College expansions end game

Greed for more money is the new college conference way, and football is the driving force. Like the space race, or any other race, to be called the greatest; college conferences have found themselves scrambling to etch their footprint into larger T.V. markets. Money is the obviously the driving force, but what could the end result lead to?

Should conferences evolve into what most anticipate, super conferences, this would likely mean conferences with an excess of 16 plus universities. The SEC and B10 are obviously not done, but how far are they likely to go? The eastern universities are likely the prize of the SEC and/or B10, depending on which conference makes the best offer. The move to increase will not finish until the SEC and B10’s hunger is full.

The Big 12 is not making a move because they feel their conference has no need to expand. The way they are playing the game and the way writers have reported it, the Big 12, expand or not is looking to make a hefty payday with the new BCS structure. It has been reported that the SEC, B10, Big 12, PAC 12, and ACC can expect to add $91 million to their profit.  The fact that the big 12 has less schools in their conference will give each school a $9.1 million dollar profit per year. This is $2.6 million more than the SEC, B10, ACC, and PAC 12, who have each expanded to 12 or more universities.  Besides the Big 12, look for dollars to shrink even further depending on the final number of schools added to each conference.

Solidifying the Big 12’s existence, came with the Champions Bowl. The SEC will not poach or allow others to poach the Big 12 as long as the Big 12 is the only other conference that can provide any challenge to the SEC, and speaking of money, bring good T.V. ratings.

Should the Big 12 feel the itch to expand, I look for them to go down following route:

Expand to the east getting one or more of the following football universities who have not received an invite from the SEC and/or Big 10:

FSU,

Clemson,

Virginia Tech.,

NC State, and/or

Miami.

Being very opinionated, my out of the box idea would be the unification of the PAC 12 and Big 12. This would not only increase their strength, but complete control of the central and western part of the country, and an increase in T.V. markets.

Another idea would have the Big 12 add eastern schools and BYU. This would add T.V. markets for the Big 12 across the country and increase their revenue.  The arm of the Big 12 would then be longer than that of the PAC 12, SEC, B10, and ACC. It would also put them at an advantage against the other conferences.

Expansion is a fun topic. Not one to solve, but one to examine and predict.  In the end, after expansion has had its limelight, what will become of each conference and will they be happy?  The question I know people will have after expansion that should be thrown on the table now; is whether student athletes should get a bigger stipend with the flowing cash each conference and university expects to receive.

Johnny Football kills the Heisman

Last night was a historic night for college football as a freshman took home the Heisman for the first time. However, his team did not go undefeated, make it to the championship, and lost to two of the only four ranked teams they faced all season. In all, the Heisman no longer stands for what it once stood for. It has now become a beauty pageant glorified by the irresponsible media (i.e., ESPN) and wins do not matter. 

For a long time the winners have always been upperclassmen, not because they played the college game a lot longer, but because they proved their worthiness to be called great collegiate athletes. They proved that the game is not about how you start it, but how you finish it. The upperclassmen that won the Heisman before last night showed that. After last night however, that all went down the drain, and in my opinion, was a slap in the face to the great collegiate athletes that won it before the so called Johnny Football. 

Collin Klein and Manti Te’o are two seniors that showed that worthiness to call themselves great collegiate athletes, but were robbed by a one-time performance. A performance I might add that only had one noteworthy win. By the way, the Baylor Bears also beat a number one team in the same regular season. My heart goes out to the two men that sat beside Johnny Unproven. That although they proved themselves for four years, their reward was to clap at the first beauty pageant, which the Heisman has been driven to.

Media (i.e., ESPN) as I stated earlier was irresponsible this year. Not looking at the other great athletes that proved themselves, but only at the hype they conjured up. Media has shown that instead of going for the man that busted his rump for the last four years, they were only out for the story, in which a first time freshman won the Heisman. I apologize Collin and Manti on behalf of all media (i.e., ESPN), Johnny was a better story, but not a better collegiate athlete.