Mornin Mates...
Today's Topic = The Conglomeration of College Sports
When I was a kid, we often played the Game of Monopoly to pass the time on rainy summer days in NJ, when we couldn't be outside playing baseball or demolition derby with our bikes or whatever...
As of today, the first round of College Sports Monopoly played by the Power 5 Conferences is now over with the bankruptcy of the PAC as a viable conference...
The game has been going on for the past decade or so, when the Power 5 conferences were established related to the College Playoff System in football...
So, to begin with the game tokens included the SEC, Big 10, PAC, Big 12 and ACC...
The object was to build each conference in such a way to win the game by establishing a monopoly of power by putting the other players out of business...
You did that by buying teams, as if they were property, through the media puppet masters, who actually ran the game as power elites...
One of the primary strategies employed by these game players was to poach teams from other conferences to enhance their position of power on the game board...
Each conference was given Chance Cards at various times and, unfortunately, for the PAC, they didn't take advantage of these chances when they came up during the game...
For instance, in 2018, the PAC was given a chance by ESPN to take over the PAC Network and sign a long term Tier 1 media deal but declined...
If the PAC had taken the deal, neither USC or UCLA would have been in a position to be poached by the Big 10 just a few years later...
Another missed chance occurred when Oklahoma and Texas left the Big 12 for the SEC and the PAC brass determined that none of the Big 12 members fit their institutional value system...
So, PAC expansion was rejected by the conference leadership that allowed the Big 12 to pick up its pieces and position itself for a better future in the conglomeration game of monopoly...
Finally, our new PAC commissioner decided to remain silent for the past year, following the departure of the LA schools, and this radio silence led to a lack of faith in the PAC's leadership, by fans and boosters everywhere within the PAC...
These missed chance moves put the conference in the game's jail without a way out of it which resulted in the hopelessness of the conference moving forward...
Now we also need to remember that our past two PAC commissioners could not have done all this on their own...
They had to have enablers in the school's presidents and chancellors because the Tango is not a one person dance...
And, one of the chief enablers was our own president Michael Crow, who as we all know, talked recently about 23rd Century tech tools while forgetting that this game of Monopoly has been played in the world since the beginning of time...
That's the problem with theory as opposed to reality in practice, if you ask me...
Thankfully, it looks like the Big 12 has its act together and knows how the Game of Monopoly works...
As an aside, I went to ASU when they dominated the WAC that was composed of ASU, AU, BYU, Colorado St, New Mexico, UTEP and Wyoming so I feel as if we are now getting back to our roots...
I sincerely hope and trust that the remaining PAC schools - Cal, Stanford, Oregon St and Wazzu - can find a way to get back into the game at some point...
I also hope and trust that when we end up with a new president and AD some day that they will have a much better understanding of this Game of Monopoly than what we have now...
Olympic sports are wonderful but they don't pay the bills in this conglomeration of college sports in the 21st century...
Go Big 12 and Go Devils!!!
Today's Topic = The Conglomeration of College Sports
When I was a kid, we often played the Game of Monopoly to pass the time on rainy summer days in NJ, when we couldn't be outside playing baseball or demolition derby with our bikes or whatever...
As of today, the first round of College Sports Monopoly played by the Power 5 Conferences is now over with the bankruptcy of the PAC as a viable conference...
The game has been going on for the past decade or so, when the Power 5 conferences were established related to the College Playoff System in football...
So, to begin with the game tokens included the SEC, Big 10, PAC, Big 12 and ACC...
The object was to build each conference in such a way to win the game by establishing a monopoly of power by putting the other players out of business...
You did that by buying teams, as if they were property, through the media puppet masters, who actually ran the game as power elites...
One of the primary strategies employed by these game players was to poach teams from other conferences to enhance their position of power on the game board...
Each conference was given Chance Cards at various times and, unfortunately, for the PAC, they didn't take advantage of these chances when they came up during the game...
For instance, in 2018, the PAC was given a chance by ESPN to take over the PAC Network and sign a long term Tier 1 media deal but declined...
If the PAC had taken the deal, neither USC or UCLA would have been in a position to be poached by the Big 10 just a few years later...
Another missed chance occurred when Oklahoma and Texas left the Big 12 for the SEC and the PAC brass determined that none of the Big 12 members fit their institutional value system...
So, PAC expansion was rejected by the conference leadership that allowed the Big 12 to pick up its pieces and position itself for a better future in the conglomeration game of monopoly...
Finally, our new PAC commissioner decided to remain silent for the past year, following the departure of the LA schools, and this radio silence led to a lack of faith in the PAC's leadership, by fans and boosters everywhere within the PAC...
These missed chance moves put the conference in the game's jail without a way out of it which resulted in the hopelessness of the conference moving forward...
Now we also need to remember that our past two PAC commissioners could not have done all this on their own...
They had to have enablers in the school's presidents and chancellors because the Tango is not a one person dance...
And, one of the chief enablers was our own president Michael Crow, who as we all know, talked recently about 23rd Century tech tools while forgetting that this game of Monopoly has been played in the world since the beginning of time...
That's the problem with theory as opposed to reality in practice, if you ask me...
Thankfully, it looks like the Big 12 has its act together and knows how the Game of Monopoly works...
As an aside, I went to ASU when they dominated the WAC that was composed of ASU, AU, BYU, Colorado St, New Mexico, UTEP and Wyoming so I feel as if we are now getting back to our roots...
I sincerely hope and trust that the remaining PAC schools - Cal, Stanford, Oregon St and Wazzu - can find a way to get back into the game at some point...
I also hope and trust that when we end up with a new president and AD some day that they will have a much better understanding of this Game of Monopoly than what we have now...
Olympic sports are wonderful but they don't pay the bills in this conglomeration of college sports in the 21st century...
Go Big 12 and Go Devils!!!
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