One of the sidebars that emerged Monday from the university football cancellation palooza was the possibility of rescheduling the conference – if only temporarily for one season. More specifically, the idea is that university football teams of conferences that would cancel their seasons would try to play on their own.
Nebraska coach Scott Frost suggested that his program this season would have had ‘options’ to play in a different league if the Big Ten canceled the 2020 campaign. This led to widespread speculation on social media regarding any number of schools jumping conferences to play just one season.
Both Ryan Day of Ohio and Jim Harbaugh of Michigan made strong social statements in support of playing the 2020 season. This while the Big Ten at least seems to be planning for a potential cancellation.
“It’s not optimal. Is it conceivable? Sure,” one Power Five executive told CBS Sports.
That can be a stretch.
A leading television executor told CBS Sports that Big Ten’s TV contract with the Big Ten Network, Fox and ESPN could prevent the Cornhuskers from becoming a ‘free agent’ for the 2020 season.
Such a restriction would be tantamount to awarding rights agreements in the Big 12 and ACC. Those grants bind TV rights of schools to a specific conference for a period of years. The ACC’s rights grant goes to 2036, while the Big 12’s last until 2025.
If a school leaves before these dates, the conference from which they are leaving would have their TV rights. That has been more than enough to keep those teams in place.
“It would be difficult” for Nebraska to move, the TV executive said.
Still, it’s fun to speculate. The Mountain West and Old Dominion (a member of the United States Conference) both canceled their 2020 seasons on Monday. The MWC hopes to play in the spring of 2021.
An inaccurate report Monday stated that the Big Ten presidents voted to cancel their season. That may still happen, but it’s not exactly right now.
It is widely believed that the Big Ten and Pac-12 will cancel their seasons as early as Tuesday, leaving the ACC, Big 12 and SEC to decide whether to move on or continue this season. The ACC has said it “absolutely” intends to play this season, while the SEC preaches patience and promises in making the right decision.
Notre Dame has been a temporary member of the ACC for one year in 2020. It will add its $ 15 million payout from NBC into the league’s coffers and receive an equivalent piece of the total TV rights pie.
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, commissioners suggested that if only one group of schools could advance from a conference, it would be possible for them to play. Earne.
“It’s probably like Major League Baseball where you sign a free agent on July 31st, where you know you’ll only keep him through the playoffs,” the Power Five manager said.
Nebraska left the Big 12 for the Big Ten in 2011. Since then, its fans have occasionally longed for the days when the Huskers dominated the conference it attended, when it was named the Missouri Valley in 1907. Nebraska has not won a conference title since 1999.
What started as a rumor is at least now a talking point.
A Power Five coach contacted CBS Sports on Saturday night to inquire about the ideas that schools are participating in the Pac-12. Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby usually raised the issue on Sunday in a moment of joke and dismissed it out of hand with laughter.
“I do not know what is happening in the Big Ten, but I do know that there are certain schools that are not happy with the circumstance,” the Power Five administrator said.
“If you’re in a place that you want to consider playing, and your administration and state consider it OK to play, it’s your duty to do what you can to see how that can happen.”
