HDuck

Not so fast my friends... https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/article/inside-the-making-and-future-of-the-latest-bill-to-save-college-sports--and-the-major-sticking-point-thats-rankling-sec-and-big-ten-officials-012759191.html

It was interesting to me to see the whole 11-game schedule for Beavis released today, with kickoff times. (There will be a 12th game to be determined). Of those 11 games, 2 were on so-called broadcast TV - 1 CBS, 1 CW - while the other 9 were cable or streaming - 6 USA, 1 ESPN, 1 CBSSN, MW+. I thought Beavs were touting all their games would be on over-air broadcast TV? "Everyone has The CW!!" Of the 52 regular season Pac12 conference games that occur on Saturday, 26 of them kickoff at 9:30 pm Eastern or later.

As I recall, there was a problem with the App early last Fall. The Athletic Dept decided to make some modifications in the weeks immediately before the first game and it gave a lot of people angst about whether they would have access to their tickets. As I recall, it was fixed in time. Barely. Eventually the AD responded because there were too many complaints/problems to ignore.

2027: E. Washington Coastal Carolina (replaces at Baylor) Western Kentucky 4 B1G home games, 7 total 2028 North Dakota State replace home game that was Baylor at Burrito Stadium 5 B1G home games, 7 total

Announced on Wednesday: home-and-home (2027-28) with Baylor has been mutually canceled

Well, it appears the wedding industry in the Southeast for November nuptials just took a dive. SEC announced that beginning in 2027 it is eliminating Cupcake Weekend in November. 2026: 'bama vs Chattanooga, Ole Miss vs Wofford, Auburn vs Samford...and others like it this season in late November will go by the wayside. The SEC is going to 9 conference games and will apparently try to copy the B1G by compressing all non-conference into the first month?

Have to say, I'm not a fan of UO, OSU and WSU in the same Regional. Understand the "geography" factor, but I would rather see each of the 3 in different Regionals. Being in one Regional means only one of the 3 has a chance to advance to a Super. And, we'll have to read/hear about "old Pac12 rivals" as a storyline for days leading up to it. Lazy journalism rewarded.

Wynham wins it by 3 strokes....30 under par.

I'm curious about other conferences with a season-end tournament. Is there attendance as abysmal as it was for the Big Ten's games not involving Nebraska? And, even Nebraska fans didn't show up in great numbers? I understand the stadium in Omaha is 24,000 and it will look empty. But geesh, it looked EMPTY all over on TV. I can understand the proposed advantage of playing there for any B1G team that later makes the collegiate series and returns, but...

"...playing at home as many games as possible" Even if the home team has to share "playoff ticket revenue," there would still likely be other $$$ benefits such as concessions, parking, logo wearable sales, and potentially $$$ for local businesses like hotels and restaurants and food suppliers that would likely be untouched.

Coach Kelly Graves plans to appoint Brielle Groen, currently the team's executive director, to a general manager type of role. more: https://247sports.com/college/oregon/article/kelly-graves-outlines-oregon-coaching-staff-plans-following-jerise-freeman-departure-285305894/

https://clutchpoints.com/ncaa-football/ncaa-football-news-acc-commissioner-reveals-espn-preferred-playoff-expansion-plan

"ESPN, who do not want ... their bowl game inventory diminished." Not sure why this piece of it doesn't get more attention in national media? With 24 CFP participants, it means more 5-7 record teams in bowls and lower TV ratings. I suspect ESPN is also concerned about programming inventory. If some of those bowl games they own go away, they have to find other stuff to put in those time slots, get advertisers, etc.

An interesting piece here about the future of college football. Could have some impacts on revenue share across the spectrum if some of the concepts can pass the legal tests. For those sensitive to the word "Trump" just try to read for the concepts. https://theamericansdigest.com/trump-administration-seeks-federal-intervention-in-ncaa-operations/

The NCAA softball bracket is out with 32 teams seeded 1-8 in four "pods." Every 1-4 in a pod, starts with a home venue regional. That's four regionals per pod (16 total) which then goes to 8 Super Regionals. If the Ducks as a 4 win their home venue regional, and so does the No. 1 in their pod, then the Ducks would have to travel to the No. 1 for a Super Regional. The Ducks have No. 1 ranked Oklahoma as the likely next step in the bracket for the Super Regional. With No. 1 Oklahoma as the apparent No. 3 overall seed that means the No. 4 Ducks were likely No. 14 overall. Overall: 12 SEC teams with 9 getting home regionals out of 16 possible regionals, and 6 could qualify based on seed for the 8 Super Regionals. 7 B1G teams, just 3 home regionals, and just 2 which could qualify for a Super. 8 ACC 7 Big12 No ACC or Big12 team could qualify to host a Super unless the SEC/B1G were bumped out in their part of the bracket. Oklahoma Softball's NCAA Tournament Seeding & Finish Since 2013 • 2013 – 1, WCWS Title • 2014 – 7, WCWS 2nd Round • 2015 – 11, Super Regional • 2016 – 3, WCWS Title • 2017 – 10, WCWS Title • 2018 – 4, WCWS Semifinal • 2019 – 1, WCWS Runner-up • 2021 – 1, WCWS Title • 2022 – 1, WCWS Title • 2023 – 1, WCWS Title • 2024 – 2, WCWS Title • 2025 – 2, WCWS Semifinal • 2026 – 3, TBD The Softball World Series is held 24 miles from the OU campus. The 2026 Tournament top 16 overall seeds with home regionals: 1-Alabama - lost to Texas in SEC Championship 2-Texas - SEC Tournament Champ 3-Oklahoma 4-Nebraska - B1G Tournament Champ 5-Arkansas 6-Florida 7-Tennessee 8-UCLA 9-Florida St - won ACC Tournament 10-Georgia 11-Texas Tech - lost to Ariz State in Big12 Championship 12-Duke 13-Okie State 14-Oregon 15-Tex A&M - will host Ariz State in the Regional 16-LSU

Last few years on Nov. 20 it has been mid-40's daytime, and dropping into the 30's at night. A pretty narrow range of low-high-low within the 24 hours.

Michigan: Has maintained a "no" stance on playing Friday nights. Ohio State & Penn State: Have expressed reluctance and largely avoided HOSTING, with Ohio State typically excluded from Friday night TV packages, though they face pressure to participate. Resistance to hosting based on size of stadium/crowd and logistic challenges in the area of the stadium on Friday nights. Iowa: While they have played on November Black Friday, they generally avoid other Friday home games due to the hospital's location next to the stadium, though they do play Friday road games. 2026 will play a Friday night at Washington. Comment from me...looking down the road I have no doubt UM, OSU, PSU will demand a bigger piece of B1G revenue shares. Perhaps the other 15 schools should make it contingent on them providing more flexibility in their schedules?

Northwestern, Washington and Illinois will have back-to-back Friday games.

Sep. 12 @ Oklahoma State Sep. 18 Portland St (no TV designated yet) Sep. 26 @ USC Nov. 14 Michigan Nov. 20 @ Michigan St on Fox Nov. 28 Washington Neither game has a designated starting time.

Their leverage? There is speculation that they would attempt a super $$ league with other similarly minded programs that want to take cream off the top current conferences such as Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Michigan, etc. The downside might be those select few ending up with more losses in an individual season than fans have come to expect.

Ole Miss is visiting Corvallis in 2030, so doubt they would want to make it two years in a row. As of this point, Ole Miss hasn't indicated they want to buy out of the game in Corvallis. Iowa State generally schedules one major opponent for non-conference. In 2029, they already have a road trip to Tulane. Texas Tech is visiting Eugene in 2033 if the schedule holds. For me, as I've advocated in the past, I would like to see Oregon establish a rotation with legacy Pac12 programs....UA, ASU, Cal, Stanford, Utah...rather than schedule Oregon State each season. So, if that list of 5 is accurate, it would be Stanford for me.

Perhaps Sankey doesn't really care all that much....16 or 24? He may prefer a "groundswell" decision rather than having his name singularly associated for the SEC decision? Not related, but read a column recently which re-capped Yorkmark taking the Big12 to market early in late 2022 and made a pretty logical argument that the move was almost singularly the death blow to the old Pac12. It was an interesting piece about Yormark. Wish I had the link. Doesn't get much recognition from Beavs & Cougs partisans, but Yormark's moves on Colorado and Arizona immediately before the UO/UW decision also was a factor.

Analysis of public data indicates Notre Dame would receive more as a member of the B1G. USC explored Independent status with a singular media contract before bolting to the B1G. It didn't pencil $$ to try to emulate ND. Texas's Longhorn Network fizzled despite ESPN's effort to promote it. That's 3 big brand names which should cause tOSU a thought provoking pause. The media groups have been primarily interested in package deals for the value. OSU would likely have less risk, and more stable income over time, by trying to leverage a bigger slice from the B1G.

Well, I believe the current B1G media contract runs through the 2030 season and the members granted rights to the conference? There is credible speculation that by 2029 Ohio State will be demanding a bigger piece of the B1G pie as part of the new agreement beginning in 2031. It remains to be seen how many "tiers" of value there will be within the B1G. UW and UO do not receive the 100% media share values until 2030. When the new agreement begins 2031, it is doubtful whether either will have equivalent shares to Ohio State. But, they both better be working their competitive butts off in the next 3 years to be positioned in the total revenue (media plus) second tier in what may be a 3-tier/4-tier arrangement. The fiscal year payments for 2024-25 just announced had OSU at $91.5M, Penn St at $88.9M while most members shares were in the $76-79M category. That was due primarily to CFP participation that flowed to those two. Oregon's share of total revenues was about $48M. It should be higher when the 2026 fiscal year is released due to the annual escalation in partial media shares and UO's participation in the CFP this past season. Taking 2025 as an example, if your program is in the $76M category, how much less are you willing to receive to make OSU, UM and PSU happy starting in 2031?

"Cornhuskers and Oregon tied for second in the conference with six losses each at the moment." Ducks softball win on Saturday at UCLA secured the No. 2 conference seed for the Ducks, even if they do lose to UCLA on Sunday and end up tied. Ducks softball has now been in the Big Ten for two full regular seasons. The Ducks have 8 conference opponents each season, and they are 16-0 in the 2 or 3 game series matchups. Oregon won the B1G regular season last year. Nebraska won it this year.