MEGA Conference Realignment and lawsuits Megathread: Stories, Tales, Lies, and Exaggerations

Not sure if anyone noticed this, but according to the AAU website, the University of Miami (2023) and Notre Dame (2023) are officially AAU members

The only other ACC teams that are members of the AAU are UVA (1904) and UNC (1922).

These teams seem like "the most logical" choices to join the B!G, IMHO.

Apologies of this has been posted.
I thought for sure Georgia Tech would be a member.
 
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Yea that's crazy when you put it like that, the # of medical schools has especially exploded.

USF definitely benefits from having a head start, but I feel like that's how secondary education, as a whole, works in this country. Most of the world, possibly. Looking at the list of 25 oldest colleges in the US, I'd say 10 of them are top 30 universities. The best colleges continue to attract bright students because of their long-standing reputations, which is something younger schools just cannot compete with. TBH for how strong UM's academic reputation is, we're a pretty young school. My guess is we were founded when Florida had a small population and not many secondary education options, and as the population exploded we were by default the best option for many, and built our reputation from there.

You can probably enunciate that last point more clearly than I lol.

In time, it's possible that other state schools will reach USF's level, I was just pointing out that I had nearly forgotten that they've had a Med School since 1971.

UM benefitted from two things in particular.

One, we had a GI Bill boom after WWII that built a lot of our buildings in the late 1940s and early 1950s. ****, all of those old "apartment" buildings along Ponce, plus the "art shacks over by Doctors Hospital, were SUPPOSED TO BE TEMPORARY BUILDINGS.

The second boom was the growth of Dade-Broward-Palm Beach over the past 50 years when, as you put it, UM was the best option in SoFla. Never let it be forgotten, UM was considering a bid to become a state school, and The Gaytor blocked us out of fear that a larger/stronger UM in a populated area would eclipse the state school in Hogtown. Which would have been true.

Now, FIU and FAU present reasonable alternatives for a decent education, but there was a much wider gap just a couple of decades ago.
 
I thought for sure Georgia Tech would be a member.

You'd think so, right?

Like most things, I'd imagine it boiling down to being a numbers game - like how many eyes they attract to the television set.

I have no idea where they stand in that regard, but one thing is for sure, they have a great academic reputation.
 
Stanford might be a West Division consideration for the Big 10.
The California govt already said they would fight if they try and leave without Cal. I don't think they would take Cal.
There is zero chance this is what any groupings would look like. They'll pair Miami with Penn State at the very least. If FSU came over a Miami/FSU/Penn State grouping would be great.

FSU isn't coming in as a non-AAU team. This AAU vote was a forecast of things to come. Maybe they don't take GT, and take Pittsburgh instead. But GT brings you the major GA market. getting into the Southeast is HUGE for the B1G to challenge the SEC.

Adding these 4 AAU teams Miami (3rd), GT (8th), UNC (23rd), UVA (12th) would give them every state in the top 12 of population besides Texas. Then you get the TV markets Miami (18th), GT (6th), UNC (9th), UVA (56th) That would be big for TV money covering that much population. The first push for expansion was states over certain markets because the B10 paid different based on teams within a state as a whole. Having the 11 of the top 12 most populous states would be huge for them.

https://www.infoplease.com/us/states/state-population-by-rank


The B1G isn't balanced now. Mich, PSU, MSU, and OSU are already in the lopsided east now, Last season it was 3,4,7 and unranked on the other side. Year before it was 3, 6, 9 and 23 on the other side.

I bet that the teams would want tradition more than balance. Adding ND into the Pod is important to them because they have decades of history with MSU and Michigan. PSU isn't going to leave the Pod without a fight as they have been with them for 3 decades.

And with the new playoff format winning the conference is not important.
 
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In time, it's possible that other state schools will reach USF's level, I was just pointing out that I had nearly forgotten that they've had a Med School since 1971.

UM benefitted from two things in particular.

One, we had a GI Bill boom after WWII that built a lot of our buildings in the late 1940s and early 1950s. ****, all of those old "apartment" buildings along Ponce, plus the "art shacks over by Doctors Hospital, were SUPPOSED TO BE TEMPORARY BUILDINGS.

The second boom was the growth of Dade-Broward-Palm Beach over the past 50 years when, as you put it, UM was the best option in SoFla. Never let it be forgotten, UM was considering a bid to become a state school, and The Gaytor blocked us out of fear that a larger/stronger UM in a populated area would eclipse the state school in Hogtown. Which would have been true.

Now, FIU and FAU present reasonable alternatives for a decent education, but there was a much wider gap just a couple of decades ago.
Thanks for providing that additional insight! Also TIL about UM considering a bid to become a state school. Interesting.
 
The California govt already said they would fight if they try and leave without Cal. I don't think they would take Cal.
They fought when UCLA left and lost so the Cal issue is already behind them. USC is a private school as is Stanford, so they are not a part of the California State school system which has no direct governance authority over private universities. Stanford can do what is best for Stanford. Now whether they are a good fit for the Big 10 is another question although they do have a long standing rivalry with Notre Dame and are a large market/Bay Area school.
 
Twitter going off on SEC sticking to 8-game conference schedule for ‘24. Be great working if they’re working on expansion for ‘25!
 
The California govt already said they would fight if they try and leave without Cal. I don't think they would take Cal.


FSU isn't coming in as a non-AAU team. This AAU vote was a forecast of things to come. Maybe they don't take GT, and take Pittsburgh instead. But GT brings you the major GA market. getting into the Southeast is HUGE for the B1G to challenge the SEC.

Adding these 4 AAU teams Miami (3rd), GT (8th), UNC (23rd), UVA (12th) would give them every state in the top 12 of population besides Texas. Then you get the TV markets Miami (18th), GT (6th), UNC (9th), UVA (56th) That would be big for TV money covering that much population. The first push for expansion was states over certain markets because the B10 paid different based on teams within a state as a whole. Having the 11 of the top 12 most populous states would be huge for them.

https://www.infoplease.com/us/states/state-population-by-rank


The B1G isn't balanced now. Mich, PSU, MSU, and OSU are already in the lopsided east now, Last season it was 3,4,7 and unranked on the other side. Year before it was 3, 6, 9 and 23 on the other side.

I bet that the teams would want tradition more than balance. Adding ND into the Pod is important to them because they have decades of history with MSU and Michigan. PSU isn't going to leave the Pod without a fight as they have been with them for 3 decades.

And with the new playoff format winning the conference is not important.
Stanford is a private school so I'm not sure how much control anyone would have over it. Also, personally, I don't think Cal cares at all about big time football. I could see them trying to go Ivy league route. There might be a result where there is some.aort of agreement where UCLA pays more in state system to cover costs for schools like Cal. Again, it wouldn't even surprise me if Cal drops from D1 football.
 
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The California govt already said they would fight if they try and leave without Cal. I don't think they would take Cal.


FSU isn't coming in as a non-AAU team. This AAU vote was a forecast of things to come. Maybe they don't take GT, and take Pittsburgh instead. But GT brings you the major GA market. getting into the Southeast is HUGE for the B1G to challenge the SEC.

Adding these 4 AAU teams Miami (3rd), GT (8th), UNC (23rd), UVA (12th) would give them every state in the top 12 of population besides Texas. Then you get the TV markets Miami (18th), GT (6th), UNC (9th), UVA (56th) That would be big for TV money covering that much population. The first push for expansion was states over certain markets because the B10 paid different based on teams within a state as a whole. Having the 11 of the top 12 most populous states would be huge for them.

https://www.infoplease.com/us/states/state-population-by-rank


The B1G isn't balanced now. Mich, PSU, MSU, and OSU are already in the lopsided east now, Last season it was 3,4,7 and unranked on the other side. Year before it was 3, 6, 9 and 23 on the other side.

I bet that the teams would want tradition more than balance. Adding ND into the Pod is important to them because they have decades of history with MSU and Michigan. PSU isn't going to leave the Pod without a fight as they have been with them for 3 decades.

And with the new playoff format winning the conference is not important.
American cable subscribers have declined by 22% since 2016, and we continue to see an additional ~4M households cut the cord every year. As streaming continues to grow and cable continues to decline, I doubt these conference execs are focusing on expanding their cable TV footprint, as this will continue to become more and more irrelevant. B1G famously added Rutgers because of TV markets, and it seems apparent that move really did not benefit the conference. Adding GT would be about as functional as adding Rutgets, imo. I think at this point the best move is to just add the biggest programs that people talk about the most. I think all the streaming services already carry both SEC & B1G, which are soon to become national conferences for all intents and purposes. In the near future, when every CFB champion comes from the same 2 conferences, everyone will have access to those two channels.
 
Georgia Tech, Duke, Virginia, UNC, and Pitt are all members of the AAU. Today, Miami and Notre Dame joined those other 5 ACC schools.


Thanks. I was multi-tasking when I noticed UM and ND on the list. Didn't see GT, Duke, or Pitt...
 
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I've been waiting 38 years for AAU membership.

I've been waiting nearly as long to be in a conference that was worth a ****.

I've been waiting nearly 20 years for a better stadium future.

I've been waiting 8 years to go back to Nike.

We built the on-campus arena. We built the IPF. We are building the football HQ.

Piece by piece, little by little...

View attachment 240285

Trust the process makes a whole lot more sense to me at this point.

This is big time news...

Very stoked for the future of the program.
 
in all seriousness, watching this episode of Miami football at the voice should be required viewing to stay in this thread. It should be pinned. So much info and context.
 
WTF is this guy talking about with the "shortest rivalry" nonsense about Miami and Notre Dame?

We were both major independents. Miami started playing Notre Dame in the 1950s, and before we joined the Big East, we played ANNUALLY for 19 out of 20 years in a row (only NOT playing Notre Dame in 1986 over a 20-year span).
 
WTF is this guy talking about with the "shortest rivalry" nonsense about Miami and Notre Dame?

We were both major independents. Miami started playing Notre Dame in the 1950s, and before we joined the Big East, we played ANNUALLY for 19 out of 20 years in a row (only NOT playing Notre Dame in 1986 over a 20-year span).
Relax lol. Most national people didn’t pay attention til it mattered and that was the 80’s
 
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