[msqueri]

Rice fan here--been reading your board over the past few days in light of changes in the PAC-12 and rumors that include the possibility of a PAC-AAC merger to one extent or another.  

What's interesting to me is how much of the consternation here looks like the consternation that's been a fundamental part of the Rice fanbase for decades and decades (especially among the older alums who remember Rice being part of the Southwest Conference, which included Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Baylor, Houston, and others--and the really old fans who remember Rice going to Cotton Bowls).  The cries of lack of leadership and foresight are definitely part of the furniture of being a Rice fan.

What's fascinating to me is that Stanford is even in this situation, given your decades' dominance of the Sears Trophy (or whatever it's called now).  Yours it the model of what virtually every athletic department aspired to, or at least that was my long-time assumption.  The outsized influence of football--and how it informs TV contracts--is clear in every round of realignment, but it's especially acute, and destructive, in this one.

What would Stanford fans think of a model that basically rejects the P5 framework and being part of a league that is centered exclusively on AAU schools?  There are certain Rice fans that dream of a "Magnolia League" that would include Stanford, Cal, Duke, Northwestern, Vandy, and Tulane.  But obviously Duke, NW, and Vandy wouldn't be interested until they themselves have their PAC-4 moment.  Travel is obviously the big deal-killer to this model, especially for the non-revenue sports.

But would a PAC-AAC merger be a close-enough, light version of that model--and one that would be of some solace to some Stanford fans?

IMHO your Magnolia League would turn into a new version of the Ivy League. At one point Princeton and Harvard were the top programs in the sport for decades. After about a half century what we now refer to as the Ivy League stopped dominating college football and by the time college football was an octogenarian the Ivy League formally formed and a new era began. Nothing is permanent and competing in major college football requires being major. I could see something like the Magnolia League forming at some point, but it won't generate revenue in competition with the super conferences. Maybe if we're lucky it can get some sort of streaming television. The forces that sustain the lifeblood of college football - most importantly recruiting) will be driven by hierarchy and prestige, as always, and the caliber of football in the Magnolia League would get comparatively worse until it settles at an equilibrium befitting the level of interest in academic-oriented institution football, which is to say not very high caliber. This could be attractive in some respects to some people and, in any case, may be inevitable, but it won't be anything like Stanford playing in a Rose Bowl or Tulane playing in a Cotton Bowl.

[msqueri]

Rice fan here--been reading your board over the past few days in light of changes in the PAC-12 and rumors that include the possibility of a PAC-AAC merger to one extent or another.  

What's interesting to me is how much of the consternation here looks like the consternation that's been a fundamental part of the Rice fanbase for decades and decades (especially among the older alums who remember Rice being part of the Southwest Conference, which included Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Baylor, Houston, and others--and the really old fans who remember Rice going to Cotton Bowls).  The cries of lack of leadership and foresight are definitely part of the furniture of being a Rice fan.

What's fascinating to me is that Stanford is even in this situation, given your decades' dominance of the Sears Trophy (or whatever it's called now).  Yours it the model of what virtually every athletic department aspired to, or at least that was my long-time assumption.  The outsized influence of football--and how it informs TV contracts--is clear in every round of realignment, but it's especially acute, and destructive, in this one.

What would Stanford fans think of a model that basically rejects the P5 framework and being part of a league that is centered exclusively on AAU schools?  There are certain Rice fans that dream of a "Magnolia League" that would include Stanford, Cal, Duke, Northwestern, Vandy, and Tulane.  But obviously Duke, NW, and Vandy wouldn't be interested until they themselves have their PAC-4 moment.  Travel is obviously the big deal-killer to this model, especially for the non-revenue sports.

But would a PAC-AAC merger be a close-enough, light version of that model--and one that would be of some solace to some Stanford fans?

IMHO your Magnolia League would turn into a new version of the Ivy League. At one point Princeton and Harvard were the top programs in the sport for decades. After about a half century what we now refer to as the Ivy League stopped dominating college football and by the time college football was an octogenarian the Ivy League formally formed and a new era began. Nothing is permanent and competing in major college football requires being major. I could see something like the Magnolia League forming at some point, but it won't generate revenue in competition with the super conferences. Maybe if we're lucky it can get some sort of streaming television. The forces that sustain the lifeblood of college football - most importantly recruiting) will be driven by hierarchy and prestige, as always, and the caliber of football in the Magnolia League would get comparatively worse until it settles at an equilibrium befitting the level of interest in academic-oriented institution football, which is to say not very high caliber. This could be attractive in some respects to some people and, in any case, may be inevitable, but it won't be anything like Stanford playing in a Rose Bowl or Tulane playing in a Cotton Bowl.