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, let’s get inside the SEC’s not interested in expansion narrative and how it impacts the Big 12, settle the Snyder vs. Leipold debate and embrace some Horns Down logic.
The SEC Isn’t Interested in Your Expansion Narrative (For Now)
The SEC was in Dallas this week for its media days and when commissioner Greg Sankey spoke he got several questions about realignment and expansion, especially when it came to the ACC.
Just do a search on “Greg Sankey and ACC” and the first three headlines are:
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey: We have no interest in adding Florida State
SEC football expansion: Greg Sankey is ‘paying attention’
Greg Sankey addresses likelihood SEC adds Florida State if it breaks with ACC
He also said the league is focused on its 16 schools and isn’t focused on recruiting new schools, which is essentially what Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said last week in Las Vegas and what Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti will say next week at Big Ten media days.
It’s true that Sankey is focused on his 16 schools. I think it’s true he’s not focused on recruiting other schools. But that’s because, frankly, he doesn’t have to. He runs the SEC. Schools go to him, not the other way around.
It’s also foolish for Sankey to focus on what’s happening with Florida State and Clemson now because no one knows how long these lawsuits will take and what the “end game” truly looks like (timeline, buyout, etc…). The same goes for Yormark and Pettiti.
Openly recruiting either, or both, would invite tampering lawsuits and far more drama than is necessary. This is why it makes no sense for the Big 12 to try and lure the two schools out of the league. It will be far more trouble than it’s worth.
These three commissioners are, and should, truly be focused on their business. When the time comes — believe me — all three leagues will get involved.
Think of it like this — if Clemson and Florida State knew that getting into any of those three leagues wasn’t going to happen, do you think they would still be suing the ACC? No. They know they have a landing spot. They just don’t know exactly where — and they won’t until they know when they can leave.
As for Sankey’s comment about “We’re not going to take our pie and cut it into more pieces,” don’t sweat that, either. The SEC has a pro rata, just like the Big 12. He’s just gonna get another full share of pie.
The SEC is the one league that doesn’t have to expand, can stay in its geographic footprint and still be a raging success. But, I think the SEC will strongly consider Clemson and Florida State, once they know when they’ll be free from the ACC, if for no other reason than to keep them from the Big Ten and, to a lesser degree, the Big 12.
All the private equity in the world isn’t going to help the Big 12 overcome that.
Meanwhile, here’s what the media that covers the ACC is saying about all of this as the league prepares for its media days in Charlotte on Monday. If the ACC collapses at some point, here’s a list of schools that could end up in the Big 12. Here’s our think piece on whether Clemson and Florida State are truly worth adding to the Big 12. And, here’s why our Derek Duke believes the Big 12 can finally, after three years, relax for a bit.
Why do I feel like he just jinxed us?
The Pre-Order Future
EA Sports College Football 25 came out this week. As someone who doesn’t play video games, I actually wasn’t clear that Monday’s release was for the pre-order crowd and Friday’s release was for everyone. Silly me.
If you were wondering how the pre-order went, here’s our Joe Tillery with an update:
While a large majority of fans elected to wait until Friday, July 19th, to play College Football 25 for the first time, a massive part of the game’s audience paid an extra $30 to get the game on Monday, July 15th instead.
According to a recent report from Say Cheese, EA Sports had a total of 2.2 million fans pre-order the game with the extra fee in order to get their hands on the game a bit earlier.
In short, 2.2 million multiplied by 30 dollars yielded the company upwards of $65M just on pre-order fees alone, not counting the game’s $100 price tag. When factoring in the total cost of the 100-dollar price, the 2.2 million college football fans total a whopping $220M in sales.
So, yeah, EA is good at this money-making thing. They even had a booth at Big 12 Media Days and players got the chance to play it even earlier on site.
Bravo to EA for bringing back a game that everyone loves and doing it the right way.
As for why I don’t play? Well, I’m a guy of the 1990s, which means I used to play Tecmo Bowl. I was the “easy win” in the dorm. You could give me the 1993 Dallas Cowboys and you could take the 1993 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and you would win by 50. And if you know that means then you truly understand how bad I am.
Bill or Lance?
I feel I need to weigh in on who had a harder rebuilding job — Kansas State coach Bill Snyder or Kansas coach Lance Leipold?
I also feel the need to point out that this really isn’t a debate worth having. Snyder’s was harder. Period. End of discussion. Let’s move on.
But, if you’re into it, here’s Mark Van Sickle making a case about how, one day, Leipold’s rebuild job could pass Snyder’s.
Horns Down Logic
Credit where credit is due. Here is SEC director of football officials John McDaid giving a clear, cogent and logical explanation of what will draw a penalty this year in the SEC.
Basically, if you use it to taunt that’s a penalty. If you use it to celebrate with fans and teammates, no penalty. I mean, that’s reasonable.
It never should have reached the mythic waste of mental resources that it reached in the Big 12.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
