Saw an interesting article on the conference realignment saga.
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Take this article with a grain of salt as it is about conference realignment
Jist of this article is that 5 schools (Iowa St., Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M) were seriously considered for Big 10 membership back in 2010 to bump membership up to 16 teams. The big sticking point was revenue distribution and we know only 1 of those 5 ended up going to the Big 10. The most interesting part of the article to me was that the Big 10 is still interested in going to 16 teams at a future time and that Oklahoma and Kansas are two of the primary candidates to get from 14 to 16 teams. We’re probably still 3-4 years away from the next wave of expansion as the Big 12’s TV and Grant of Rights deals come closer to expiring. We all know the Big 12 won’t survive the next wave of realignment because Big 12 officials made a bunch of dumb mistakes that will kill the league in the next 10 years.
We know that when the Big 10 expands to get to 16 teams, they’re going to look for schools in TV markets they don’t already have a presence in. Here’s the list of the top 100 TV markets in the US, (http://www.stationindex.com/tv/tv-markets), and the Big 10 has a presence in 16 of the top 50 markets and 11 of the top 30. Kansas City is 31 and OKC is 45 which are the two primary TV markets that KU and OU bring to the table. They also bring in secondary TV markets Tulsa (61) and Wichita (69). Other cities the Big 10 Network could look to expand into are Boston (7), Charlotte (24) and Raleigh-Durham (27), and Hartford (30). Boston College, North Carolina, and UConn, along with KU and OU all become potential targets to get to 16 teams. The ACC though has become stable enough that it’ll be hard to pry teams out of that league and UConn will probably end up in the ACC at some point which should bolster the chances of KU and OU joining the Big 10 in the future if the source of this information from the Big 10 is accurate.
We also know that the Big 10 has handled expansion with the goal of entering new TV markets to charge TV carriers more money to carry the Big 10 Network. Maryland was a huge get for them as they have a presence in 2 top 30 markets. There are a very limited number of schools who make geographic sense for the Big 10 that are in new TV markets so while this isn’t at the forefront of discussions now, Zenger would be very wise to start now positioning KU as the best option for the Big 10 when the Big 12’s GoR gets closer to expiring (this will reduce the settlement cost for moving) and KU can finally make the move that has been rumored off and on since the early 90’s when KU and Missouri were discussing moving to the Big 10 when the Big 8 and SWC were working on creating the Big 12.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 I’m ready for the transition. When the Big 12 rejected Louisville, I was ready for us to go. I would still like to have the K-State Kitties with us, but if not, I would welcome playing in the Big 10. KU vs Indiana. KU vs Michigan. KU vs Sparty.
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This article makes it pretty clear that in the next round of re-alignment KU and OU may be leaving their in-state rival behind. I don’t see much interest for K-State from any of the major conferences, and the powers that be would be foolish to try to link KU and K-State together, lest the major conferences back away from the Kansas schools entirely.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 Don’t like to hear that the BIg 12 could crumble in the near future but I guess thats the way the ball bounces.
Why dont they rename the Big10? Call it the Big16? Just think its dum to have 16 teams in a conference called the Big10.
Yah, I know, the Big 12 only has 10, but whatever.
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@KUSTEVE KU cannot tie themselves to KSU and expect anything good to come out of conference realignment. KSU just doesn’t bring any money to the table so there’s not a real benefit for KU to show loyalty to KSU this time around. Hopefully the Kansas Board of Regents realize they will kill college athletics within the state if they tie the two schools together unlike last time when KU was going to be left out in the cold because they were being anchored to KSU.
@Lulufulu I don’t like to hear it because it means KU would be done playing in Austin, Waco, and Ft. Worth which for me personally means I won’t be able to see KU play in person on a regular basis anymore. As for the names of the leagues, the Big 12 actually owns the trademarks on the Big 14 and Big 16 so that’s why they can’t/haven’t changed their name. If the Big 12 disappears, it’s possible those names are once again up for grabs or the Big 10 could just outright buy the trademark and then change their name.
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“Why dont they rename the Big10? Call it the Big16?”
My guess is that we will never see a new conference name with numbers in it…
Having said that… since we don’t have 12 teams maybe we should rename our conference “The Big #1!”
What a mess… Wish we had added two teams a while back when we could have grabbed a couple of quality schools. I know there must be more to this than what we fans read and understand.
