Realignment 2023: Whither the Pac12?
- Thread starter Zososoxfan
- Start date
Florida State really wants out. They’re suing the ACC over GOR and exit fees. They estimate it would cost them 572 million to leave the ACC.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/39167937/florida-state-sue-acc-grant-rights-withdrawal-fee
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/39167937/florida-state-sue-acc-grant-rights-withdrawal-fee
Why do you say that?
In general, where a contract stipulates a specific dollar amount as the penalty for breaching a contract, that provision is only enforceable if the dollar amount is a reasonable estimate (at the time the contract is made) of damages that would be difficult to calculate with certainty. I’ll buy that the ACC’s damages from FSU’s departure would be difficult to compute with certainty, but it’s not self-evident to me that the nine-figure exit fee is a reasonable estimate of those damages; it feels more like a punitive amount designed to deter breach. In most jurisdictions, that’s void as against public policy.
So FSU’s lawsuit doesn’t strike me as obviously meritless, but I don’t know much about the particulars.
The orphans of the PAC-X, Oregon State and Washington State, are joining the WCC for two years in pretty much everything other than football.
https://wccsports.com/news/2023/12/22/general-west-coast-conference-adds-oregon-state-and-washington-state-as-affiliate-members.aspx
https://wccsports.com/news/2023/12/22/general-west-coast-conference-adds-oregon-state-and-washington-state-as-affiliate-members.aspx
Looking at what's still homeless, WSU says:
https://wsucougars.com/news/2023/12/22/wsu-athletics-ten-wsu-programs-join-west-coast-conference-as-affiliate-members.aspx
While Oregon State says:
https://osubeavers.com/news/2023/12/22/general-oregon-state-athletics-enters-affiliation-with-west-coast-conference
I'm guessing "continue competing as members of the Pac-12 Conference" is code for independent, effectively?
Curious what the plan is for the baseball programs, since the WCC does in fact have the sport. Maybe they're thinking Big West would a better schedule?
Why not the ACC in baseball- a couple southern swings covers most of the schools? Those baseball programs that have to go to the West Coast every year or two for Stanford & Cal can make another stop.
Unless something's changed, OSU plays baseball on a very high level.
Is there any real threat to all this consolidation leading to the death of many non-revenue sports at the schools that are left behind?
Missouri State to CUSA.
https://footballscoop.com/news/missouri-state-to-join-conference-usa-conference-realignment
https://footballscoop.com/news/missouri-state-to-join-conference-usa-conference-realignment
As I shared in this post some time ago, http://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?threads/lawsuit-against-the-ivy-league.39051/post-5462854
St. Francis (NY), as it used to be known in the chryon score scrolls to distingiush it from its NEC sister school St. Francis (PA), just nuked all of its athletic programs. These were nothing special - they had some hoops tradition, as you’d expect from a big city Catholic school, and oddly were the only East Coast school to feature in the national water polo rankings, due to a strong presence of Croats and Serbs - I guess water polo is the bees knees in that part of the world. And they had the usual batch of Olympic and team sports.
Just cancelled them all. No more sports. The Terriers fight no more.
It’s a topic of its own- some colleges are going to fold entirely- there is overcapacity and superfluity. A school could go one of two ways. It’s interesting to compare them to Quinnipiac, a school of roughly the same stripe in college athletics at one time, but with a bigger endowment and student body. Quinnipiac invested big time in its hockey program which got it a national title and lots of visibility. Hockey is a very expensive sport but it’s yielded dividends for the school. St Francis is fighting to stay viable as a school, period, and it pulled the plug. More money spent on sports might have hastened the schools death spiral.
we’re going to see more cuts.
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Richmond is moving their football program from the CAA, where they've been a member since 1986, to the Patriot League.
https://patriotleague.org/news/2024/5/14/patriot-league-announces-university-of-richmond-to-join-league-as-associate-member-for-football.aspx
https://patriotleague.org/news/2024/5/14/patriot-league-announces-university-of-richmond-to-join-league-as-associate-member-for-football.aspx
This is the first realignment move that has me utterly surprised and confused. The Patriot League was a no-scholarship then a partial scholarship league not too long ago. I guess the CAA defections to FBS combined with supersizing the league had Richmond looking for a better fit or a better path to an AQ bid.
Yeah, it's pretty surprising. The CAA is just a mess and I think Richmond was over it. Fans aren't happy though. I think the big question is if any of the other football affiliate schools (Villanova? URI?) are going to follow -- that would help it make more sense, imo.
Q started raising serious cash about 20 or so years ago and it’s still going on. I don’t remember the full history but that arena was something like fifty million bucks.
But the hockey has given Q a national profile that dozens of similar schools don’t have. The trade off must be worth it.