MIZZOU RECRUITING NEWS & JUST HOW SERIOUS ARE THE TIGERS ABOUT THE BIG-10?
A lot of recruiting news out of Columbia & it's all good, provided you're a Tiger fan. Tyler Gabbert, younger brother of junior quarterback Blaine Gabbert, he rescinded his commitment to Nebraska, just like his brother did. And just like his brother, he gave his commitment to the Tigers. He's was also a quarterback at Ballwin. He's considerably smaller than brother Blaine, 6-1 & 200 pounds, but the word is he's faster & a better passer outside the pocket. He'll be there next year.
Several 3 & 4-star recruits also changed their minds & committed to Missouri in the last few days. Starting right tackle Dan Hoch, had little brother Matt, a defensive end, tell Iowa, thanks but no thanks. Two 4-star players from Texas that had already committed to Baylor before changing their minds. Cornerback Tristan Holt & tight end Eric Waters will be in campus next summer. Two more cornerbacks that were pledged to Illinois, Daniel Easterly(4-star) from Detroit & Dexter McDonald, a 3-star player from Kansas City Rockhurst will become Tigers as well.
For those of you who thought my story about Mizzou possibly joining the Big-10 was crapolla, pay attention. There's a very real chance this could happen in the next 2 years. The Big-10 is set to expand, they need a conference championship game. I saw JoPa yesterday saying this exactly. On Tuesday, Mizzou A.D. Mike Alden gave an extensive interview to Joe Walljasper(I swear that's his name) of the Columbia Tribune. I read the entire interview & here are some of the most important facts:
Alden & just about everyone in the athletic department is very unhappy with the Big-12 because their soccer team won the Big-12 regular season championship, losing only one conference game but were snubbed for the NCAA tournament.
The Tigers have been slighted with their last 3 bowl bids, other conference teams with worse records & were beaten by Mizzou, got better bowl bids. This hurts the program's prestige & recruiting.
The SEC's football TV contract is worth $205 million annually.
The Big-10's football TV contract is worth $180 million annually. They now have their own network.
The Big-12's football TV contract is worth $80 million annually.
The SEC & the Big-10 divides their TV money equally among all it's member universities.
The Big-12 divides $40 million equally, then doles out the remainder according to how many TV appearances a member team gets. Texas & Oklahoma get $12 million total each, Nebraska received $10 million, Mizzou got $9 million. By contrast, Baylor only got $7.5 million. Tough to compete when Texas & OU are bringing in much more on the TV contract, to say nothing of tickets, radio rights, logo merchandise, etc. It was estimated recently by The Wall Street Journal the Texas football team brought in $59 million for the university in 2009, which is number one nationally.
Illinois, a school Mizzou recruits against, receives over $22 million from their TV deal & bowl game shares.So does every other member of the Big-10. The Tigers get nowhere near that kind of money & if it were not for Mizzou's superior football record, they'd have a tough time recruiting in St. Louis.
The Big-12 had the chance for their own TV network before the Big-10 did, they just failed to act according to Alden. The folks that started ESPN Classic came to the Big-12 & offered them a network that could televise all sorts of live sports & rebroadcast classic games as well. After very little deliberation, the Big-12 braintrust decided their deal for $80 million with ABC, ESPN & FOXSports was a sure thing, why risk failing? Plus they would have been required to pony up $1 million apiece for their partnership in this endeavor. The other problem, as Alden sees it is, is the contract has 4 more years to run, with a slight increase in revenues each year.
The Big-10 has TV contracts with their own network, ABC, ESPN & a healthy stipend when one of their member team's play at Notre Dame. The SEC receives huge money from CBS & ESPN plus smaller dollars from Raycon & Versus. Not one part of these contracts is for less money than any of the Big-12's deals.
All of the Big-10 schools are in the Association of American Universities, so is Mizzou, but overall there's only 34 public schools in the United States in this exclusive academic group. So there's no chance Mizzou drags down the Big-10 academically. Baylor, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State & Kansas State are not member schools. Neither is Connecticut, a school in the Big-10 expansion discussion. Alden said when schools realign with another conference, it's usually about academics & not sports. Are you surprised? I was, I won't lie.
Another consideration for the Big-10 is accepting a school that will expand their television market. Mizzou, Syracuse & Rutgers all qualify, while Pitt wouldn't, Penn State already has people from the Keystone State watching Big-10 football. The Big-10 wants to grow their share in new markets. They want a new member that is athletically viable in several sports, good ratings are a year-round challenge. The Tigers have multiple sports in which they compete at a very high level.
Mizzou could keep their Border War Showdown with KU in Kansas City, the game would have to be played early on as opposed to being a season finale. The Tigers have been opening up their regular season against Illinois, just substitute the Jayhawks. No one in either state wants to give up this game. They could play once a season in basketball as well.
Missouri Chancellor Brady Deaton made it clear a few weeks ago he would gladly listen to any overtures from the Big-10, his main concern is making the University of Missouri stronger every single year in every single way.
Several 3 & 4-star recruits also changed their minds & committed to Missouri in the last few days. Starting right tackle Dan Hoch, had little brother Matt, a defensive end, tell Iowa, thanks but no thanks. Two 4-star players from Texas that had already committed to Baylor before changing their minds. Cornerback Tristan Holt & tight end Eric Waters will be in campus next summer. Two more cornerbacks that were pledged to Illinois, Daniel Easterly(4-star) from Detroit & Dexter McDonald, a 3-star player from Kansas City Rockhurst will become Tigers as well.
For those of you who thought my story about Mizzou possibly joining the Big-10 was crapolla, pay attention. There's a very real chance this could happen in the next 2 years. The Big-10 is set to expand, they need a conference championship game. I saw JoPa yesterday saying this exactly. On Tuesday, Mizzou A.D. Mike Alden gave an extensive interview to Joe Walljasper(I swear that's his name) of the Columbia Tribune. I read the entire interview & here are some of the most important facts:
Alden & just about everyone in the athletic department is very unhappy with the Big-12 because their soccer team won the Big-12 regular season championship, losing only one conference game but were snubbed for the NCAA tournament.
The Tigers have been slighted with their last 3 bowl bids, other conference teams with worse records & were beaten by Mizzou, got better bowl bids. This hurts the program's prestige & recruiting.
The SEC's football TV contract is worth $205 million annually.
The Big-10's football TV contract is worth $180 million annually. They now have their own network.
The Big-12's football TV contract is worth $80 million annually.
The SEC & the Big-10 divides their TV money equally among all it's member universities.
The Big-12 divides $40 million equally, then doles out the remainder according to how many TV appearances a member team gets. Texas & Oklahoma get $12 million total each, Nebraska received $10 million, Mizzou got $9 million. By contrast, Baylor only got $7.5 million. Tough to compete when Texas & OU are bringing in much more on the TV contract, to say nothing of tickets, radio rights, logo merchandise, etc. It was estimated recently by The Wall Street Journal the Texas football team brought in $59 million for the university in 2009, which is number one nationally.
Illinois, a school Mizzou recruits against, receives over $22 million from their TV deal & bowl game shares.So does every other member of the Big-10. The Tigers get nowhere near that kind of money & if it were not for Mizzou's superior football record, they'd have a tough time recruiting in St. Louis.
The Big-12 had the chance for their own TV network before the Big-10 did, they just failed to act according to Alden. The folks that started ESPN Classic came to the Big-12 & offered them a network that could televise all sorts of live sports & rebroadcast classic games as well. After very little deliberation, the Big-12 braintrust decided their deal for $80 million with ABC, ESPN & FOXSports was a sure thing, why risk failing? Plus they would have been required to pony up $1 million apiece for their partnership in this endeavor. The other problem, as Alden sees it is, is the contract has 4 more years to run, with a slight increase in revenues each year.
The Big-10 has TV contracts with their own network, ABC, ESPN & a healthy stipend when one of their member team's play at Notre Dame. The SEC receives huge money from CBS & ESPN plus smaller dollars from Raycon & Versus. Not one part of these contracts is for less money than any of the Big-12's deals.
All of the Big-10 schools are in the Association of American Universities, so is Mizzou, but overall there's only 34 public schools in the United States in this exclusive academic group. So there's no chance Mizzou drags down the Big-10 academically. Baylor, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State & Kansas State are not member schools. Neither is Connecticut, a school in the Big-10 expansion discussion. Alden said when schools realign with another conference, it's usually about academics & not sports. Are you surprised? I was, I won't lie.
Another consideration for the Big-10 is accepting a school that will expand their television market. Mizzou, Syracuse & Rutgers all qualify, while Pitt wouldn't, Penn State already has people from the Keystone State watching Big-10 football. The Big-10 wants to grow their share in new markets. They want a new member that is athletically viable in several sports, good ratings are a year-round challenge. The Tigers have multiple sports in which they compete at a very high level.
Mizzou could keep their Border War Showdown with KU in Kansas City, the game would have to be played early on as opposed to being a season finale. The Tigers have been opening up their regular season against Illinois, just substitute the Jayhawks. No one in either state wants to give up this game. They could play once a season in basketball as well.
Missouri Chancellor Brady Deaton made it clear a few weeks ago he would gladly listen to any overtures from the Big-10, his main concern is making the University of Missouri stronger every single year in every single way.
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