons but I love your idea for implementing it in college sports. That could happen and it would be awesome.
lonestar_jayhawk 1 year ago
For that to happen the B1G, SEC, PAC12 and the Big12 would have to endorse their Tier 1 and Tier 2 checks and share that money with the rest of the NCAA. Notre Dame would have to share their NBC money. Radical ideas are almost impossible.
inteldesign 1 year ago
I say keep the leather helmets!
jkilgore 1 year ago
Atta boy, Flounder!
BPSkelly 1 year ago
Im certainly of the "quality over quantity" at this stage of all this. Just adding teams to add them -- especially if they cant grow the pie seems like a bad idea. Lets face it though. There are bad ideas all over this realignment stuff, so who knows.
I think they stay at 10 unless some potential needle movers get restless -- FSU / Clemson / Miami come to mind. People think folks are sick of Texas. The "Tobacco Road" ACC schools have dictated how that conference flies forever. Doesnt mean it'll happen. But there is some sense to it. We'll see.
Notre Dame is pipe dream fantasy. But less so every day. Why? Because even if this new "4 team playoff" format comes to fruition, how often is ND even gonna have a shot at that? Hell, when was the last BCS game they played in? Wasnt it one of Weis' teams? My guess is the Golden Domers wont EVER join a conference in Football. But if they could continue to play traditional powers -- even if it was different ones than they're used to --- you dont think playing FSU, UT, OU, Miami has merit?
Im fine with 10 for now. I think the waters are calm. At least until FSU and Clemson get ready to jump ship. Then hold on to your hats.
Big 16 South -- Clemson / Florida State / Miami / Georgia Tech Big 16 North -- West Virginia / Louisville / Iowa State / Notre Dame Big 16 SW -- Texas / TCU / Baylor / Texas Tech Big 16 MW -- Oklahoma / OSU / Kansas / KSU
A boy can dream cant he?
lonestar_jayhawk 1 year ago
If Notre Dame is a no-show, look to Pitt as the replacement
jkilgore 1 year ago
Why not? I'd love this arrangement.
Hornhawk 1 year ago
Interesting that the new Commish notes his prime concern in taking the job was conference stability and his relief in finding commitment in member schools. This thread then meanders from how we can jump ship to becoming a toe on a bigger footprint. I like having a competitive conference with interesting match-ups. We need games that fill stadiums and bring in alumni to donate. A handful of teams have a realistic chance of playing in an NC game or in a play-off for that matter. Assuming a big TV payout and an inroad to the NC game are the only relevant factors in college athletics makes us all SEC wannabes.
LogicMan 1 year ago
Latest refinement to the web rumors:
Clemson and Florida State in 2013. One other ACC team (Miami, GT, MD mentioned) and Louisville to make 14; I'd guess 2014+ for these last two to reduce and spread out the exit costs to the teams and the Big 12. ND still being pursued by all.
ACC's renegotiation of its TV contract has stalled since they may be losing their biggest football draws.
Announcements, if any, likely to wait until after the playoff format is nailed down, possibly in late June.
dhinkansas 1 year ago
Leave it at ten teams. Why water down the conference like the SEC did with Mizzou and A&M.
LogicMan 1 year ago
Even more smoke with the CBS reporting of verbal agreement on TV rights, for example from:
http://www.cemetery-hill.com/
If true, the hope is to get to 14 teams for 2013, to yield $28 million per team. That might be enough to get Georgia Tech, and Maryland or Virginia Tech in addition to FSU and CU from the ACC.
Some SEC folk now starting to verbally kick themselves (or their commish) for taking MU and A&M instead of FSU and CU.
LogicMan 1 year ago
Mainstream blogger-reporters are now starting to report this "news", for example:
http://campuscorner.kansascity.com/node/2633
The LJW is running behind?
LogicMan 1 year ago
Now it's on the airwaves. The SEC and ACC now very vocal against or defensive -- a good sign for the Big 12/14/16.
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