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

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ssvir said:
This flies in the face of everything that we know about the hiring of Mario and the dramatically increased football budget.

Frenk turned the whole thing over to Rudy Fernandez.

You seem like a well-intentioned guy that is now just throwing **** against the wall.
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Rudy is negotiating the ACC exit? Or is he acting as an advisor for Frenk / BOT on that matter.
 


Genetics got put in a sleeper hold by the above attorneys take.

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RightSaidFred said:
SEC offered a formal invitation for Miami to join back in the 90’s. You have no idea what the SEC’s interest is. At the beginning of this thread, all the insiders were saying SEC for Miami. If that has changed, it’s because Miami prefers the BIG, not because it’s our only option.

SEC moves in silence, nobody knew Texas and Oklahoma were joining until it announced.

We’re located in the SEC footprint and we’re one of the top 5 brands remaining on the board. If the league lands Miami and another travel partner like FSU or Clemson, then they lock the BIG out of the Southeast
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Exactly, I don't know why folks don't understand this. Greg Sankey and the SEC have for years during all this realignment have pounded their chest and proudly claimed that they are the premier football conference in the southeast and that it was going to stay that way. If the rumblings that 20 members is more than likely the max expansion that both the SEC and B1G are eyeing at, then why in the world would the SEC not take FSU, Miami, Clemson, and let's just say Georgia Tech too, to cap it at 20? Why would the SEC even think to allow the B1G to plant their conference flag in their already existing conference footprint?

If you add those four, you're adding teams who have a collective 12 National Championships since 1980. On top of that you're also adding key football rivalries to be conference matchups like Florida-FSU, Florida-Miami, FSU-Miami, Georgia-Clemson, Georgia-Georgia Tech, South Carolina-Clemson, Clemson-Georgia Tech, and even old SEC rivalries for Georgia Tech like Tennessee, Alabama, and Auburn.

All of this major realignment from the very get-go was to add quality FOOTBALL matchups to the conference inventory for the tv networks. Basketball is secondary to that, and adding UNC and Virginia is not going to move the needle for viewership in football. The only existing rivalries for those two teams in football would be UNC-FSU, UNC-South Carolina, and Virginia-FSU, Maryland-UNC, and Maryland-Virginia. Do you think people are going to watch those games in bigger numbers than the ones I mentioned above? No, and it's ridiculous to think otherwise.

And with B1G already at 18, they could add UNC and Virginia if they wanted to expand to the south, but it's already been reported that the B1G wanted Cal and Stanford in the conference to go to 20, but the networks didn't want to add them at this last round of realignment. And if the B1G is going to add two more teams in the future, it makes more sense to add Cal and Stanford to pair with their old Pac-12 conference mates to add to the football matchup inventory than it would be to pair up three old ACC teams in the B1G with UNC, Virginia, and Maryland, to half-*** an attempt to garner more viewership in the South and Mid-Atlantic region.
 
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Rickd said:
Frenk.... Frenk is the president and a key decision maker along with the BOT. It was not pure happenstance that ND hired a major media expert as their AD.
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Yes, and ND's president is a priest. I see the direction you're going, but it's not an apples to apples comparison between ND's AD and Miami's president.

You do make an excellent point about ND choosing to go with a TV exec. It definitely will help guide them through the TV deals that are so key in this round of conference realignment. At the same time, will his lack of experience when it comes to the day-to-day management of an athletic department, scheduling opponents, hiring/firing coaches, etc. be a detriment? I'd like to say Rad has that experience and success, but he was at Clemson during the ACC TV deal and his hiring of Arteaga leaves A LOT to be desired.
 
ssvir said:
This flies in the face of everything that we know about the hiring of Mario and the dramatically increased football budget.

Frenk turned the whole thing over to Rudy Fernandez.

You seem like a well-intentioned guy that is now just throwing **** against the wall.
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I don’t typically have insider info, but on this issue I can confirm (as many others on this board have) that Frenk empowered Rudy to be the top guy, along with our AD, in Athletics. One good thing about Frenk is that he’s someone that knows what he doesn’t know. He understands that to a lot of big time alums and donors, the FB program is a huge priority. But he knows he doesn’t have the experience or knowledge to do anything on that end.

As for Rudy, I’ve been told repeatedly by people in the know about UM admin and politics that he’s the guy to keep an eye on. He’s taken on a lot of portfolios and roles in admin, and has consolidated a lot of power.

As to Frenk’s position, it’s a mixed bag. Those that work with him think he’s a pretty pleasant boss and does listen to their recommendations/input. He’s different from Shalala in that sense. However, I know for a fact that a very very prominent member on the BOT has gone as far as to privately call Frenk’s hiring a mistake in retrospect. The expectation is that he will not be returning at the conclusion of his term, as it hasn’t gone unnoticed that the school is languishing in a lot of areas, especially in non-STEM fields. Say what you want about Shalala (she was atrocious with sports) but she was a fundraising powerhouse.
 
FL Cane said:
I don’t typically have insider info, but on this issue I can confirm (as many others on this board have) that Frenk empowered Rudy to be the top guy, along with our AD, in Athletics. One good thing about Frenk is that he’s someone that knows what he doesn’t know. He understands that to a lot of big time alums and donors, the FB program is a huge priority. But he knows he doesn’t have the experience or knowledge to do anything on that end.

As for Rudy, I’ve been told repeatedly by people in the know about UM admin and politics that he’s the guy to keep an eye on. He’s taken on a lot of portfolios and roles in admin, and has consolidated a lot of power.

As to Frenk’s position, it’s a mixed bag. Those that work with him think he’s a pretty pleasant boss and does listen to their recommendations/input. He’s different from Shalala in that sense. However, I know for a fact that a very very prominent member on the BOT has gone as far as to call Frenk’s hiring a mistake in retrospect. It hasn’t gone unnoticed that the school is languishing in a lot of areas, especially in non-STEM fields. Say what you want about Shalala (she was atrocious with sports) but she was a fundraising powerhouse.
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Highly unlikely he gets renewed and I think his contract is up in 2025.

He’s not making the conference call solo. Rudy and board members And billionaire boosters lead the charge there.

Don’t be confused that because he voted to approve cal Stanford and SMU to acc that means anything other than a thank you to two of those schools for AAU support and not feeling a need to burn bridges on acc when it’s essentially immaterial to what will happen going forward. The conference being voted out of existence was already dead before that.
 
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Rickd said:
A very connected Cane Alum told me point blank the conference decision is Frenk / BOT. Period. I am sure they do rely on input from Radakovich but definitely not to the degree that ND is relying on their former Chairman of NBC Sports. This current realignment saga is one in which media partners are doing a lot of the heavy lifting, back channeling, negotiating, horse trading. The former chairman of NBC sports is right at home in that environment.
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Personally I think both Rad and Frenk want to stay in the acc for different reasons. Rad because he was one of the biggest proponents for the GOR and his signature achievement was creation of the acc network. He's not likely going to do a 180 and say his signature achievement was garbage. When fsu started making noise about leaving, he doubled down that he wanted to make the acc stronger. He could have backed their play but didn't. And then he voted to expand the acc. Why? My guess is that he is worried that if FSU leaves the acc won't have enough teams. One realistic way of getting out of the GOR was to vote to dissolve the acc. Probably needed only 2 more teams to find a home somewhere else and they would have enough votes to disband. He easily could have voted with FSU, Clemson, and UNC to keep the 3 teams out but instead he voted yes, and basically slammed the door shut on getting out of the ACC through a vote.

Frenk wants the acc to survive because of academic prestige. UM has plummeted in the school rankings since he took over. Now we have Stanford and Cal, two of the best universities in the country. The ACC is absolutely the best academic conference, and moving to the B1G or SEC would mean academics take a backseat to athletics. And he'd vomit at the idea of merging with the B12, as they are garbage academically across the board.

Again this just my personal belief. I think the end result will be some renegotiation with espn and a little bit more money after 2027, but UM is not changing conferences until at least 2030.
 
TooColdToHold said:
No one knows how this is to end. He’s just speculating like everyone else.
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Yeah ... but he is speculating that FSU has no case at all ... period. Doesn't seem to be the case with comments from guys like Bob Thompson and quite a few other attorneys that have reviewed the legal documents and findings to date. There is a real issue with limiting any GOR "penalty or buy back" to the end of the current ESPN contract in June 2027. Heck, worst case FSU could pay the $120M exit fee, go to the B10 with no media rights for 2 seasons, have ESPN broadcast their home games, and FOX would do their away games. The B10 might agree to give them half share on that basis ... an amount similar to the ACC. Got to believe the media partners are the ones that finally get this done.
 
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Handsome Squidbum said:
Personally I think both Rad and Frenk want to stay in the acc for different reasons. Rad because he was one of the biggest proponents for the GOR and his signature achievement was creation of the acc network. He's not likely going to do a 180 and say his signature achievement was garbage. When fsu started making noise about leaving, he doubled down that he wanted to make the acc stronger. He could have backed their play but didn't. And then he voted to expand the acc. Why? My guess is that he is worried that if FSU leaves the acc won't have enough teams. One realistic way of getting out of the GOR was to vote to dissolve the acc. Probably needed only 2 more teams to find a home somewhere else and they would have enough votes to disband. He easily could have voted with FSU, Clemson, and UNC to keep the 3 teams out but instead he voted yes, and basically slammed the door shut on getting out of the ACC through a vote.

Frenk wants the acc to survive because of academic prestige. UM has plummeted in the school rankings since he took over. Now we have Stanford and Cal, two of the best universities in the country. The ACC is absolutely the best academic conference, and moving to the B1G or SEC would mean academics take a backseat to athletics. And he'd vomit at the idea of merging with the B12, as they are garbage academically across the board.

Again this just my personal belief. I think the end result will be some renegotiation with espn and a little bit more money after 2027, but UM is not changing conferences until at least 2030.
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Don't see how there will be "a little bit more money after 2027" when FSU will definitely be gone and possibly UNC / UVA. If the ND smoke has substance, the ACC without FSU / ND / UNC won't sniff the current contract amount. Miami was part of the "magnificent seven" so I am hoping that Radakovich believes that the ACC is dead man walking.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
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I still don’t think there’s a world where Miami doesn’t get into the P2 at some point relatively soon but it would be pretty helpful if the athletic department could do good athletics at some point.
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Absolute nightmare. Rado is a complete bust at AD and an absolute ***** who will make us irrelevant if we are stuck in the Big12 or ACC
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
I was skeptical about the GOR at first but more recently I’ve come to the conclusion that whoever has a place in the P2 and wants out of the ACC is getting out.

So IMO if an “insider” thinks the GOR is a formality, I can **** with that.

But anyone saying Miami has a guaranteed spot in the P2 is likely way overly optimistic. And I mean TODAY. Let’s just say the ACC comes out tomorrow and says, “**** it. If you want outta here, go.”

Does the B1G say “Finally! Miami, get your *** over here, baby!!”

I’m very skeptical at this point.

I am still hopeful this does happen at some point. I think Miami does have some draw that would entice one of the P2. I’m just not sure they’re incredibly high in the pecking order and there will likely not be an immediate push to add a bunch of schools.
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If we had a guaranteed spot in the P2 we wouldn’t have voted the PAC schools/SMU in
 
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ssvir said:


Genetics got put in a sleeper hold by the above attorneys take.

View attachment 283343
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This guy probably cares about keeping the ACC around. He could be NorthernVaginaCane's best friend!

FSU has blown a hole in the extension of the GOR by the commissioner without a vote by members. At the worst the GOR should end when the 2026 season is over because ESPN has not extended it. They also did a great job pointing out the nepotism in the deal and Swofford operating on the betterment of his son vs what was right for members. That is JMO, but I am no lawyer.
 
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ssvir said:
Nobody is currently "negotiating the ACC exit" so your question isn't relevant.

Frenk is going to go along with whatever his advisors suggest. He has proven that he at least knows what he doesn't know.
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The President and the BOT both can not be stupid enough to give up what B1G membership means for the academic side either. The conference affiliation means even more to the academic side (research $) than it does to the AD, which is enormous as well. They honestly would have to all be brain dead. Just because they are tight-lipped (unlike FSU) it doesn't mean they are sitting on their hands doing nothing either. This **** is likely to be a free for all (no pun intended) after FSU breaks out. Some will be jumping to B1G 12 as well because the future TV contracts there will be more in the future once the ACC implodes.
 
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