But *if* they can hang on to Oregon and Washington(meaning basically if those two schools don't get a power conference invite), the conference may not have any true anchor programs but they do have a very connected feel. They feel like a conference.

The programs and games played will make sense and be connected by in most cases
geography, history, culture, etc.....

The other programs have a sense of togetherness with each other.

I think that's a big reason why it's looking like they may decide to stick it out if Washington/Oregon remain in the club. They see the advantage in that.....

By contrast the big12 doesn't have that. Now you could go back and forth on which is the stronger performance/branding/power conference right now in terms of the programs *individually* not taking that into account. I think
the advantage goes to the pac because while oregon and washington are not anchor programs, they have been closer to that than anything in the big12 at times in the past.

But when you step back and look at that second part....the feeling that this is a conference that is not simply a bunch of random teams thrown together but a bunch of programs with natural and historical connection together, it makes complete sense that they would want to stay together.

Note that the program reportedly most considering jumping(Colorado) is the one that relative to the others lacks those traits with the others. So even that makes sense.

Now in the end maybe a power conference(more likely the bigten of course) throws washington and oregon a rope and then those other schools who can will say "well we don't have a choice"....but until then, it does make sense to keep it together given the other options.

I too miss the original b12 and regional conferences in general. But those days are ending for everyone in fbs other than the SEC.
So rather than lamenting over what is lost and never more, I choose to look forward to how to make a better future of my team and it’s current wagon train being the b12.

I miss the old Big East. Geographically it was wonderful with Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia. It made for close travel games and we had an existing rivalry with Da'Ville and were building ones with Pitt and the Mountaineers. And the hoops league was off the charts when you add in the catholic schools. But I digress, Cincinnati has changed conferences many times in recent years and we try and make the best of the current situation. I hope this is our conference home for many years to come and look forward to helping the B12 become the best conference it can be under the current college football landscape. New days ahead and new leadership to help take us there.

(07-13-2022 07:39 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  I miss the old Big East. Geographically it was wonderful with Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia. It made for close travel games and we had an existing rivalry with Da'Ville and were building ones with Pitt and the Mountaineers.

the big east(or at least most of it....ehehe miami) was good for that reason. And the reality is none of those bigeast schools, save for *maybe* miami depending on if they get lucky with birmingham, are going to get to one of the power conferences....

so why not get the band back together? I know thats a little difficult because of the ACC legal crap, but I mean down the line....

The reality is, all the programs left out of the power conferences have to think about the following:
Is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by geography(which is going to often be linked to rivalries) or is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by their status(ie how much brand and eyeballs and money they have)?

The problem for the big12 right now is it does neither. Teams are flung all over the country and you have differences in program status and resources. not ideal.

I think either is a valid choice to build

(07-13-2022 09:38 PM)okiestate1979 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 07:39 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  I miss the old Big East. Geographically it was wonderful with Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia. It made for close travel games and we had an existing rivalry with Da'Ville and were building ones with Pitt and the Mountaineers.

the big east(or at least most of it....ehehe miami) was good for that reason. And the reality is none of those bigeast schools, save for *maybe* miami depending on if they get lucky with birmingham, are going to get to one of the power conferences....

so why not get the band back together? I know thats a little difficult because of the ACC legal crap, but I mean down the line....

The reality is, all the programs left out of the power conferences have to think about the following:
Is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by geography(which is going to often be linked to rivalries) or is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by their status(ie how much brand and eyeballs and money they have)?

The problem for the big12 right now is it does neither. Teams are flung all over the country and you have differences in program status and resources. not ideal.

I think either is a valid choice to build

Because the institutions and conferences don’t care about us fans. They care about what makes them the most money today and not tomorrow. So take your hypotheticals to the Conference Realignment board. You’d fit right in with the Big 10 guy that just through out the Big Ten adding Georgia and Florida as a dagger to the SEC. Maybe they lose Georgia but they’d quickly fill with Florida St., Clemson, Georgia Tech (if the old timers forget the BS), and next best and not much of a dagger besides fans being pissed. You’d fit right in.

No fans are happy about any of this realignment. Think Ohio State fans give a Flying F about playing Rutgers or UCLA regularly? F na. As a Cincy fan as well, I’m just happy they are on the right side of the ship currently since $ is the primary key in the college athletic landscape.

(07-13-2022 10:00 PM)natibeast2.0 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 09:38 PM)okiestate1979 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 07:39 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  I miss the old Big East. Geographically it was wonderful with Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia. It made for close travel games and we had an existing rivalry with Da'Ville and were building ones with Pitt and the Mountaineers.

the big east(or at least most of it....ehehe miami) was good for that reason. And the reality is none of those bigeast schools, save for *maybe* miami depending on if they get lucky with birmingham, are going to get to one of the power conferences....

so why not get the band back together? I know thats a little difficult because of the ACC legal crap, but I mean down the line....

The reality is, all the programs left out of the power conferences have to think about the following:
Is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by geography(which is going to often be linked to rivalries) or is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by their status(ie how much brand and eyeballs and money they have)?

The problem for the big12 right now is it does neither. Teams are flung all over the country and you have differences in program status and resources. not ideal.

I think either is a valid choice to build

Because the institutions and conferences don’t care about us fans. They care about what makes them the most money today and not tomorrow. So take your hypotheticals to the Conference Realignment board. You’d fit right in with the Big 10 guy that just through out the Big Ten adding Georgia and Florida as a dagger to the SEC. Maybe they lose Georgia but they’d quickly fill with Florida St., Clemson, Georgia Tech (if the old timers forget the BS), and next best and not much of a dagger besides fans being pissed. You’d fit right in.

No fans are happy about any of this realignment. Think Ohio State fans give a Flying F about playing Rutgers or UCLA regularly? F na. As a Cincy fan as well, I’m just happy they are on the right side of the ship currently since $ is the primary key in the college athletic landscape.

well I agree with part of this and the principle, but not some of the hypotheticals(like that guys idea that georgia would go to the bigten; thats as likely as Ohio State or Michigan going to the sec), but regarding your last point two questions:

1) Is cincy really on the 'right' side? from my perspective they are still a small program and the college football world is changing in such a way that all the small and medium programs(outside of those grandfathered in) are pretty much f*cked it appears. IOW, 15 years ago I think a small program in a 'small' conference had more opportunity to make some substantial and possibly even lasting noise compared to what that same small program can do in a non-power 2 conference(and the exact ranking of the non power 2 conference won't be terribly important....they will all be non power2 conferences)......like the way things are going Im not sure what cincy did last year(and they did get the sh*t kicked out of them by bama when they got their chance anyways) would have happened 10 years from now, and it's *possible* they will be in a higher ranked non power 2 conference then. Just because it's not looking like the power conferences are going to be all that inviting in terms of playoff opportunities for everyone if you know what I mean, and if you think georgia or alabama or tOSU cares whether it's the 4th ranked conferences or 6th ranked conference you're smoking something.....

2) You do appropriately use the disclaimer 'currently' with that, but what does that really mean? With all the change being on the 'right' side now may very well mean being on the 'wrong' side in 5 or especially 10 years....so who knows.

Cincy, like all programs like them, just need to focus on building their program. Do that to the best of your abilities and maybe, just maybe, the sh*t sandwich at the end of the day won't taste so bad regardless of all the chaos around us.....

One thing I can say though is that if they ever get another chance like they did against Bama(and thats a big if because I don't know if they will even if they go 13-0 again), they need to do better.....

(07-13-2022 10:18 PM)okiestate1979 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 10:00 PM)natibeast2.0 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 09:38 PM)okiestate1979 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 07:39 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  I miss the old Big East. Geographically it was wonderful with Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia. It made for close travel games and we had an existing rivalry with Da'Ville and were building ones with Pitt and the Mountaineers.

the big east(or at least most of it....ehehe miami) was good for that reason. And the reality is none of those bigeast schools, save for *maybe* miami depending on if they get lucky with birmingham, are going to get to one of the power conferences....

so why not get the band back together? I know thats a little difficult because of the ACC legal crap, but I mean down the line....

The reality is, all the programs left out of the power conferences have to think about the following:
Is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by geography(which is going to often be linked to rivalries) or is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by their status(ie how much brand and eyeballs and money they have)?

The problem for the big12 right now is it does neither. Teams are flung all over the country and you have differences in program status and resources. not ideal.

I think either is a valid choice to build

Because the institutions and conferences don’t care about us fans. They care about what makes them the most money today and not tomorrow. So take your hypotheticals to the Conference Realignment board. You’d fit right in with the Big 10 guy that just through out the Big Ten adding Georgia and Florida as a dagger to the SEC. Maybe they lose Georgia but they’d quickly fill with Florida St., Clemson, Georgia Tech (if the old timers forget the BS), and next best and not much of a dagger besides fans being pissed. You’d fit right in.

No fans are happy about any of this realignment. Think Ohio State fans give a Flying F about playing Rutgers or UCLA regularly? F na. As a Cincy fan as well, I’m just happy they are on the right side of the ship currently since $ is the primary key in the college athletic landscape.

well I agree with part of this and the principle, but not some of the hypotheticals(like that guys idea that georgia would go to the bigten; thats as likely as Ohio State or Michigan going to the sec), but regarding your last point two questions:

1) Is cincy really on the 'right' side? from my perspective they are still a small program and the college football world is changing in such a way that all the small and medium programs(outside of those grandfathered in) are pretty much f*cked it appears. IOW, 15 years ago I think a small program in a 'small' conference had more opportunity to make some substantial and possibly even lasting noise compared to what that same small program can do in a non-power 2 conference(and the exact ranking of the non power 2 conference won't be terribly important....they will all be non power2 conferences)......like the way things are going Im not sure what cincy did last year(and they did get the sh*t kicked out of them by bama when they got their chance anyways) would have happened 10 years from now, and it's *possible* they will be in a higher ranked non power 2 conference then. Just because it's not looking like the power conferences are going to be all that inviting in terms of playoff opportunities for everyone if you know what I mean, and if you think georgia or alabama or tOSU cares whether it's the 4th ranked conferences or 6th ranked conference you're smoking something.....

2) You do appropriately use the disclaimer 'currently' with that, but what does that really mean? With all the change being on the 'right' side now may very well mean being on the 'wrong' side in 5 or especially 10 years....so who knows.

Cincy, like all programs like them, just need to focus on building their program. Do that to the best of your abilities and maybe, just maybe, the sh*t sandwich at the end of the day won't taste so bad regardless of all the chaos around us.....

One thing I can say though is that if they ever get another chance like they did against Bama(and thats a big if because I don't know if they will even if they go 13-0 again), they need to do better.....

Yes, for the time being Cincy is in a power conference, more money, and access to win the national championship in football or basketball. Cincy would get leveled in the SEC and maybe compete for a conference title once or twice every 10 years in the Big Ten. All we can ask for is legitimate shot a national title which we now have.

Change the name from Cincy state to Ohio Tech prolly changes the perception for a simple mind but our FB success history starts in 2000+ so I get it unlike basketball going way back and top 10 program by really any measure in history.

Re Alabama under Saban- Tell the same thing to my Buckeyes (alum) outside of ‘14 or Notre Dame both top 5 programs in history. Yes, everyone is trying to figure out Bama still. Clemson, Ohio State, LSU (stacked team), and Georgia cracked the code but none have been consistent and regularly get beat down over the last 12 years. We’ll do our best next time and think first game against the elites in playoffs was a big point in Fickell’s coaching career he as the leader will need to learn from. Everyone knew they had more talent and we played super conservative. Play to win the game. Until we plateau I like where Cincy is at and outside Tubby we have 4 coaches that have found great relative success at Cincy since 2000. Dantonio, Kelly, Butch-Off Kelly’s recruits, and Fickell. So should be just fine moving forward.

(07-13-2022 11:30 PM)natibeast2.0 Wrote:  Yes, for the time being Cincy is in a power conference, more money, and access to win the national championship in football or basketball. Cincy would get leveled in the SEC and maybe compete for a conference title once or twice every 10 years in the Big Ten. All we can ask for is legitimate shot a national title which we now have.

And my point was that in the AAC(not a power conference) you had the most legitimate shot at a national title you and other similar schools will likely ever have. Now you and I both know cincy still had no chance because that would have required beating alabama and georgia back to back, but you had a shot in that you made the playoff....

But sometime in the not too distant future the Bigten and the SEC aren't going to allow the 'little guys' the same opportunity that Cincy took advantage of in 2021. Why would they? So regardless of what conference Cincy is in they likely aren't going to have the same shot they had in 2021.....

If you were looking for a 1 year window of when you could have another legitimate shot, I believe there is a 1 year period when you guys are in the conference and so is Oklahoma and Texas? Is that right?(assuming OU and Texas don't get out early). If that's the case there will be a 1 year window where Cincy will play in a power conference before Texas/OU leave and that will also be before the sec and bigten pretty much control the playoff.....so I don't know what kind of team Cincy will have in 2023 but if you were going to pick another year to have a 'great' season in terms of being given another opportunity, that would be it.

It's just funny to me how you think opportunity for such things will increase.....but that's not the way this thing is moving. Opportunity for everyone not in the bigten and sec is going to decrease. That's true for cincinatti as well, who just had a ton of opportunity by making the freaking playoff....

Also, I think we view that playoff game a little differently. Cincy may have played conservatively and not to win, but Alabama most definately played extra conservative and not to lose. That's why it was such a boring game, and that's why cincy didn't exactly get rave reviews for that performance. The reality is chances like that are so rare(especially with what is coming down the road) that a performance like that one might hurt your shot to get another one in the future. Now again with the bigten and sec likely planning to put a stranglehold on the playoffs down the line(especially when the clemson and ND dominoes fall), I don't even think that will matter......

A shot that was literally like winning the lottery. The amount of junk that had to happen was insane including Okie St. not able to convert on 4 plays from the 2 yard line. Alabama tried passing the ball and they couldn’t consistently. Game was in reach late into the 3rd if we had a QB that could connect on a pass. Sure part was due to #2 Bama receiver out and #1 going down mid game. Also, stout defense and hard to pass against Jim Thorpe winner at one cb. #4 pick in draft at other corner. 2nd rounder at safety. Along with numerous other defensive draft picks.

And Don’t give me that crap. Recruiting players knowing they will play in the Big 12 has already immensely improved. Fickell received a salary that would have never been possible without the Big 12. Locker rooms likely would have been redone but not a 50+ mil permanent indoor practice facility. The level of competition will obviously be stiffer in the Big 12 but IF UC makes the playoff again they will be much more prepared competition whys.

Carry on. You obviously hate the NB12 which I can do nothing about, but it’s obvious your hammering the new schools because your PO’d being left behind. Know the feeling never acted like that to American members and it worked out well for all sides. Maybe just maybe you’ll get that SEC invite down the road. I can guarantee after being relegated to a Kentucky or South Carolina you as a fan will be wishing for the Big 12. Good luck.

I don't understand the Okie St. fans grief. In the NB12 Okst will share a conference with 7 of its top 15 most played CFB opponents. This is the league you belong in. I don't get the obsession with moving off to the Pac or ACC. Between those two leagues the only school you've played more than 10 times is Colorado. Moving to either one of those leagues won't bring a noticeable pay increase and it certainly won't bring a bump in competition. You'll be sacrificing natural rivals for increased travel expenses. If your dream is to one day bolt for the SEC or Big 10 thats fair. But the best way to actually make that happen is to stay put and continue to invest in your program. Jumping ship to the Pac or ACC would be a fatal mistake.

(07-13-2022 07:39 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  I miss the old Big East. Geographically it was wonderful with Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia. It made for close travel games and we had an existing rivalry with Da'Ville and were building ones with Pitt and the Mountaineers. And the hoops league was off the charts when you add in the catholic schools. But I digress, Cincinnati has changed conferences many times in recent years and we try and make the best of the current situation. I hope this is our conference home for many years to come and look forward to helping the B12 become the best conference it can be under the current college football landscape. New days ahead and new leadership to help take us there.

Oh man you should have been around for the earlier version that had apex of the program era Miami and in the winter Georgetown/Allen Iverson among many others. I will enjoy the day when the acc crumbles because they did the same thing to my league.

Not sure why the Okie St fan is upset. He’s got traditional rivals/regional games everywhere. WVU had literally lost every rival in conference realignment

Jackson

(07-13-2022 07:39 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  I miss the old Big East. Geographically it was wonderful with Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia. It made for close travel games and we had an existing rivalry with Da'Ville and were building ones with Pitt and the Mountaineers. And the hoops league was off the charts when you add in the catholic schools. But I digress, Cincinnati has changed conferences many times in recent years and we try and make the best of the current situation. I hope this is our conference home for many years to come and look forward to helping the B12 become the best conference it can be under the current college football landscape. New days ahead and new leadership to help take us there.

The old BE didn't have Louisville, It had Va tech, and UM.

(07-13-2022 07:23 PM)okiestate1979 Wrote:  But *if* they can hang on to Oregon and Washington(meaning basically if those two schools don't get a power conference invite), the conference may not have any true anchor programs but they do have a very connected feel. They feel like a conference.

The programs and games played will make sense and be connected by in most cases
geography, history, culture, etc.....

The other programs have a sense of togetherness with each other.

I think that's a big reason why it's looking like they may decide to stick it out if Washington/Oregon remain in the club. They see the advantage in that.....

By contrast the big12 doesn't have that. Now you could go back and forth on which is the stronger performance/branding/power conference right now in terms of the programs *individually* not taking that into account. I think
the advantage goes to the pac because while oregon and washington are not anchor programs, they have been closer to that than anything in the big12 at times in the past.

But when you step back and look at that second part....the feeling that this is a conference that is not simply a bunch of random teams thrown together but a bunch of programs with natural and historical connection together, it makes complete sense that they would want to stay together.

Note that the program reportedly most considering jumping(Colorado) is the one that relative to the others lacks those traits with the others. So even that makes sense.

Now in the end maybe a power conference(more likely the bigten of course) throws washington and oregon a rope and then those other schools who can will say "well we don't have a choice"....but until then, it does make sense to keep it together given the other options.

Just out of curiosity, you don't happen to live in TULSA, do you?

(07-14-2022 09:41 AM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 07:23 PM)okiestate1979 Wrote:  But *if* they can hang on to Oregon and Washington(meaning basically if those two schools don't get a power conference invite), the conference may not have any true anchor programs but they do have a very connected feel. They feel like a conference.

The programs and games played will make sense and be connected by in most cases
geography, history, culture, etc.....

The other programs have a sense of togetherness with each other.

I think that's a big reason why it's looking like they may decide to stick it out if Washington/Oregon remain in the club. They see the advantage in that.....

By contrast the big12 doesn't have that. Now you could go back and forth on which is the stronger performance/branding/power conference right now in terms of the programs *individually* not taking that into account. I think
the advantage goes to the pac because while oregon and washington are not anchor programs, they have been closer to that than anything in the big12 at times in the past.

But when you step back and look at that second part....the feeling that this is a conference that is not simply a bunch of random teams thrown together but a bunch of programs with natural and historical connection together, it makes complete sense that they would want to stay together.

Note that the program reportedly most considering jumping(Colorado) is the one that relative to the others lacks those traits with the others. So even that makes sense.

Now in the end maybe a power conference(more likely the bigten of course) throws washington and oregon a rope and then those other schools who can will say "well we don't have a choice"....but until then, it does make sense to keep it together given the other options.

Just out of curiosity, you don't happen to live in TULSA, do you?

I actually live in Birmingham, Al now. And to answer your next question, no I don't root for bama lol....

(07-13-2022 10:18 PM)okiestate1979 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 10:00 PM)natibeast2.0 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 09:38 PM)okiestate1979 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 07:39 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  I miss the old Big East. Geographically it was wonderful with Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia. It made for close travel games and we had an existing rivalry with Da'Ville and were building ones with Pitt and the Mountaineers.

the big east(or at least most of it....ehehe miami) was good for that reason. And the reality is none of those bigeast schools, save for *maybe* miami depending on if they get lucky with birmingham, are going to get to one of the power conferences....

so why not get the band back together? I know thats a little difficult because of the ACC legal crap, but I mean down the line....

The reality is, all the programs left out of the power conferences have to think about the following:
Is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by geography(which is going to often be linked to rivalries) or is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by their status(ie how much brand and eyeballs and money they have)?

The problem for the big12 right now is it does neither. Teams are flung all over the country and you have differences in program status and resources. not ideal.

I think either is a valid choice to build

Because the institutions and conferences don’t care about us fans. They care about what makes them the most money today and not tomorrow. So take your hypotheticals to the Conference Realignment board. You’d fit right in with the Big 10 guy that just through out the Big Ten adding Georgia and Florida as a dagger to the SEC. Maybe they lose Georgia but they’d quickly fill with Florida St., Clemson, Georgia Tech (if the old timers forget the BS), and next best and not much of a dagger besides fans being pissed. You’d fit right in.

No fans are happy about any of this realignment. Think Ohio State fans give a Flying F about playing Rutgers or UCLA regularly? F na. As a Cincy fan as well, I’m just happy they are on the right side of the ship currently since $ is the primary key in the college athletic landscape.

well I agree with part of this and the principle, but not some of the hypotheticals(like that guys idea that georgia would go to the bigten; thats as likely as Ohio State or Michigan going to the sec), but regarding your last point two questions:

1) Is cincy really on the 'right' side? from my perspective they are still a small program and the college football world is changing in such a way that all the small and medium programs(outside of those grandfathered in) are pretty much f*cked it appears. IOW, 15 years ago I think a small program in a 'small' conference had more opportunity to make some substantial and possibly even lasting noise compared to what that same small program can do in a non-power 2 conference(and the exact ranking of the non power 2 conference won't be terribly important....they will all be non power2 conferences)......like the way things are going Im not sure what cincy did last year(and they did get the sh*t kicked out of them by bama when they got their chance anyways) would have happened 10 years from now, and it's *possible* they will be in a higher ranked non power 2 conference then. Just because it's not looking like the power conferences are going to be all that inviting in terms of playoff opportunities for everyone if you know what I mean, and if you think georgia or alabama or tOSU cares whether it's the 4th ranked conferences or 6th ranked conference you're smoking something.....

2) You do appropriately use the disclaimer 'currently' with that, but what does that really mean? With all the change being on the 'right' side now may very well mean being on the 'wrong' side in 5 or especially 10 years....so who knows.

Cincy, like all programs like them, just need to focus on building their program. Do that to the best of your abilities and maybe, just maybe, the sh*t sandwich at the end of the day won't taste so bad regardless of all the chaos around us.....

One thing I can say though is that if they ever get another chance like they did against Bama(and thats a big if because I don't know if they will even if they go 13-0 again), they need to do better.....

I would absolutely love to know what makes you think Oklahoma State is so much better than the rest of the members of the "new" Big 12. If you remove the Mike Gundy era, your program has a losing record all-time.

Historically, Oklahoma State is no better or more significant than any of these programs you're belittling. And many of those have accomplished as much or more as Oklahoma State has over the past decade-plus.

I respect the hell out of Mike Gundy and the job he has done. But some Oklahoma State fans have a grossly overinflated view of OSU's place as a college football brand. You're one of us, bro. You might as well embrace it.

(07-14-2022 03:59 PM)bear2be2 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 10:18 PM)okiestate1979 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 10:00 PM)natibeast2.0 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 09:38 PM)okiestate1979 Wrote:  

(07-13-2022 07:39 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  I miss the old Big East. Geographically it was wonderful with Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia. It made for close travel games and we had an existing rivalry with Da'Ville and were building ones with Pitt and the Mountaineers.

the big east(or at least most of it....ehehe miami) was good for that reason. And the reality is none of those bigeast schools, save for *maybe* miami depending on if they get lucky with birmingham, are going to get to one of the power conferences....

so why not get the band back together? I know thats a little difficult because of the ACC legal crap, but I mean down the line....

The reality is, all the programs left out of the power conferences have to think about the following:
Is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by geography(which is going to often be linked to rivalries) or is it better to be in a conference with other programs linked by their status(ie how much brand and eyeballs and money they have)?

The problem for the big12 right now is it does neither. Teams are flung all over the country and you have differences in program status and resources. not ideal.

I think either is a valid choice to build

Because the institutions and conferences don’t care about us fans. They care about what makes them the most money today and not tomorrow. So take your hypotheticals to the Conference Realignment board. You’d fit right in with the Big 10 guy that just through out the Big Ten adding Georgia and Florida as a dagger to the SEC. Maybe they lose Georgia but they’d quickly fill with Florida St., Clemson, Georgia Tech (if the old timers forget the BS), and next best and not much of a dagger besides fans being pissed. You’d fit right in.

No fans are happy about any of this realignment. Think Ohio State fans give a Flying F about playing Rutgers or UCLA regularly? F na. As a Cincy fan as well, I’m just happy they are on the right side of the ship currently since $ is the primary key in the college athletic landscape.

well I agree with part of this and the principle, but not some of the hypotheticals(like that guys idea that georgia would go to the bigten; thats as likely as Ohio State or Michigan going to the sec), but regarding your last point two questions:

1) Is cincy really on the 'right' side? from my perspective they are still a small program and the college football world is changing in such a way that all the small and medium programs(outside of those grandfathered in) are pretty much f*cked it appears. IOW, 15 years ago I think a small program in a 'small' conference had more opportunity to make some substantial and possibly even lasting noise compared to what that same small program can do in a non-power 2 conference(and the exact ranking of the non power 2 conference won't be terribly important....they will all be non power2 conferences)......like the way things are going Im not sure what cincy did last year(and they did get the sh*t kicked out of them by bama when they got their chance anyways) would have happened 10 years from now, and it's *possible* they will be in a higher ranked non power 2 conference then. Just because it's not looking like the power conferences are going to be all that inviting in terms of playoff opportunities for everyone if you know what I mean, and if you think georgia or alabama or tOSU cares whether it's the 4th ranked conferences or 6th ranked conference you're smoking something.....

2) You do appropriately use the disclaimer 'currently' with that, but what does that really mean? With all the change being on the 'right' side now may very well mean being on the 'wrong' side in 5 or especially 10 years....so who knows.

Cincy, like all programs like them, just need to focus on building their program. Do that to the best of your abilities and maybe, just maybe, the sh*t sandwich at the end of the day won't taste so bad regardless of all the chaos around us.....

One thing I can say though is that if they ever get another chance like they did against Bama(and thats a big if because I don't know if they will even if they go 13-0 again), they need to do better.....

I would absolutely love to know what makes you think Oklahoma State is so much better than the rest of the members of the "new" Big 12. If you remove the Mike Gundy era, your program has a losing record all-time.

Historically, Oklahoma State is no better or more significant than any of these programs you're belittling. And many of those have accomplished as much or more as Oklahoma State has over the past decade-plus.

I respect the hell out of Mike Gundy and the job he has done. But some Oklahoma State fans have a grossly overinflated view of OSU's place as a college football brand. You're one of us, bro. You might as well embrace it.

It must be their unbreakable record of 82 losses to Oklahoma. lol