Gratitude for the PAC 12 Experience and for the upcoming BIG 12 Experience

Everyone needs to realize that what fans say and do on here or anywhere on social media has absolutely NO bearing on conference realignment. NONE.

I get that people on here want Utah fans to appear “classy” and humble and ultimately to be liked. But what does it really matter if we are liked or not? Answer: it doesn’t.

Everyone can fan however they like. It’s totally understandable to want Utah fans to represent themselves and the fanbase well. And if it’s your own personal standard to carry yourself in the highest and classiest way possible, that’s great…go for it. But it really doesn’t matter whatsoever.

There’s no trophy awarded to the classiest fanbase at the end of the year. When Presidents/Chancellors and Conference Commissioners are determining which schools to consider to add to their conference, what fans of a school say or do on social media NEVER enters the equation. The only thing that matters is how attractive a candidate University is to these decision makers in terms of revenue and like-mindedness. The only people who could screw things up or make a positive difference in the outcome are members of the candidate University’s leadership team (President/Chancellor, AD, etc).

When TSPP screwed up their invite to the B12 on the first go around back in 2011, it wasn’t the fanbase that caused the B12 to pause and turn to TCU to extend an invite. It was TSPP’s leadership team (including their lawyers) that went down to Dallas and acted bigger than they were that screwed up the deal.

This is a long winded post to just say to everyone that worries what other fans might think about us or if our posts might end up on ClownBoard…there’s simply no reason at all to worry about any of that. None of what fans say on social media matters in the grand scheme of things.

In fact, it would be much better for Utah to enter the B12 as the “villain” in the eyes of the other member B12 schools than to be liked. And then back it up by winning the conference. Why? Because being the villain means every team is gunning for you and it attracts eyeballs and attention. Attention that Utah desperately needs now that we no longer have any blue blood brands in the conference that garner that kind of attention. Utah needs to do everything possible to capture attention and ratings. Ultimately this means Utah needs to win.

But wanting to take TSPP’s approach of entering the new conference and hoping everyone is going to like you and make new friends doesn’t help Utah at all. The way to be liked by all is to lose and have them happy you’re there to deliver a win to their school. Nobody likes the school at the top who is winning all the time and who they want to knock off. That is who Utah wants and needs to be.

And btw, since you brought up USC and Oregon, I spent the last 2 years on UteZone where there’s often times joint posts where fans from multiple fan bases can all chime in on.

If you think there are bad Utah fans on social media making us look bad, I can tell you that they don’t even come close to what I saw from USC fans and Oregon fans as well as other blue blood schools. We’re talking the biggest bunch of D-Bag comments being thrown out there right and left at everyone.

Point being is that all fanbases spout off on social media. I’m not saying it makes it right or that it’s ok. Just saying that it is what it is and none of it matters, whatsoever.

Nothing is for sure. But I’m fairly confident in saying that just as Stanford/Cal preferred going to the ACC at a reduced rate, Utah’s administration would’ve preferred to do the same versus locking arms with OSU/WSU and trying to form a MWC 2.0.

Randall had mentioned to insiders his desire to stay aligned with Stanford in an attempt to be considered by the B1G for expansion. So if he had a choice between aligning with OSU/WSU or Stanford/Cal and the more prestigious universities in the ACC, it appears obvious to me he’d go with the latter.

But again, we’re only talking about this hypothetical as a backup to the B12. The B12 was still the next best option due to higher revenue and geography. Now if there would’ve been an option to join the ACC and receive the same amount of revenue as the B12 was offering, then I’m of the opinion Utah would’ve opted for the ACC…even with the travel burden that would be considerable.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing the other conferences can do. The SEC/B1G hold all the power in terms of money/TV Networks. All the other conferences can do is get in line with what the SEC/B1G want and hope like hell they keep them at the table.

If the other conferences were to put out any type of ultimatum to the SEC/B1G such as include us or we’ll isolate you so you can only play each other, then they’ll gladly take their ball and go play each other and start their own new Super League. They have all the money and TV Network support to do so. And the other conferences know that if they do this it means the death of their current revenue levels. For example, what the B12 is currently getting from Fox/ESPN will get dramatically reduced when the current contract expires. There’s no way TV Networks are going to pay as much for a conference that is now operating at the same level as the MWC. There wouldn’t be the ratings and interest level to support the current level of revenue if this were to happen.

And pointing to MBB and how the B12 is the premier basketball league unfortunately doesn’t move the needle. Basketball only makes 20 cents on every $1 of athletics revenue. CFB is far and away the big money driver and it isn’t even close.