MGN Weekender: September 13, 2024

Friday the thirteenth rumors of conference realignment

Here we are, on the unluckiest day of the year. For me, I never believed in that kind of thing and actually wanted to wear the number 13 for a long time because Dan Marino wore it.¹ This day brings with it the rumors of conference realignment. It is the scariest and most over-talked about thing ever.

If we have learned anything from the last decade of teams changing leagues is that 1) it is about television contracts, 2) it is about the playoffs, 3) it is less interesting than you think it will be.

MGN HQ is near Mizzou and I see them spending all that new SEC money on a new stadium. They have a somewhat relevant team over there, but they have spent a lot of time and money losing. Good for them, I suppose. Rutgers and Maryland have a lot of money and have also done a lot of losing in the Big Ten. Clemson and FSU² are suing so they can cover up the blame for not competing well enough. Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC for a similar reason. Then again Texas had been flirting with the Pac8/10/12 for 15 years or so.

No one is happy where they are. They want more money and think that is keeping them down. So many programs look at the roster of members and sneer, thinking to themselves “I cannot believe we are in a league with the likes of them.”

When I came into North Texas sports consciousness, UNT was in the Sun Belt. We are about to celebrate the 2004 Sun Belt Champion squad that featured Jamario Thomas and his 1801 yards on 285 carries and 17 touchdowns. That league featured UNT, Troy, NMST, ULM, FAU, Middle, stAte, ULL, Utah St, and FIU.

A complaint people had was that there were no natural rivals. Jonesboro, AR is a long way away folks. EA Sports NCAA Football 2003 said that Middle was our rival. I thought that was a stretch then, and still do now.

In my mind, the ideal division of a league was the 2013 CUSA West division. NT was in the same division as Rice, UTSA, Tulane, La Tech, Tulsa, and UTEP. If you can swap out El Paso with San Marcos I think you have an ideal division of any league.

The rumors are that the newly formed Pac 12 is looking toward Texas for members. The rumors from all the national guys is that UTSA is interested. I say unless the money is stupid big, North Texas should stay in the American. Unlike UTSA which doesn’t care about basketball whatsoever, North Texas has a winning program. The American is a good basketball league and is a very good football conference. Most importantly, there are close-ish teams for fans to travel.

UTSA, Rice (Houston) and Tulsa are easy road trips. When things are going well, NT takes over Houston and will travel down to San Antonio for good times. When we are focused on filling up the DAT at 30K, we should not be looking to get the fans to travel to Pullman or Corvallis.

Scheduling the odd home-and-home? Yes, I’ve been all for that for years. The (Previously) mid-tier Pac-12 squads like Oregon State, Cal, Washington State? They are happy to travel to Texas to build their brands. I love the Texas Tech deal — that’s very similar folks. Oklahoma State has grown in popularity over the last two decades, but you could maybe get a Kentucky or something. Iowa State? I would love another trip to Iowa. Let’s schedule Illinois.

Let’s just not get in a league with them. It hurts the non-revenue sports something awful and isolates the University.

I understand we want to think big and all that. The new Pac 12 league is not going to be what you imagine it to be — Cal, Stanford, USC, UCLA, etc. I will be the Mountain West+. Washington State and San Diego State and Boise. You complain about having to travel to Charlotte? It isn’t much more fun traveling to Idaho, folks.

Again, if stupid money is the carrot, then maybe you have to do what you have to do. The cost of travel and the spread out nature of the league might be covered by a ridiculous contract. The fact remains that if North Texas wants to build a program it will always take money. And that money always comes from you and me. We (and the rest of CUSA) didn’t want to shell out cash for the BeInSports channel and the networks know this so they are less likely to pay through the nose for a Boise-vs-UNT matchup.

When we say “but what if we are playing a better school!?” you have to think about the other side of the coin. The other program is saying “We are carrying this thing, why should NT get a slice of this pie?”

Again, if you want North Texas to get big bucks from the teeVee you have to show that it is a big deal by going to the games and showing interest.

My favorite line about this was from twitter, when some FIU fan was complaining that the local paper wasn’t covering the team. In response, a former editor said something to the effect of We sent a beat guy there for a year and it didn’t drive subscriptions or page views or anything. So we stopped. Looking at the (FIU) attendance, it looks like no one really cares.

The joke about the SEC marketing line “it just means more” is that it does mean more. You can argue about whether or not it should be that way. Should the people of the South care about college football so hard? I mean, we can ask the same of ourselves. Should the state of Texas care about football as much as we do? We build cathedrals to high school football, folks.

Obviously, I am writing to the choir here. I am a North Texas die-hard. You are too. You are reading this email/post and have hot sports opinions about it. The thing is that we do not have the same number as other programs. Texas can support three-and-four paid national sites. NT has the 247 one that passes in obscurity. Current writing economics aside, it has always been thus.

For right now, I like NT in a league with good enough programs where we can travel and build some natural rivals. Some new conference affiliation will not magically make North Texas a better program. If and when NT grows to a powerhouse in this league we can then talk about next-steps. And yes, there will always be a next step. If we learned nothing else about league realignment it is that it will always be with us.

1. I wore a lot of numbers in my short career — 4, 25, 31, 45, 54, 84 are the ones I can remember.

2. FSU has always been an agitator from when they jumped into the ACC in the first place. I remember when the ACC was poaching a Va Tech and Miami and causing trouble for other leagues. Now FSU wants to quit.