[Giants]

From Stewart Mandel's mailbag in The Athletic.

Hey Stew: What if the ACC and the Big 12 made a trade? ACC gets: Cincinnati, West Virginia and UCF. Big 12 gets: Stanford, Cal and SMU. Who says no? — Andy J., Columbus, Ohio

It makes way too much sense.

Stanford and Cal get to reunite with Arizona/Arizona State/Colorado/Utah, plus frequent nonconference foe BYU. SMU gets back natural rival TCU and fellow Southwest Conference expats Baylor, Texas Tech and Houston. Meanwhile, Cincinnati and West Virginia used to be in the Big East with Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville and Boston College. (The Mountaineers also overlapped with Virginia Tech.) And UCF gets more bus rides to Tallahassee and Miami, fewer flights to Stillwater and Ames.

Now, the Stanford and Cal administrations were pretty dismissive of Big 12 academics last time around, but that was before they got stuck playing 3,000 miles from home for a 30 percent paycheck. Presumably, times have changed. But would the Big 12 want them? On the one hand, they don’t exactly help your football or men’s basketball products. But it’s not like the schools they’re losing are necessarily headliners, either. Not to mention the Bay Area schools would immediately become the best programs in many of the Big 12’s Olympic sports.

You’ve sold me, Andy. Make it happen.

Let's assume that the TV money for Stanford is at least as good as the ACC deal.

Absolutely.  7 teams in the Mountain and Pacific Team Zones and 9 teams in the Central Time Zone and none in the Eastern.  What’s not to like?  Too bad, it isn’t a possibility due to existing agreements.

[Giants]

From Stewart Mandel's mailbag in The Athletic.

Hey Stew: What if the ACC and the Big 12 made a trade? ACC gets: Cincinnati, West Virginia and UCF. Big 12 gets: Stanford, Cal and SMU. Who says no? — Andy J., Columbus, Ohio

It makes way too much sense.

Stanford and Cal get to reunite with Arizona/Arizona State/Colorado/Utah, plus frequent nonconference foe BYU. SMU gets back natural rival TCU and fellow Southwest Conference expats Baylor, Texas Tech and Houston. Meanwhile, Cincinnati and West Virginia used to be in the Big East with Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville and Boston College. (The Mountaineers also overlapped with Virginia Tech.) And UCF gets more bus rides to Tallahassee and Miami, fewer flights to Stillwater and Ames.

Now, the Stanford and Cal administrations were pretty dismissive of Big 12 academics last time around, but that was before they got stuck playing 3,000 miles from home for a 30 percent paycheck. Presumably, times have changed. But would the Big 12 want them? On the one hand, they don’t exactly help your football or men’s basketball products. But it’s not like the schools they’re losing are necessarily headliners, either. Not to mention the Bay Area schools would immediately become the best programs in many of the Big 12’s Olympic sports.

You’ve sold me, Andy. Make it happen.

Let's assume that the TV money for Stanford is at least as good as the ACC deal.

Absolutely.  7 teams in the Mountain and Pacific Team Zones and 9 teams in the Central Time Zone and none in the Eastern.  What’s not to like?  Too bad, it isn’t a possibility due to existing agreements.