Stan Marsh Shares His Lesson From Conference Realignment
by TB on Aug 13, 2011 7:00 AM CDT
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The voice of reason, Stan Marsh. South Park Studios
Having observed the events of the past 20 months or so, Stan has come to a conclusion about conference realignment.
Stan: You see, I learned something today. Everyone talks right now about how excited they are about TV markets, and national ratings and getting the next big TV contract. But that's not what college sports are about! College sports are about tradition, and history, and passion, and geography, and rivalries. If we keep going down this road of only caring about which TV markets a school captures, we're going to end up with a bunch of schools playing each other who have no history together. We're going to turn college sports into pro sports, and pro sports are already boring enough. I mean, we're already kind of on our way to doing that. We have Texas Christian from Fort Worth, Texas, joining a conference called the Big East. Marquette is the next-farthest-west member of the Big East, and they're in Milwaukee! It's like the Dallas Cowboys playing in the NFC East just because it keeps them relevant in the east-coast TV markets.
Before long, we're going to have Nebraska playing Indiana and Purdue and Northwestern, and we're going to have Texas A&M playing Vanderbilt and Kentucky and Mississippi State, and we're going to have Colorado playing Washington State and Oregon State, and acting like it matters. If we're not careful, we may have K-State and KU playing Cincinnati and Connecticut and Providence and St. John's, or we could have Texas Tech and Oklahoma State playing Oregon and Washington. We may not have Red River Shootout, or the Lone Star Showdown, or the Border War, and we know we won't have Nebraska playing Oklahoma. If things get really crazy and state legislatures start letting in-state schools split up, we may not have a Sunflower Showdown or a Bedlam Game.
People, we've got to come together now. It's time to come to our senses and realize that if we keep treating college sports like big business, we're going to ruin it. C'mon people now, there's plenty of money out there to go around. Hell, even the NFL players and owners figured out how to split a billion dollars. Surely NCAA athletic programs and conferences can be content with the already-obscene amounts of money they make, rather than pushing the envelope and risking the traditions and rivalries and things that make the college game great. Do you really need X-Boxes and iPads in each locker? Do you really need 352 different uniform and helmet combinations? Do coaches really need to make more per year than the budget of the entire English department? I mean, c'mon people, it's time to wake up and realize that if we keep going like this, we're going to ruin college sports.
Cartman: Dude, you're so gay.
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common sense?
Or should we call it uncommon sense these days? I think you’ve succinctly nailed it through one of the most reasonable minds on television. Unfortunately money is all that matters. Or in A&M’s case, money and pouting like a crybaby because big brother gets more than me. It’s shocking how poorly they are handling all this.
I’m not even going to worry about conference realignment,. No matter what happens, if Kstate keeps winning games, we will be fine. Just pray Snyder stays healthy and we will be back to 9-10 win seasons soon. Speaking of that, the Fox sports preview was terrible. Paul Coffman and that other guy had their heads so far up Missouri’s ass they were barely audible, but had little positive to say about us. They even mentioned national championship for Missouri…..wtf? It will be great when we beat them in Manhattan this year.
Bitchslapping Texas since 1997
whenever i try to quit ESPN,
fox sports reminds me that i don’t have much of a choice.
mizzou fan here. while i don’t think the gabbert hangover will be awful, i can’t see how even an extreme homer would predict a national title when we’ll have a new QB and a much tougher schedule. i’d be pretty damn pleased with 8 or 9 wins.
by nickpapagiorgio on Aug 13, 2011 10:47 AM CDT up reply actions
MU and National Championship
That might be the first time MU and National Championship have been spoken in the same sentence.
MU won the National Championship in 1977.
Oh, wait, I thought we were still talking about Marquette. Carry on.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Aug 13, 2011 11:54 AM CDT up reply actions
Rec'd so hard
This is totally how I have felt about this whole thing from the beginning.
Would you like some Freys with that?
by ChrisP Wildcat on Aug 13, 2011 12:04 PM CDT reply actions
Its already ruined my good man
the powers that be simply don’t care.
I'm trying hard but some of this sabermetrics stuff sounds madeup.
A good take from Crimson Tide's SB site
http://www.rollbamaroll.com/2011/8/13/2361279/some-cold-water-on-conference-expansion
However, if this thing has gotten to the point of super duper secret meetings tomorrow, it is alot further along, and the planning for the same has been going on for a good bit of time.
We will see. If the SEC is going to pull aTm away, then the gobs of money the networks must be throwing at the big conferences in order to get to four 16 team super conferences, must be stupendous. Then K Scott Bailey will get his wish – an 8 team playoff (including the conference title games) for that all- important NCG! Whoooopeee! Sad thing is, KSU will be on the outside looking in on a 64 team super conference.
oh hail the Purple and White
No, we probably won't.
If it moves that direction, you will see open warfare between the ACC and the Big East to be the last of the Big 4 conferences. Schools like KU and KSU may well find themselves in demand in such a scenario, as both fight to get to 16 football schools.
Improve every day. (Read it again. It has more meaning than what you first see.)
OK, hear me out.
Let’s pretend A&M is actually accepted by the SEC. So the Big XII now stands at IX. Everyone is waiting to see what Texas and Oklahoma do next…why?
TCU showed schools like K-State and Kansas the map; conference realignment doesn’t have to be geographical. If the Wildcats and Jayhawks were to head East they would instantly become competitive in football and would find a basketball conference (which currently stands at 17 members) aching for an excuse to finally split the league into two min-conferences. The Kansas schools would only enhance the already formidable Big East Basketball brand and would stand a far greater chance of snaring the Big East’s automatic BCS bid than they would if they stuck around in a situation where they have to play UT & OU in a round-robin.
I know it flies in the face of tradition and logic, but wouldn’t it be a good thing for K-State long-term?
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
Competitively? Yeah.
Monetarily? I don’t know. Can we argue that KU and KSU enhance the Big East’s bargaining power for football? I don’t think we (even KU) do much for them in basketball when it comes to television contracts. Some, but compared to the power they already have, it’s almost an insignificant boost.
This is sort of the same problem the SEC and B1G face now; any schools they add almost have to be home runs unless they’re just going outright for the super-conference plan.
The Wiki (I Don't Have a Real Name Yet) -- The Blog (Those Other Guys) -- The Twitter
Monetarily from a simple membership standpoint, probably not.
However, I’m sure the Big East would have a very interesting renegotiating of their basketball contract with the addition of the Kansas’ basketball reps. Still, while the overall value of a Big East football TV contract would likely be dwarfed by even a diluted Big XII pact, the money brought in by the potential for higher-end bowl appearances could even this out. This would essentially be a gamble on K-State and KU’s part; what is your confidence in your school’s ability to win the league?
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Aug 13, 2011 3:12 PM CDT up reply actions
/looks over right shoulder at Fort Worth
Magic 8-Ball says “Reply hazy, try again”.
It’s hard to say how often we’d win a Big East with West Virginia and TCU. We certainly wouldn’t dominate it.
The Wiki (I Don't Have a Real Name Yet) -- The Blog (Those Other Guys) -- The Twitter
TCU is a legitimate concern
but Boise State has shown anything can happen in a “one-game schedule”. Plus, it’s hasn’t been shown that TCU is anything more than a cult of personality i.e. what happens if and when Gary Patterson leaves the program? No, West Virginia isn’t a pushover but I’d like my odds as a Wildcat against them as opposed to a one-two of UT/OU.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Aug 13, 2011 3:21 PM CDT up reply actions
TCU was good before Patterson.
It was before Franchione that they were wallowing.
The Wiki (I Don't Have a Real Name Yet) -- The Blog (Those Other Guys) -- The Twitter
I'd forgot about Dennis.
I’m sure several other schools would like to as well.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Aug 13, 2011 3:34 PM CDT up reply actions
Also, we're not worried about UT.
/trollface
The Wiki (I Don't Have a Real Name Yet) -- The Blog (Those Other Guys) -- The Twitter
by jonfmorse on Aug 13, 2011 3:22 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Love it.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Aug 13, 2011 3:34 PM CDT up reply actions
You're forgetting that full-blown realignment to four 16-team superconferences will tear the Big East apart as the Big Ten, ACC and SEC fight over the scraps.
Which leaves us in the same position we were in — worse, actually, because the money wouldn’t be as good and the travel is twice as bad.
No, we either sail along on the S.S. Texas or we get thrown overboard. There really isn’t any middle ground.
I think the Big East is fodder if they remain reactionary.
If they become proactive, however (like with TCU), they stand to improbably weather the storm and come out even stronger. All of a sudden I see the ACC as the second-most vulnerable league after the Big XII.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Aug 13, 2011 3:33 PM CDT up reply actions
We are toast if it is a 64 team deal;
and I agree with B/Cat, we sail with the good ship Texas. Our only hope is if it’s five leagues of 16, with some kind of play in deal for the left behinds against the (perceived ) weakest of the 5 (16 team) leagues. This contrived, manipulated aTm divorce will be the precedent for seperating the Cowboys from the Sooners, and the Jayhawks from the Wildcats – and Baylor and T. Tech will be on their own. KU, because of its superior basketball tradition, will get into one of the 4 big boy leagues; we won’t.
If the SEC invites aTm, college sports as we know it will be over, kaput, in short order. Curse these rat bastards! Just what this country needs right now – more gut wrenching consolidations.
oh hail the Purple and White
K-State and KU won't be separated.
KU’s basketball has very little value when measured against football revenue, so they’re in a position not much (if any) stronger than ours. We all wait and wonder.
Improve every day. (Read it again. It has more meaning than what you first see.)
Its just disgusting what this has come to...
I grew up with K-State football and looked forward to it as a high point of every fall. Basketball lately has been a lot of fun as well. Still not surprised Nubs left for so called “greener pastures” but with Texas A&M trying to bolt and showing a somewhat heartless reluctance to even consider they are leaving their decades old rivalries with Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas in their wake it truly illustrates that the “money grubbers” in college football care far more about the boosting of revenue already outragiously high for college sports and the pursuit of tv markets and media rights. As a KSU fan I think I would have more respect for them and KU as athletic institutions if they stick together and say they don’t want any part of “re-alignment palooza” but I know that is unlikely to happen. Guess it will be just like last summer again. Watch, wait and hope…come what may.
The real KSU problem is...
We’re not greedy. And, maybe it’s a little surprising that this is all coming from another land-grant instiution like A&M but, they are also located in Texas. Sure, Wildcat fans love when they can catch our games on national TV but, we went without it for so long. And, Snyder built a program from literally nothing which, is why we got into the Big XII in the first place. Our basketball tradition notwithstanding, the money is in football and though (oddly enough it was a forced punt from the Aggies that prevented it) we would love a sometime shot at the national title, however, getting wins over KU, Texas, Iowa State, Mizzou and our other rivals and winning 8+ games and possibly a bowl is usually enough to keep me and the rest of the fans happy. Cause we’re simple. Like cows.
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