Statements are good.
They far outweigh in relevance any social media posts, rants, or wild claims by people claiming to have an inside track on the current college football realignment swap deals.
On Tuesday, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark issued an official statement confirming his recently reorganized conference of 12 schools will hold realignment talks with six from the Pac-12 – reportedly a contingent from Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona state.
As the college football landscape continues to shake beneath everyone’s feet, this could be UW’s best option. The Huskies would position themselves to participate in a fair and equitable TV media rights payout estimated at $500-$600 million and allow them to field a football team competitive with all others.
If the Huskies remain in the Pac-12, media reports say the payout will be diluted to between $200 million and $250 million at best. The Big Ten, operating from a position of strength, would offer incoming teams something in the middle and well below their founding members.
With this option, the Pac-12 would retain half of its league while also competing with a variety of Texan schools in Baylor, Houston, Texas Tech and TCU, Big 8 remnants in Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Oklahoma State and a hodgepodge from BYU, Cincinnati, Central Florida and West Virginia.
Would you call it the Big 18?
The Huskies have never played Central Florida or West Virginia in football.
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Cincinnati, of course, qualified fourth for the final CFP playoffs, losing to Alabama 27-6.
The UW and the Bearcats have only met once, in 1974, when Jim Owens’ last husky team earned a 21-17 win at home.
Oddly enough, this sudden meeting of Pac-12 and Big 12 heads comes after the latter conference lost Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC earlier this year. The Big 12 reportedly asked the Pac-12 to discuss some form of consolidation at the time and were turned down.
If anything were to come together between these two, it would surely spell the end of the Pac-12 and confine college football to four major conferences.
Of course, these leagues would have to agree on a new name, and Big 18 would be an option, as would some sort of Big 12/Pac 12 hybrid.
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