December 25, 2007
Aggies, Hogs to get richer deal that Texas-OU
If the folks in Austin and Norman ever wondered what their loyalty to the aging Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas has cost them, Dallas Cowboys owner (and Arkansas alum) was more than happy to show them this week. Jones has been working for months with Texas A&M and Arkansas to bring an annual rivalry game to his new stadium in Arlington.
The price tag? A guaranteed $5 million... per team... per year... for at least six years. Texas & Oklahoma each receive approximately $4.7 million/year for their game in Dallas.
According to the Dallas Morning News, the game would likely be scheduled in late September so as to coincide with the State Fair of Texas. The Dallas Cowboys would retain the rights to market the game, which means a title sponsor is probable. The two teams would split the stadium seats 50-50, a la the Texas-OU game arrangement.
When asked what this series will mean to Arkansas, Mr. Broyles said, "Huge. Huge."We've got a tremendous fan base there. We used to play four games every year in Texas with the Southwest Conference schedule. Our fans miss that. We hoping we get things worked out. We're anticipating getting things worked out."
The only remaining hurdle at this point is for Arkansas to shuffle its SEC schedule in several years, as those games are locked in years in advance. However, Arkansas has indicated that it will not be a deal breaker.
An agreement is expected to be announced in January.
Comments:
Tom Blogical
posted on December 26, 2007 10:57 AM — 24.95.77.153 — link — abuse?
said:
Zac:
Good question, and I'm not really sure. I've never tried to find out how much they make off of football games.
I ran a few quick searches, but couldn't find any breakdown of the numbers for the OSU-UM game specifically. The first Google search I tried showed an article about the Big 10(11) changing their schedule in 2009 for the 13 week schedule, and that article indicates OSU makes roughly $4-$5 million per game at Ohio Stadium. What that doesn't talk about is how much they share with the visiting school.
I went to the website K-Hue showcased here on November 7th, but found nothing specific about the OSU-Michigan game.
I have no idea what Michigan makes off their games at the Big House, but since it's a bigger stadium than Ohio Stadium, it would lead me to guess it's a little more. My guess for each school for The Game would be anywhere between $2-$2.5 million per school, since I think they share the profits with each other.
I'll try to find more data later--after the kids stop needing help with their Christmas games and toys! ;-)
I think I know more about Naruto, Ben 10, Barbie, Fur Real Cats, and Pokemon than College Football now!
(:-D)
posted on December 26, 2007 3:57 PM — 205.188.116.136 — link — abuse?War Eagle Atlanta
said:
Bold step for Arkansas to take on a Big 12 opponent for a few years, SEC schedules being what they are. I applaud it! I wonder what Petrino thinks about it?
There's always rumours flying around about Arkansas wanting to return to it's Southwestern conference roots and defect, but they never say where. Don't think the Big 12 has a vacancy sign on. Maybe the MAC might take them. I don't think they would leave the SEC though...
Not living in Dallas, I don't really know about the Cotton Bowl. From what it sounds like, it's probably on a similar path to the Orange Bowl, other than the fact that no team plays a regular schedule in it currently, I think. The writing might be on the wall for it...
posted on December 26, 2007 6:22 PM — 205.188.116.136 — link — abuse? said:
Porky: Do you really think that they would draft 2 more schools and be forced to play a possible 9-game conference schedule? Hell, everyone's playing a 12+ game season now. Eight conference games under an 11 game season was okay. Guess that one more wouldn't kill them.
If they did, I'd be willing to bet the SEC would pick up 3 more schools so they're not out-done.
I'd want GA Tech, Clemson, and Florida State. Sure, it would decimate the ACC, but I don't really care! :-)
hrposon said:
posted on December 27, 2007 12:18 PM — 98.200.123.115 — link — abuse?
This is what the NCAA has been afraid of all along. Schools grabbing up the money before the bowl season even begins.
It's one of the reasons they don't want a playoff system. Schools could schedule a number of huge $$$ games and still make the playoffs based on their record and strength of schedule.
Sort of like college basketball. Duke vs UCLA, Kentucky vs Kansas, Florida vs tOSU etc. It's the games we really want to see.
.Texas A&M played Montana State this year. It probably cost more to send the team up there than the TV revenues generated.Zac said:
posted on December 27, 2007 2:34 PM — 209.36.193.14 — link — abuse?
WarEagle (Post 8), if the SEC did raid the ACC for more teams, I wonder if the ACC would cry foul the way the Big East did, when the ACC raided them. Of course, if the SEC were to expand to 15 teams, you know where the ACC would make up the deficit. Wait a minute; I get it! The SEC is in league with the ACC to destroy the Big East!!!
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Ahem, I do know Big East Commissioner, Mike Tranghese, stills wants to expand the football side of the house. He wants in on that lucrative conference championship game. What with the conference already consisting of 16 teams (1/2 D-1 football), it’s difficult to imagine how to expand the football side of the house without splitting the Big East into 2 independent sub-conferences: a basketball primary side (DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, ND, Providence, St Johns, Seaton Hall, Villanova) and a football primary side (Cincinnati, CT, Louisville, Pitt, Rutgers, S FL, Syracuse, WVU, etc.).
posted on December 27, 2007 3:23 PM — 64.12.116.136 — link — abuse? said:
Zac: That would be a little pay-back to the ACC, huh? I have a little theory I'll share with you about the evolution of conferences. It's based on nothing more than my gut feelings.
In the absence of a national playoff, I think the major conferences grow larger, incorporating more teams, until there's really only around 5-6 super conferences with around 20 teams each. Inter-conference play starts to resemble something like the NFL, with perhaps a playoff inside the conference to determine the conference champ--much like the NFC and AFC playoffs, being that each team in this mega conference could not possibly play every team in the conference or even in it's own division, assuming a bi-divisional conference.
The winners of these conferences play a 3-round 'playoff' system and crown a champ. The few extra slots would be reserved for at large teams. Since these conference champs basically all get a shot to play for the NC, most everyone would be satisfied for a while.
If the SEC were to add teams to bring their total to 16 or more, I think you would see a trend where the SEC champ would automatically receive a bid to play for the MNC, with the rationale being that any team strong enough to win that mega conference would probably be strong enough to win the MNC. Quickly, other conferences would resent the SEC and it's newly acquired Notre Dame-esque automatic berth and would add teams so that they too could acquire mega-conference stature. Then we would end up with our playoff between the conferences.
Pooh, you say, to the SEC getting to the point of having their champ receive an automatic MNC title game berth? I say look no further than this season for proof, where LSU has been handed the chance on a silver platter in spite of them doing everything possible to screw it up. The media had pre-ordained LSU to be a MNC contender and what the media wants, they usually get.
Everyone play Devil's advocate for me:
Bevo Boy said:
posted on December 28, 2007 11:49 AM — 64.12.116.136 — link — abuse?
I hope TAMU vs. Ark. is a blowout by the same team (probably would be Ark.) every year so that the other team won't come back. I would prefer it be Arkansas that way Texas can just keep their home-and-home series going, since they play again next year.
posted on December 28, 2007 4:57 PM — 64.12.116.136 — link — abuse? said:
No, Notre Dame's loss limit would probably be 6 games. They'd at least have to be bowl-eligible to get into the national title game.
I think mega-conferences will be the trend of the future, barring major reform in regards to a playoff. Fans are putting more and more pressure on to get some sort of playoff
Most folks don't remember the SIAA--the Southern InterCollegiate Athletic Association. It was the very first college athletic conference and it grew to 30 schools by 1921, until some teams broke off to form the original Southern Conference--which West Virginia belonged to at some point later.
Eleven years after that, 13 teams from the Southern broke off to form the SEC. As you can see, in the old days, these conferences were much bigger. However, unlike the SAII, the Southern Conference still exists today, albeit with no Div 1A schools left.
Tomcat said:
posted on December 30, 2007 11:31 AM — 70.243.67.229 — link — abuse?
Texas vs Arkansas is one of the greatest old rivalries. The Hogs come into Austin next year for a home & home series with the Horns.Arkansas vs A&M would give both the Hogs and Aggies a good OCC opponent. Mr Papa Johns, NFL network, Dallas Cowboys should make a bundle, this is brought to you by Pepsi & Miller lite.
Adios TomcatOU Fan said:
posted on December 31, 2007 5:05 PM — 84.146.21.164 — link — abuse?
Regardless of how much money is involved, this game will never be better or bigger than OU-Texas. Money can buy many things, but it can't buy and create a rivalry as deep and as big as OU-Texas. I do however like the whole Big 12-SEC matchup year in and year out. BOOMER SOONER!
Regan said:
posted on January 1, 2008 11:48 PM — 64.12.116.136 — link — abuse?
Zac (#11):
War Eagle Atlanta (#12):It is highly unlikely that any BCS conference will expand past 12 teams.
The SEC, Big 12, and ACC all expanded to 12 to take advantage of the NCAA rule allowing for a conference championship game if the conferences were 12 with 2 divisions of 6 teams.
However, all that BCS/Bowl money that goes to the conferences (or to Notre Dame in it's own one-team conference) gets divided up between each school in the conference.
What this means is that each school knows that the more schools are in a conference, the smaller the check they get from the Bowls, etc.
Thus, no BCS conference would want to add teams past the minimum amount required for a lucrative conference championship game - 12.
In the future, rules could change, of course, but as it stands now, no BCS conference would expand past 12 - it wouldn't make sense to.
However, kicking under-producing teams out and replacing them by stealing other conferences' heavyweights, though...
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Zac said:
posted on December 25, 2007 8:08 PM — 64.12.116.136 — link — abuse?Wow, I didn't know there had ever been a rivalry between TX A&M & AR that was ever that big. I mean, we're talking $5 mil/team. That's like BCS money, except it's during the regular season. I don't think VA Tech & WVU or Pitt & WVU ever got that kind of money during those games, and each is (Well, one was.) a serious rivalry.
Yo, Gator Mates, C=Dogg, what kind of money does each team (FSU/Mimai or FL/FSU) get for these games?
Tom Blogical, do you have any figures on MI/OSU?
Who are our west coast fans for UCLA/USC?