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Tim May breaks down conference expansion, impact on college football

Tim-Mayby: Tim May08/09/23TIM_MAYsports
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Greg Pickel/BWI

COLUMBUS — The latest upheaval in college athletics order – two more teams joining the Big Ten, the Pac-12 being reduced to the Final 4 – deserves a generational roundtable discussion, so The Tim May Show provided it with this week’s edition.

Oregon and Washington are joining the Big Ten in 2024, joining their still-current Pac-12 partners Southern California and UCLA who announced their exits a year ago.

 With Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah headed to the Big 12, that leaves the suddenly orphaned Oregon State, Washington State, California and Stanford in the “old Pac-12,” definitely not a quorum. But those four could be scattered by the winds of change any day now, also.

That’s why yours truly, who is 69, assembled 40s-something Bill Bender of The Sporting News and 20s something Spencer Holbrook of Lettermen Row to discuss the developments from a generational perspective. What probably makes sense for the long term looks like nonsense in the short term, but dollars and cents – primarily the conference television contract ,mega-dollars – are fueling it. You know, which is about as profound as saying “the sun is hot.”

The Big Ten, meanwhile, is moving to 18 members in 2024 and will be nationwide. When it came to raiding the Pac-12 orchard, Bender said, the Big Ten definitely plucked the riper fruit.

“I’ve thought about it all weekend, I don’t know if it’s good or bad,” Bender said. “I think it’s smart to get the four biggest brands off the west coast, if that’s the way you want to handle it.

“Is it good for college football? No. Nobody can sit here and say that ripping a conference apart that’s been around for 100 years is good for college football. 

“But, as I was saying for all these people who were throwing flowers on the Pac-12’s grave on Friday, you weren’t watching {Pac-12 football telecasts for the most part}, don’t lie. There was only one game in Pac-12 play last year that had a (TV) rating of 2.0 or better, and that was UCLA and USC, and that was because people wanted to watch {eventual Heisman Trophy winner} Caleb Williams.”

With TV ratings and thus revenue driving the shakeup bus, the breakup of the Pac-12 seemed inevitable.

As Holbrook points out, it does not appear that Oregon and Washington are immediately going to be gaining revenue shares that match the current Big Ten members – and yes, that includes USC and UCLA, who jumped at the right time it seems – but it still will be substantially more than they would have made by staying in what was left of the Pac-12. 

Still, “I don’t love this for anything,” Holbrook said. “I’m probably one of the youngest college football ‘purists’ … that you’ll find. I don’t like all of this movement, but I’m almost resigned to it now … It’s a sad reality. But it IS reality. 

“It’s just where we are, but I don’t really see who this benefits other than the (TV) networks who are pulling the strings.”

We also talk who should be in the top four or five in the preseason polls. Then Holbrook and I breakdown more vital happenings in the Ohio State preseason camp as the start of the 2023 season bears down on us all.

This Tim May Show, with now sponsorship from Gametime.co and the Gametime app, the nation’s fastest growing ticketing service for sports and entertainment events, is available on the Lettermen Row Youtube channel, and on your favorite podcast provider.

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