Seeing talk about FSU and Clemson being courted by the Big 12.

[Utesbyfive]

Frankly, it would completely save the Big 12, if a couple of “blue bloods” entered the league. I’m down for this bigtime!

[D T]

You’re thinking XII long-term for us??

[AlohaUte]

The only way it happens is if the following three things happen:

1. They successfully get put of the ACC before 2036

2. The B1G holds strong to their desire that any new additions need to be AAU and therefore refuse FSU and Clemson.

3. The SEC decides that they don’t add value because they already have teams in Florida and SC.

If those three things occur then they’ll come to the Big-12.

I think it’s an low likelihood that happens

[Central Coast Ute]

They won’t leave the ACC unless they have a landing spot. They’re not leaving the ACC for the B12.

[AlohaUte]

Well, you may be right. But here’s a reason why I think you may be wrong. They may legally find a way out of the GOR (which runs through 2036) and figure we have our out now, let’s take it before lawyers for the ACC find some way to close that opportunity. The Big-12 would provide a landing spot for them for the next few years. Come 2030 they could go do whatever they want instead of waiting until 2036.

There is zero chance they’d be in the big12 long term though. If they were to join it’d be for a few years only and then they either would head to one of the big 2 or I think they’d work with the teams in the Big12, ACC, and some G5 to create tla new conference that wouldn’t include UCF. (I bet they absolutely don’t want to be in a conference with UCF).

[Central Coast Ute]

Possibly. But I don’t see why they’d spend so much money in legal fees to go to a conference that makes less money and, as Philadelphia Ute has alluded to, will increase the cost of doing business. The only way spending this much money to get out of the gor makes sense to me is if the deal is pretty much already done behind closed doors.

[PhiladelphiaUte]

Correct you are CCU. The ACC makes more money, and with the exceptions of the Stanford & Cal additions, won’t have to travel all over the country.

North Carolina, Clemson, Florida St, and/or Miami will leave the ACC to join the BigTen, or the SEC. In no other circumstance will they leave.

They’re not coming to Big 12.

[Utah]

Does anyone not remember the WAC-16?

The Big 12 won’t last. First, if ESPN is helping FSU leave the ACC, it’s not to put them into the Big 12 with Houston and UCF and Cincinnati and BYU.

Second, if the tv people want to control everything, the next logical step would be to disband the ACC, disband the Big 12 and the consolidate from there. Either throw teams into the Big 10 and SEC at equal dollars and form the break or create a new third conference with 10-12 teams from the old P12, ACC and B12.

But any idea that the Big 12 will hit 18 or 20 teams is not realistic.

[dut99002]

It might be a fake report.

[chinngiskhaan]

I doubt a report that they are courting those teams is fake. Courting doesn’t mean it has any real chance of happening.

[Trailgoat]

B12 programs are auditioning for the super conference beauty pageant whenever Espn, Fox, BIG and SEC decide to breakaway creating a Super Conference. If the ACC implodes like the P12. Clemson, FSU, Duke, NC and a few others in the ACC have too much national brand power and revenue generation to not be picked up by the BIG or SEC in some form. That plan would already be in place behind the scenes if/when things fall apart.

I appreciate Brett Yormark’s energy and ambition for the B12. Having heard a lot of the same loud mouth messaging from the past two P12 commissioners knowing the huge, growing gap between the SEC/BIG and everyone else, its hard to take the guy seriously.

Utah is doing what they need to do with the prioritizing winning football games, improve recruiting, and generate more revenue to make the program more nationally attractive when the SC shake down happens. Utah needs to win the big games on the national stage. The B12 is nothing more than a spring board for Utah to get there. Next few years should be very interesting for Utah football, either way, always a fan! Go Utes!

[thirtyfour-thirtyone]

This “report” also says that the B1G already said no to FSU and Clemson due to the AAU thing, and that the SEC also said no for reasons that are less clear (probably already having Florida and SC). Is this a steaming pile of nonsense? Who knows? There are also hints that Yormark has assembled some huge pot of Private Equity $ to basically vacuum the teams he wants out of the ACC. This all would have to happen for FSU and Clemson to come to the Big 12, so I guess it is plausible, but it seems pretty far fetched to me. If it happened though, it would cement the Big-12 in the “Power 3” group of conferences going forward. My guess is this is just a bunch of nonsense being put out to improve the bargaining position of FSU and Clemson with the ACC.

[TruckStopTerrors]

All I’ve read has FSU on the precipice of being invited to the AAU. I’m doubtful it’s due to that for them. Clemson is a different story though, and the B1G wouldn’t want to add just one team. I still think if Fox wanted both those schools in the B1G, AAU status wouldn’t matter. ESPN might be trying to push FSU and Clemson towards some kind of scheduling agreement with the B12 with some financial incentive before eventually trying to get them in the SEC, but honestly, who knows at this point?

[krindor]

Reports have also said that the Big 12 would have to go to unequal revenue sharing to give FSU and Clemson a higher share

[Utah]

Look. It would be so stupid for FSU and Clemson to leave and then join the Big 12. There isn’t one good reason to do so.

One of two things is happening:

1- FSU and Clemson leave to join the Big 10 or SEC.

2- The ACC falls apart and then quickly thereafter the Big 12 falls apart and a new conference is formed with the good teams from the ACC/Big 12 and the leftovers go sit with Oregon State and Washington State and cry about how everything is so unfair.

[MDUte]

I haven’t commented on this thread because the report is nonsense. FSU/Clemson are having 3rd party talks with all the leagues but that’s it and it doesn’t mean anything other than doing their due diligence. However, here’s what we know. FSU/Clemson are suing their own conference. Not because they don’t like the teams they are competing against. But because they aren’t making enough money to stay competitive with their peers in the B1G/SEC.

That said it makes zero sense for FSU/Clemson to spend millions of dollars to leave the ACC to make a lateral move to the B12 for roughly the same amount of money that still leaves them with a considerable revenue gap to the B1G/SEC.And anyone who thinks the B12 schools are going to sign off on the league taking $1B in PE money to help buy FSU/Clemson out of the ACC and also sign off on giving them an unequal revenue share to join the B12 is dreaming. For example, Utah is doing everything in its power to position itself to move to the B1G. Utah isn’t going to sign off on taking less money and taking a backseat to FSU/Clemson. This would only hurt Utah’s chances to build its brand and attractiveness to the B1G. And any other B12 school (Kansas, Okie St, ASU, Colorado) that thinks it has a shot at moving up is going to feel the same way. The only schools that would agree to this are schools that know that the B12 is the best they can do and want to solidify the conference for the long haul (BYU, Cinci, UCF, Houston etc).FSU/Clemson see the B12 the same way Utah and ASU did…as a last resort option. And they’re both too valuable of brands to have to worry about it coming down to their last resort option like Utah/ASU. As Charles Barkley would say, I could be wrong…but I doubt it!

[Brettski]

I’d gladly take the best of the B12 and ACC

West: Utah, Colorado, AZ, ASU, Cal, Stanford, OK State, TCU, BYU (begrudgingly)
East: TTU, Baylor, Kansas, K State, WVU, Va Tech, Miami, Louisville, GT

I’d be happy in a conf like this long-term.

[Knoblocker]

This thread has been an interesting read. I don’t know how you guys can completely dismiss the possibility of FSU and Clemson coming to the Big 12. It sounds a lot like what I heard from PAC people the last couple of years, yet here we are. I think you need to start taking seriously the long-term viability of the Big 12.

Also this from a very credible source:

https://x.com/Brett_McMurphy/status/1813197571277390028?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1813197571277390028%7Ctwgr%5E3a3cce54b1357d26e80211b8cf60d366b4c9af6a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frideemcowboys.com%2Fthreads%2Fa-v-conference-realignment.79%2Fpage-125

[WasatchRanger]

I saw this tweet from McMurphy too, honestly nothing would surprise me with realignment.

It seems like the sources before were not as credible, but there seems to be real smoke regarding the FSU/Clemson thing now. They would make for a very fun (and very weird) league!

[Yergensen]

A couple of things:

1) The original report, pre-McMurphy, was speculative. The reporter said “I think” the parties are talking, but nothing verifiable. It was perpetuated as they are talking.

2) It’s hard for us to see them joining the B12 because we see the consolidation of the top tier happening across 2 conferences, not 3. This doesn’t mean we think we’ll be included, simply the direction that P4 will go.

Blue bloods joining B12 would make it undoubtedly more viable. I don’t believe it changes the course of P2 ultimately. The P2 will simply take the brands it wants and close the door on other leagues and teams.

[Central Coast Ute]

The difference between the PAC and the ACC is the 4 biggest brands went to the B1G from the PAC. the next 4 went to the B12. The biggest from the ACC will also go P2. the B12 will get the best of the rest.

[MDUte]

This 100%! Perfectly said Central!

The 2 biggest brands with the ACC are Notre Dame and UNC. Think of them as your USC/UCLA that the B1G wants first and foremost. Then your next 2 are FSU/Clemson similar to Oregon/Washington. If you remember, there was all kinds of speculation about Oregon and Washington staying in the PAC or even going with some of the PAC schools to the B12. But where did they ultimately end up??…in the B1G. Why? Because the B1G(Fox)/SEC(ESPN) need cover to not appear as the ones blowing up these conferences. If they just take the 2 top brands then they’re not “responsible” for killing the league. But this ultimately creates enough disruption/chaos that everyone else starts looking around, money dries up from media partners, and schools end up going elsewhere. This frees up the P2 to then come back in and take the next couple of top brands. We’ve already seen this movie before, in fact we lived it.

[Knoblocker]

Well, I officially don’t know how to embed a Tweet on this site. Ha!

[J Rocksville]

If I were Clemson and FSU…Miami too…I’d be putting smoke signals out that they have a potential deal to the Big 12 too. Even if the B1G and SEC prefer not to take them, they probably prefer not to strengthen the only other league that could possibly compete with them. Giving the B12 2-3 big name programs closes the gap a bit between us and them in an era where they desperately want to widen that gap.

I think taking Clemson, FSU, Miami, Stanford, Cal, SMU, Oregon St, Wash St would round out 24 teams, and could fit in 3 8 team pods. I saw that outlined somewhere else on here. Play your 7 pod teams, and 1 other from each of the other 2 pods. Maybe 3 pods makes it too difficult to have a CCG though.

I think by 2030 we’ll have some sort of a 64 team football league, with regional divisions. Natural rivalries will mostly be restored even if the fun of the student-athlete system will be gone.

[AlohaUte]

I like your concept. Getting to a 24 team conference at this point generally makes sense (even though it’s also preposterous). But I’ll be a bit nipicky, if the ACC falls apart they’ll take UNC and UVA (or VA Tech, Louisville, Pitt, Duke, Ga Tech) over Oregon State and Wazzu.

[Matt]

I’d e shocked if we got Florida St and Clemson to the XII. Just think they have better options, but this is gaining major traction by respected journalists so who knows.

I still think 16 team conferences are too big, let alone 18 or 20 teams. But here we are….

[thirtyfour-thirtyone]

If we some how get to “and then there were three,” with Utah still involved, that would be a tremendous success. Maybe Brett Yormark is who Larry Scott thought he was. What a crazy ride. This season has an apocalyptic feel to it.

[Utah]

Yormark is a hack. He’s just been lucky so far. Inviting BYU, Cin, Hou, and UCF was completely stupid of him to do so. They drag the conference down and have all but guaranteed the conference won’t exist in 2030.

The Big 12 was always playing from behind…because their brands suck. So Yormark jumped the gun and tried to keep the conference alive by inviting the G5 schools and taking a s**tty deal from the tv people.

I guess the one thing he did by taking the deal was kill the PAC-12. So, in the short term he won, because he has Utah, ASU, Colorado and Arizona. But in the long term…he has screwed the Big 12. He has given them a bunch of dead weight. The PAC-12 had two completely worthless teams: Oregon State and Washington State.

The Big 12 now has: BYU, Houston, Cincinnati, Kansas St, Iowa St, West Virginia. That’s six, with a couple more in contention.

Now, in order for any sort of deal with the ACC to work, you have to get rid of the dead weight in the Big 12 to combine with the ACC. And he can’t do that.

So all he did was ensure the Big 12 survived until 2030, and gave it a 90% chance of dissolving after that.

Both Scott and Yormark are morons.

[J Rocksville]

I wonder how those brands could do as independents for a few years? Or the ultimate plot twist, they join the pac 12 in some weird Frankenstein formation ha ha.

[Trailgoat]

No chance in hell FSU or Clemson are going to the B12. The ACC GORs and TV contracts all the ACC schools signed are the main barrier followed by the brands and revenue generating power of FSU and Clemson would be too much for the BIG/SEC to pass up. Media goons spouting BS. FSU and Clemson have a history of national brand success.

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