What a weird day.
Can't wait to find out what's going to happen today that's going to alter the entire landscape of college football as we know it!
Word of the Day: Aggrandize.
PLEASE SIR, CAN I HAVE ANOTHER? The most rattling thing about yesterday's news is that with how quickly shit went down.
I mean, the news went from rumor, to strong report, to done deal literally in between lunch and dinner – and there wasn't a soul who had heard rumblings of this happening until early afternoon.
So basically, I have learned that on any given day, the Big Ten could simply add any given team to the conference. Maybe even today! Because it sure seems like the Big Ten ain't done!
Source: Don't assume the Big Ten is done.
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) June 30, 2022
If I'm the Big Ten and I want to get to 18, the short list is Washington, Oregon, UNC, Duke ... and Missouri
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) June 30, 2022
Gotta keep your head on a swivel, I guess?
The biggest thing for me is that from a purely practical standpoint, it feels like the Big Ten just has to add at least a couple more west coast teams for scheduling across all sports to make even a little bit of sense.
As it stands, the *closest* Big Ten team to Los Angeles is Lincoln, Nebraska, which is still 1,500 miles and over a five-hour flight. That doesn't feel realistic or sustainable.
But on the flip side, it seems that the Big Ten is done poaching Pac-12 schools. At least for now.
Multiple sources tell @latimes that no other Pac-12 members are expected to be added to the Big Ten at this time.
— Ryan Kartje (@Ryan_Kartje) July 1, 2022
Oregon, Washington, Stanford, etc. will not be following USC and UCLA.
I'm not sure how much I believe that, for several reasons, but mostly just because yesterday taught me to expect the absolute wildest, most unpredictable things possible when it comes to this whole expansion thing.
So buckle the hell up, I guess.
B1G FOOTBALL ALL THE TIME. The Big Ten has never really had problems landing stellar television deals and is already making a killing on the Big Ten Network, the current deal with Fox, etc. These new additions are going to turn that into Scrooge McDuck money.
That's cool I guess, but that paycheck means absolutely nothing to me, the guy on the receiving end of the television. What *does* mean something to me is that now, Big Ten football is just never going to leave my television screen on fall Saturdays.
... Big Ten football is going to be everywhere. Imagine a B1G Big Noon game on Fox, a national CBS game with all the bells and whistles that network currently uses on the SEC, another Fox game in primetime, and then B1G After Dark on ESPN featuring whichever LA team is home that week. Big Ten football will be in a featured slot from noon Eastern to 10 p.m. Pacific.
As a general fan of watching quality college football games in the fall, I think this is a win for me. I personally cannot wait to watch Rutgers vs. USC at 11:30 p.m. That's always been a dream of mine and I didn't even know it.
STABBED IN THE BACK. Y'all remember The Alliance? So much for that!
Walking shoulder to shoulder, each in their Sunday best, the two commissioners briskly strode through the Ohio State press box as if they were joined at the hip.
In a way, they are. George Kliavkoff, the new Pac-12 leader, and Kevin Warren, head of the Big Ten, have spurred a wave of change in college football over the last several weeks. They helped found the Alliance, have led a movement to pause College Football Playoff expansion and have formed a pact, along with the ACC, to collectively agree not to poach each other’s members.
Oops! Well, at least the Pac-12 probably saw this coming in some capacity, right?
... right?
Earlier this month I asked Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff if he was concerned about the conference being poached by the Big Ten.
— James Crepea (@JamesCrepea) June 30, 2022
"Absolutely not." pic.twitter.com/4gGzIQ8D2g
Honestly, you've gotta give Kevin Warren props for how absolutely cold-blooded of a move this is. Dude cozied up to the Pac-12 for the past two years only to murder the conference in its sleep in a matter of like four hours.
THE REAL WINNERS. One of the more hilarious things about this sudden formation of two megasupergiant conferences is that it means some teams have won the absolute lottery while others are just going to get absolutely shafted, simply due to previous conference affiliation.
For example, as teams all over the country are now desperately scrambling to leave their slowly dying conference and secure a spot in the Big Ten or the SEC, you've got teams like Purdue sitting pretty for essentially no reason.
As always, the biggest realignment winners remain the Purdues and the Mississippi States of the world: the schools that were grandfathered into the Power 2 long, long before there was a Power 2.
Meanwhile, schools like Virginia, Louisville, Wake Forest, or Kansas State are probably going to be on the outside looking in for the same, relatively random reason.
Your fate is decided based on which conference you joined in 1925. Wild stuff.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Turn My Swag On" by Soulja Boy.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. Jealousy over a threesome sparked a 60-person hour-long brawl on a cruise ship that spanned five floors... One woman's wholesome mission to get naked outside... A kilo of cocaine once washed up on a "Survivor" beach... You need to make a personal poop bank... The mystery of how dinosaurs had sex...
