Friday, May 21, 2010

Bubble Team

Fan House tries to formulate a 64 team Super League.

By using attendance as a predictor of TV ratings (a rational theory), ISU is in the conversation for averaging 40K-ish each year.

Peter

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Dollars

Want to keep Nebraska and Mizzou in the family? Replace the worst TV deal in college sports with something that gives cash to someone other than Texas.

The right deal might even attract more schools in. Big 16, anyone?

Peter

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Outside Looking In

ESPN does a big "What If" of the new college landscape, using the term MEGA where I used Super. It pretty much lines up with what I posted previously.

Sure enough, ISU is not considered "MEGA", and is a leftover:


Teams Left Out: Cincinnati, Baylor, Boise State, Texas Tech, Louisville, Iowa State, Fresno State, Houston, Memphis, San Diego State and Wyoming. One thing is for sure, Cincinnati, Louisville and Texas Tech would be a great addition for any conference to grab.

There's 11 schools right off the bat. Add another leftover (Colorado State? Air Force? Memphis?) and you have a league ISU can compete in.

Since ESPN drives the narrative, and has a financial interest in the MEGA system, look for it to happen.

Peter 

Monday, May 10, 2010

Tenure

The fact that Hoiberg has little interest in any other college job is an underrated recruiting trump card.

Hard to use the "He's using ISU as a stepping stone" argument. What job would he find more attractive?

Peter 

Friday, May 07, 2010

64

Heard a discussion on sports radio Thursday that I agree with: BCS football will gel into 4 "Superconferences" of 16 teams each.

Each conference champ will go into a Super Playoff. One Big Winner.

The downside is that the BCS conferences have 65 teams. Then you start adding the other schools likely to be in the discussion- Notre Dame, BYU, TCU, Utah, maybe a Boise State or East Carolina- and some present BCS schools are going to be left without a chair when the music stops.

I suspect ISU will be one of those left standing.

At the same time, that could be a good thing. ISU has neither the financial nor emotional resources for Big Time Football in its present form, and would go 2-10 each year as a Super. A drop to UnSuper would stick emotionally, but we would find ourselves amongst a bunch of peers financially.

Assume the TV money would be token, so athletics would be dependent on ticket sales only. I like our chances in the money wars competing with Memphis and Colorado State instead of Nebraska and Texas.

There's an interesting league in ISU, KSU, Baylor and Tech mixed in with the UnSuper parts of Conference USA and the Mountain West. If the Mountain West can fund its own TV network now, the new expanded league would be TV worthy, too. The Supers would have only so many ads to sell.

The transition will be hard, but winning, even as a Mid-Major, will make up for it.

Peter