The Alliance Announced...
- Thread starter Maroon Eagle
- Start date
I dont understand how this is an historic alliance. They remain competitors, but will collaborate on how college athletics will evolve moving forward...that really doesnt sound much different from how its been for years.
The conferences were already free to talk, collaborate, and partner for sports. Examples include the big10/acc challenge, bowl tie-ins, NCAA policy changes, etc.
They will now collaborate and partner for how college athletics will evolve moving forward.
Ok then.
And once again- nobody should care that many of the schools belong to the AAU(the academic, not athletic version). This is major conference athletics- I dont care that a school is smart. Both Iowa and Iowa State are in that Association of American Universities and Ill gladly say that there are a bunch of smart kids who went to both and a bunch of morons who went to both. I work with and live around endless examples.
The conferences were already free to talk, collaborate, and partner for sports. Examples include the big10/acc challenge, bowl tie-ins, NCAA policy changes, etc.
They will now collaborate and partner for how college athletics will evolve moving forward.
Ok then.
And once again- nobody should care that many of the schools belong to the AAU(the academic, not athletic version). This is major conference athletics- I dont care that a school is smart. Both Iowa and Iowa State are in that Association of American Universities and Ill gladly say that there are a bunch of smart kids who went to both and a bunch of morons who went to both. I work with and live around endless examples.
I am assuming this is aimed at the institutions that might be concerned about the SEC. Basically just telling them, we're voting together against the SEC, so don't freak out and try to jump ship or anything.
This really does nothing unless they can use it to push the playoffs in a direction that is unfavorable to the SEC.
I don't know if it's so much concern about the SEC itself as it is that it appears that SEC schools want to be proactive and lead in the direction that things appear to be going when it comes to playoffs and NIL --"l'audace l'audace toujours l'audace" comes to mind-- and Alliance members are Lee Corso saying "Not so fast, my friend."
the alliance is a big, fat nothing burger overall. the only concern is that they now have a voting block to push thru their agendas. They are pissed at the SEC. They are pissed at Texas and OU. And they are super pissed they didn't have a seat at the table when CF playoff expansion was discussed.
Stewart Mandel pretty much gets to the point here:
.@BruceFeldmanCFB asks them how they can be confident there won't be further shakeups with no binding agreement.Jim Phillips responds in part: "Its about trust. Weve looked each other in the eye."I'm glad I was on mute b/c I LOL'd.— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) August 24, 2021
.@BruceFeldmanCFB asks them how they can be confident there won't be further shakeups with no binding agreement.Jim Phillips responds in part: "Its about trust. Weve looked each other in the eye."I'm glad I was on mute b/c I LOL'd.— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) August 24, 2021
Yep. The implied threat to the SEC here is we'll squeeze you out of good non-conference matchups and block any changes to the playoff structure that don't protect our teams as well as the SEC's. But the OOC matchups are already contracted many years in advance. By the time those agreements expire the whole landscape of college football will be different. And what both sides will very quickly find out about the playoffs is they both need each other. If they try to squeeze the SEC too much on playoff participation, the networks / streaming services will demand the best teams and matchups.
They trust each other not to screw each other by not letting the big bad SEC make them irrelevant.
Trust, but terrify.
Trust, but terrify.
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ACC come on down and merge with the SEC THAT would make more sense than this dinner party of also rans plus Ohio State who might just follow UT and OU.
I suspect going forward there will be schools that allow trannyz and those that don’t. This will be what separates the schools or conferences.
The ACC schools' big problem is they're locked in to a terrible TV deal through 2035 and they can't get out of it by leaving the ACC, the TV deal follows them. Not sure how that gets resolved, but if they can't do something about it, they're going to be hamstrung for a long, long time.
Finally, we can check “quality She-Ra, Princess of Power reference” off our 2021 SPS Bingo cards.
When I read that I saw "diversity, equity, inclusion, federal legislative efforts, mental physical health safety wellness and support." Definitely going to be the woke conference
So, is the SEC now on double secret probation?
This sounds like a "Take that SEC!"
This sounds like a "Take that SEC!"
The SEC is not going to see this as a threat since the conference can create their own in-conference matchups that are far more appealing than anything they can set up non-conference.
Wow . . . so what we have here is just a simple, unwritten, unsigned, non-committal "agreement?"
Please. That's 17'ing ridiculous.
Any of the 41 schools in this "alliance" can change their mind for any reason at any point in time and completely disregard this "alliance."
Do these people realize how stupid they look? Probably not . . . I mean, they are "leaders" in the academic world.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips: "The alliance will ensure that the educational outcomes and experiences for student-athletes participating at the highest level of collegiate athletics will remain the driving factor in all decisions moving forward . . . until one or more of the schools decide to do something else." (fixed)
And . . . in 2-3 years, when the SEC adds Ohio State, Penn State, Clemson and Notre Dame (or, Florida State) to the conference, the in-conference matchups will be even more appealing.
I should have clarified, they both need each other for the playoff. You're right, in-conference matchups in the SEC are great and the SEC could just about as easily add a 9th conference game and drop the P5 scheduling requirement and not make too much difference. I think that would be a shame though. I think more inter-sectional matchups are a lot of fun and good for college football as a whole. Of course, that's the problem, nobody cares about the good of college football as a whole.