Postscripts: College Football Playoff Money Controls Everything, Even at the Expense of March Madness?
What’s going on in the Big 12 and beyond? I expand and explain every Sunday in Postscripts at Heartland College Sports, your home for independent Big 12 coverage.
This week, why the Big 12 made the smart move signing up for the 14-team College Football Playoff, NCAA Tournament expansion (ugh) and two coaches keep it classy. Another? Well …
Gotta Keep That Football Money
Now that we have a 12-team College Football Playoff, it was obviously time to build a 14-team College Football Playoff, with the framework now agreed to and which will start in 2026. The yearly TV money for that contract will likely eclipse what the NCAA gets for the men’s basketball tournament each year.
With that comes revenue distribution. As you may know, the Big Ten and the SEC are going to get more per school than the Big 12 and the ACC, roughly $9 million each.
Obviously, that’s unfair. We had a roundtable on whether the Big 12 should have taken the deal. Only our site owner, Pete Mundo, said no. His logic is fair and reasonable.
I think my logic is fair and reasonable too. The Big Ten and the SEC know they have leverage — that’s why they’re pushing for this. The two leagues also know that they are the only two that can spin off and do their own thing. If they did that, they would rip apart the ACC and the Big 12 to create two super-conferences, grant-of-rights be damned.
Taking this deal is strategic for the Big 12. It allows them to keep building and to wait out the chaos that is now happening in the ACC. That could lead the Big Ten, the SEC and the Big 12 to getting more membership and allow the Big 12 to strengthen its league.
The last think you want after three years of fighting to stabilize is to surrender that stabilization for a little pride. No, it’s not fair. But it’s what the Big 12 has to do.
It’s March, after all. Survive and advance.
As for March Madness
I’m not thrilled about it, but there seems to be more momentum for expansion of the NCAA Tournament, and, of course, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is at the head of the snake, per this story from ESPN on the future of the tournament.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark addressed this on Tuesday and seemed to indicate he heard that 76 participants has been floated out there. He’s all for it — as long as it means more access for his conference. Just as the SEC has the case in football, the Big 12 has the case in men’s basketball.
This is all about access for power conference teams. It’s not about the little guy. The NIT has already done away with automatic bids for league champions that don’t win their league tournament title. That could be a test balloon for what’s to come in March Madness. Already, there are high-major teams opting out of taking an NIT bid, including Ole Miss and first-year coach Chris Beard (remember him?).
I cover the Big 12 so I’ll cover whatever happens. But I’d have to agree ESPN’s Bill Connelly. It’s not like the mid-majors and low-majors enter March Madness and do nothing.
I hope it stays at 68. But I know better than to count on it.
No Shade From Vic
Texas won the Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament on Tuesday and Longhorns coach Vic Schaefer spent as much time talking about Iowa State, the team they beat, as he did about his team. That’s Vic, though. Even as Texas is headed out the door for the SEC, the former Mississippi State coach had nothing but good things to say about the Big 12, the move to T-Mobile and the Cyclones. He even hinted he’d be OK with going to Hilton for a non-conference game sometime.
“We know we just went through a heck of a gauntlet and beat three really great teams, and we have nothing but respect and admiration for those teams, and this league,” Schaefer said. “And we won’t be here next year, but we will always be fond of this league, I will be, and lots of good memories of the Big 12. They will have them a heck of a league in the future. That team we just played tonight, they’re going to be really, really good, really hard to deal with.”
I’ve been around Vic since he was coaching at Sam Houston against my SFA Ladyjacks in the 1990s. He doesn’t just say stuff to be polite. He says it, he means it. One of the things I’ll miss about this break-up is getting the chance to interact with both Schaefer and OU women’s coach Jennie Baranczyk. Great coaches, great interviews and great people.
But Schaefer is right — ISU will be a handful next year. And they won’t be the only Big 12 program with that kind of scouting report, either.
So Long, Mike
Oklahoma State fired Mike Boynton Jr. as their men’s basketball coach on Thursday. Personally, I hated to see it happen. I felt he should have been given one more year to get the Cowboys moving in the right direction.
Boynton’s tenure was rocky, but not because of him. It was because of all of the things around him that he had no control of. He leaves Stillwater with a record just above .500 and with the respect of everyone in Stillwater. Seriously. There are few coaches I’ve run into that are as well-liked as Boynton. He was an assistant at my alma mater, Stephen F. Austin, under Brad Underwood. I’ve never met anyone in Nacogdoches, Texas, or Stillwater, Okla., that has a bad thing to say about him.
Here was his farewell message. See you soon, Mike, hopefully working a bench somewhere.
Tang Time
After Kansas State lost to Iowa State in the Big 12 quarterfinals, Wildcats coach Jerome Tang said this (and my Twitter mentions imploded for a couple of hours):
Here’s the video of what he said. It’s two minutes long and it’s the full context (not that many people care these days):
I know the point Tang was trying to make. Had he just made the point about Arthur Kaluma and Tylor Perry and left it at that, this would not have been a big deal. But making the off-hand comment about Tamin Lipsey was just unnecessary. But when a coach says something like that about an opposing player, it’s notable, with or without context.
I know the issues that Kansas State and Iowa State had earlier this season. I’m sure that won’t come up again anytime soon.
Your Moment of Zen
Doug Gottlieb wants the Oklahoma State job again.
I thought about this the other night. If I recall, Gottlieb raised his hand the last time this job was open when Underwood left. What has he done to burnish his coaching credentials since then? Nothing. That was seven years ago.
And that’s the problem. If you want it, put in the work. Boynton put in the work to get that job. Gottlieb continues to work in radio and television, and that’s great work. Gottlieb is passionate about his alma mater. That’s admirable. But it’s not nearly enough for OSU to roll the dice.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
