DavidGordonsFoot {l Wrote}:MilitantEagle {l Wrote}:1) BYU
The media is saying every sport other than football at BYU is a major hangup for joining the conference since BYU teams don't compete on Sundays. The Big 12 is open to football-only members, but with so much competition for these invites, I don't see why they would settle for one.
If Big 12 can figure out how to make basketball work with BYU's no Sunday's policy, then it's a perfect partnership, because the TV deals are only for football & basketball. No one cares if BYU's non-revenue sports stay in the Big West. To make basketball work, they just have to figure out how to reposition 5-6 conference games that would otherwise be on Sunday. That's not too hard.
The harder issue is picking a 2nd school. A reverse auction or dutch auction are great price discovery tools where everyone bids to their maximum percieved value, but only if you don't care who owns the asset. But this isn't a one-qay sale where customer identify doesn't impact asset value ... just the opposite, this is going to be a conference partner, expected to return value with a competitive on-field product, viewership, brand name, etc. The reverse auction (assuming it's just for a reduction payout for 1-2 years) fails to account for the 2nd half of the equation ... and seems likely to attract the biggest lemon who's are most desperate and most frugal, i.e., the worst programs that are selling the cheapest products.
If shudder to think would would have happened if BC participated in similar reverse auction for ACC membership, Leahy would use it as an excuse to run the program at 1-AA levels, and we'd become institutional dormats and laughing stock for the media. They only way I can see a reverse auction working is if the Big 12 implements strict quality control measures for the new entrant to maintain a certain caliber/capacity of stadiums, fund all programs at full scholarships levels, and offer competitive salaries (coaches) and stipends (athletes) at P5 mediam levels. If that occurs, then theoretically, no new entrant will big down beyond what they can afford .... and basically rely upon alumni donations to make up the initial shortfall.