06-11-2010, 10:34 AM
As the article points out, Colorado was a minor piece of the whole, grand Pac-10 expansion bid. If, in the end, we don\'t end up with the Texas/Oklahoma/Texas A&M group--mainly Texas--then expansion looks more like a consolation prize than THE prize.
Here\'s why: The whole drive for the teams that matter in the Big 12 was to get Pac-10 football playing on TV in Central Time Zone.
Right now the ratings show that a lot (most?) Pac-10 football plays elsewhere in the U.S. in the late afternoon or night. Picking up popular teams that play on Central time means, in effect, they boost Pac-10 audiences (=revenues) at a time when more people will tune in.
Conversely, the Big Ten picking up the strong Central Time Zone now has a very big footprint vs. the SEC in prime-time Saturday football.  This move-to-earlier-time-zone logic also explains rumors of the Big Ten looking to the Eastern Time Zone for Pitt, Maryland, Syracuse and Rutgers.  Very clever on the Big Ten\'s  part, IF they pull it off. Clever of Texas to sit and let the suitors come to it.
And maybe we end up holding the consolation prize, whatever teams those are.
Here\'s why: The whole drive for the teams that matter in the Big 12 was to get Pac-10 football playing on TV in Central Time Zone.
Right now the ratings show that a lot (most?) Pac-10 football plays elsewhere in the U.S. in the late afternoon or night. Picking up popular teams that play on Central time means, in effect, they boost Pac-10 audiences (=revenues) at a time when more people will tune in.
Conversely, the Big Ten picking up the strong Central Time Zone now has a very big footprint vs. the SEC in prime-time Saturday football.  This move-to-earlier-time-zone logic also explains rumors of the Big Ten looking to the Eastern Time Zone for Pitt, Maryland, Syracuse and Rutgers.  Very clever on the Big Ten\'s  part, IF they pull it off. Clever of Texas to sit and let the suitors come to it.
And maybe we end up holding the consolation prize, whatever teams those are.