Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

[Jaxbuck]

Two days ago at Autzen:
View attachment 35785

That’s not the pose the duck will need to be in if it wants to earn a deal.

 

[ExpatAkronite]

That’s not the pose the duck will need to be in if it wants to earn a deal.

Well, the Husky is certainly ready for that!

 

[DubCoffman62]

Crazy to see that the pac appears to be failing before the big12. When I compare the 2:
PAC has cali, the biggest state and other states that are growing and/or have good metro areas. Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado. All awesome states with the biggest state in the country.
Big12 has Texas, which is the top tier, but that’s half of their freaking conference, and none of them are top 2 in the state. But WV, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma are all states that scream stagnation. They are picking up some mid tier schools from better states, but none have much of a fan base.
Yes TCU made the playoffs and won a game, and Okie state and Baylor has been relevant recently, but I’d still take Oregon and Washington over any of them long term.
To me this just shows how badly the pac 12 fucked this up. They really should have been going hard after the top b12 schools (tcu, okie st, Kansas) and given an offer to SDSU to get back into southern CA. I’m shocked that the big12 was saved by adding 4 of the top g5 schools.
Colorado may be the worse team in the PAC, but Denver is exploding.

The Pac is going to continue to sink. Yes, it has some large metro areas and California to recruit but the demographics are shifting more and more to Hispanic and God Bless them but they just don't have the genetics to compete physically in the major sports. The best thing the Pac could do is break itself up. It's already a borderline mid major tier conference and I really don't see that changing, ever.

 

[jakenick06]

Fuckin’ yikes

 

[Bucklion]

The Pac is going to continue to sink. Yes, it has some large metro areas and California to recruit but the demographics are shifting more and more to Hispanic and God Bless them but they just don't have the genetics to compete physically in the major sports. The best thing the Pac could do is break itself up. It's already a borderline mid major tier conference and I really don't see that changing, ever.

Yeah Anthony Munoz was terrible. Jesus Henrietta Christ.

 

[DubCoffman62]

Yeah Anthony Munoz was terrible. Jesus Henrietta Christ.

He's a needle in a haystack, an anomaly. I've said before, I've been in Phoenix for 26 years and I used to go to a high school game every Friday night during the season for years. I stopped going about 5 years ago because the quality of play has dropped so dramatically.

Here's AZ's top football prospects

2022 Top Football Recruits in Arizona

The 247Sports rankings are determined by our recruiting analysts after countless hours of personal observations, film evaluation and input from our network of scouts.

247sports.com

Out of the 67 listed there's 3 Hispanics despite Hispanics being 1/3 of the state population.

 

[Woody1968]

I guess Baseball and Soccer are no longer major sports?

 

[Bucklion]

He's a needle in a haystack, an anomaly. I've said before, I've been in Phoenix for 26 years and I used to go to a high school game every Friday night during the season for years. I stopped going about 5 years ago because the quality of play has dropped so dramatically.

Here's AZ's top football prospects

2022 Top Football Recruits in Arizona

The 247Sports rankings are determined by our recruiting analysts after countless hours of personal observations, film evaluation and input from our network of scouts.

247sports.com

Out of the 67 listed there's 3 Hispanics despite Hispanics being 1/3 of the state population.

Kiko Alonso? Roberto Garza? Max Montoya? Ron Rivera? Jim Plunkett? Tony Gonzalez? Tom Fears? I guess all needles.

 

[DubCoffman62]

Kiko Alonso? Roberto Garza? Max Montoya? Ron Rivera? Jim Plunkett? Tony Gonzalez? Tom Fears? I guess all needles.

When you think about how high the hay stack is and how few players you mention and how far back you had to go, yes, absolutely 100%. The Mexican/Central American phenotype that has been arriving for the last 25-30 years is less than ideal for football and basketball.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

It doesn't have anything to do with some genetic predisposition to play football and everything to do with the fact that soccer eventually became a thing. Not only can they play it in America from pee wee leagues to professional leagues, but they can follow it and watch it on television non stop. They're simply not being steered into football as youths the way previous generations were. And that doesn't only apply to Mexicans and South Americans. The same is true of the stream of Polish immigrants that is still coming into Chicago. All those big Polack kids who would have been put on a path to being linemen and linebackers at Big Ten schools 30 years ago are focusing on soccer today..

 

[Jaxbuck]

It doesn't have anything to do with some genetic predisposition to play football and everything to do with the fact that soccer eventually became a thing. Not only can they play it in America from pee wee leagues to professional leagues, but they can follow it and watch it on television non stop. They're simply not being steered into football as youths the way previous generations were. And that doesn't only apply to Mexicans and South Americans. The same is true of the stream of Polish immigrants that is still coming into Chicago. All those big Polack kids who would have been put on a path to being linemen and linebackers at Big Ten schools 30 years ago are focusing on soccer today..

You can't say "anything" to do with genetics.

Mexican males average something like 5'2". Of course there are individual exceptions but certain groups are just bigger than others.

That said, I agree it's mostly cultural. You never see Mexican cricket players for some reason and that reason is it's not part of their culture.

 

[Dryden]

It doesn't have anything to do with some genetic predisposition to play football and everything to do with the fact that soccer eventually became a thing. Not only can they play it in America from pee wee leagues to professional leagues, but they can follow it and watch it on television non stop. They're simply not being steered into football as youths the way previous generations were. And that doesn't only apply to Mexicans and South Americans. The same is true of the stream of Polish immigrants that is still coming into Chicago. All those big Polack kids who would have been put on a path to being linemen and linebackers at Big Ten schools 30 years ago are focusing on soccer today..

There is a swell of interest right now in the sport in general (thanks, Ted Lasso), but especially in lower league EFL clubs. Consider the Class of '92 buying Salford, Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney buying Wrexham and producing a massively popular show on Hulu/FX/Disney+, and JJ & Kealia Watt taking a minority stake in Burnley. That is converting into eyeballs and I can say from personal experience that there were a lot more kids of all demographics out at the rec-plex this past spring playing soccer than there have been in probably four decades since I played as an adolescent in the 80s and every kid wanted to be Pele.

Last year there were 13 or 14 kids on my daughter's co-ed, all-district combined middle-school team. This year so many came out for orientation, we had to field two teams, and then further cut some kids that couldn't get past conditioning week.

 

[LovelandBuckeye]

Denver is exploding

Normally I would say that won't help CU grab eyeballs. However, with Neon Deion on board they will start to get some tv coverage again.

 

[LovelandBuckeye]

There is a swell of interest right now in the sport in general (thanks, Ted Lasso), but especially in lower league EFL clubs. Consider the Class of '92 buying Salford, Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney buying Wrexham and producing a massively popular show on Hulu/FX/Disney+, and JJ & Kealia Watt taking a minority stake in Burnley. That is converting into eyeballs and I can say from personal experience that there were a lot more kids of all demographics out at the rec-plex this past spring playing soccer than there have been in probably four decades since I played as an adolescent in the 80s and every kid wanted to be Pele.

Last year there were 13 or 14 kids on my daughter's co-ed, all-district combined middle-school team. This year so many came out for orientation, we had to field two teams, and then further cut some kids that couldn't get past conditioning week.

Well in God's country, SE Indiana, we still play America's game of football. Ain't nobody playing that Commie sport of footb...soccer. Jokes aside, it is still pretty popular here. The area is a little more rural and refuses to accept lacrosse as a sport since they already have soccer and allow girls to play any sports. Also, defending state champs baby!!!!!! USA USA SEC USA!

 

[TampaBuckeyes]

From a talent perspective, cal is still a top 5 producer of talent, even though they have the biggest population. I think that reinforces what was said here.

But even if they aren’t watching football, it will still be in their cable package, which means $$$. Cable is still the best way to watch live soccer, similar to football.