Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - How The Alliance impacts Iowa football and the Big Ten

Episode Date: August 26, 2021

The big news this week was the formation of The Alliance between the Big Ten, Pac 12 and ACC. We've got you covered here with what exactly went down, what are the impacts to both the Iowa football team and the NCAA, and what this means for the future of NCAA sports.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!SweatBlockGet it today for 20% off at SweatBlock.com with promo code LockedOn, or at Amazon and CVS.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Thursday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and today's episode is brought to you by RockAuto.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. And on today's show, we are going to be talking about the Alliance.

Yes, I know it's a pretty dumb name. Yes, I know they didn't give a lot of information, but it does have an impact. And we're going to be talking about that on today's show. If we have time towards the end, I want to break down some news about Nebraska and also Northwestern. Northwestern losing their starting running back and also announcing who's going to start at quarterback. And it's a guy that Iowa is relatively familiar with. And then from the Nebraska front, Scott Frost doing some illegal crap over there and Lincoln, and it's going to get him in trouble.

We're going to talk about that on the show today if we have a chance to. This is just a reminder that you need to subscribe if you haven't already wherever you got this podcast app. Now, we are going to be on YouTube next week as long as I can figure out how to actually get on YouTube. I have all the stuff set up, just got to get it figured out and ready to actually rock and roll. But we will be on YouTube at some point next week. So stay tuned for that.

All right, y'all. Let's get into it, though. If you have been living under a rock or haven't been on Twitter or just weren't paying attention because you have better things to do, which at some point I probably don't blame you. Some of the stuff out there just gets annoying to hear over and over again. There was an announcement made, a press conference and and everything between the Big Ten, Pac-12, and ACC about an alliance they are making together. And let me sum up this alliance talk with an analogy. I hope it's a good one. I hope it makes sense to you.

Essentially what the Big Ten, Pac-12, and ACC said is, You know, we're not dating, but we're going to talk about getting engaged at some point, but we haven't dated yet. And we aren't dating now, but this could be a really good engagement, but we also live in different cities. So who knows where we're going to live at or how we're going to live or how we're going to afford to live together. And, and if we're ultimately going to like each other, but we have some mutual interests. So we might get engaged. That's essentially what the alliance was. It was a lot of fluff, a lot of puff, and not a lot of actual substance.

Now, to be fair, I don't blame them for not having a lot of substance to this. There's a lot of moving parts to work out. My problem is, don't freaking do anything then. Unless the goal was to basically hold each other accountable by announcing that they have an alliance. There wasn't a lot accomplished from this. Really, there really wasn't. I think it opens up a lot of questions, but there wasn't a lot accomplished from this. Here's kind of what we learned, though.

The goal is to stay aligned. These three conferences specifically want to stay aligned on several things including the ncaa governance body college ball playoff expansion name image likeness considerations and social justice issues they also want to get some scheduling figured out after contractual obligations are fulfilled so that is also something they've discussed and mentioned. But outside of that, we don't know much else about this alliance. Essentially, it's a handshake deal, in my opinion, to all band together and not let the SEC steal teams.

What I think was interesting was the fact that all 41 schools, all 12 Pac-12, all 14 ACC, all 14 Big Ten, and Notre Dame agreed to this. Their chancellors, athletic, you know, guys in the athletic department, sorry, excuse me, athletic directors, they all agreed to this. That is, to me, probably the biggest thing to take away from this. Now, they can go back on their word, just like Texas and Oklahoma did. Any of these teams can go back on their word just like texas and oklahoma did any of these teams can go back on their word but right now to me it is good to see a unified front saying we are going to try to figure this out a different way than battle each other and cannibalize each other's conferences i think there is power in that because otherwise the sec has the ability to you know they still do they still have the ability to, you know, and they still do,

they still have the ability to go into a conference and grab another team. But to me, it seems like these teams banding together says we don't want to go to the SEC and we want to stay in the conferences we are in. We want to continue the structure that we have had for quite some time. I think from a Big Ten perspective, this probably matters the least, if we're being completely honest, unless the Big Ten were to lose an Ohio State or Michigan or a Penn State. But I personally believe the Big Ten, after the SEC expansion, was set up the best to capitalize off of further expansion. capitalize off of further expansion. So to me, they had the least to gain here,

but I don't disagree with the idea of joining the PAC 12 and the ACC with this. I'm putting my air quotes up alliance of these three, you know, conferences. Again, there is a lot to figure out with this. I think there's several questions. What does this mean for Iowa? What does scheduling mean? What does this do to the Big 12? And what do I feel like this could actually benefit? Now, I mentioned they mentioned the NCAA, college football, playoff expansion,

name, image, likeness considerations, etc. When I think of name, image, likeness considerations, I don't think it's specifically that they are going to figure out ways to get people more money, but they're going to figure out ways to get more notoriety by negotiating together as three conferences and bigger games between those conferences. So no longer is Iowa going to be playing only big 10 schools, Iowa state and two cupcakes. They might play Oregon. They might play USC. They might have a road trip to Arizona. There's a lot of options on this table that gets all of these schools more exposure across the country,

gets these players more exposure across the country, and probably the Pac-12, in my opinion, benefits arguably the most out of this because they will be able to go and play teams in other time zones where they're going to be on different wavelengths from a channel perspective and timing perspective. The other thing to note is that the Pac-12 and Big Ten TV deals are up in three years.

The ACC is not up until 2036, but there still is some value in this banding together to possibly get better negotiating deals as well and get better TV rights as a lot of people are going to want to grab the SEC. But what I think what people are not realizing is that outside of SEC country, people love their teams. I'm a huge Iowa fan. I love watching Big Ten football. I'll occasionally watch SEC football. The SEC is not the end-all, be-all of college football. watching Big Ten football. I'll occasionally watch SEC football. The SEC is not

the end-all be-all of college football. It's good football. It's fun to watch when it's on, but I don't sit there and seek it out. And although it may seem like I'm in the minority, I am actually in the majority. And that will benefit the Pac-12, ACC, and the Big Ten as they try to negotiate TV deals as well. The other thing I think as far as guessing goes, I don't think this impacts the SEC much. It does kind of put a small kibosh on them trying to essentially destroy the NCAA. Now, I'm not saying that was the intended plan. I'm just making assumptions here or guesses. But to me, the SEC trying to expand the rumors coming out that they were targeting Ohio State and Clemson and those other schools, to me, that was their attempt to say, we are

the end-all be-all and we don't care who we destroy in the process. Almost like Thanos in The Avengers. The Big Ten, ACC, and Pac-12 are The Avengers. Thanos is the SEC. Thanos is the SEC. Unfortunately, where that leaves the Big 12, is not a superhero at all. We're going to talk a little bit about that on segment two of the show and talk a little bit about Iowa, who they could play,

who I think would be a lot of fun, and then just quickly go on a rant about how Kevin Warren is a terrible commissioner. That is all coming up on segment two and possibly segment three. If we get through everything by the end of segment two, we'll get into some of the Northwestern and Nebraska talk. So stay tuned for that coming up here

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Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. RockAuto.com Alright y'all, we are back for segment two of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. Free everywhere you get podcasts at and free on YouTube as well. As we took a break, I did mention that I wanted to talk about the Big 12 a little bit and Iowa. Let's start with Iowa.

This opens up a lot of possibilities from a scheduling perspective. So they mentioned that contractual obligations need to be fulfilled first. Some of these games are scheduled out 10 years in advance, though. What I think would be interesting is, imagine like a round-robin preseason basketball tournament with the top teams. Multi-team tournament between the ACC, Pac-12, and Big Ten. How fun would that be? Basketball-wise, that would be an absolute blast.

You already have the ACC Big Ten Challenge. Imagine doing a Pac-12 Big Ten Challenge, or again, doing some sort of multi-tournament team between those three conferences, really solidifying some of the best basketball teams in the nation getting to play each other. Imagine a tournament with UNC and Duke and Syracuse and a good Iowa and Ohio State, maybe Wisconsin, you know, the top, some of the top big 10 schools. And you go to Pac-12, you get USC, Oregon. I mean, what a blast, UCLA, what a blast that would be to see some sort of multi-team tournament with those schools.

Talk about stepping up and playing tough schedule. That would be it. From a football perspective, it'll be interesting to see how the conferences handle this because the Big Ten currently has nine conference games. The Pac-12 also has nine conference games. To then add in a game in the ACC and a game in the Pac-12 would make that very difficult. If they were to do that, Iowa would essentially at this point

play Iowa State, an ACC team, a Pac-12 team, and then their nine conference games. I expect to see that change if they do want to truly go headfirst into a scheduling alliance between these teams. Pac-12 would also need to do that because they they do want to truly go headfirst into a scheduling alliance between these teams. Pac-12 would also need to do that because they have nine games as well. So moving both those schedules to eight games, that would give all these teams a little bit more exposure in non-conference play. So in years where the Big Ten might be down or years where certain divisions in the Big Ten might be down, this will help the school. Iowa, for example,

divisions in the Big Ten might be down, this will help the school. Iowa, for example. They might get a better Pac-12 team, a better ACC team, and they beat them. If they run house, people are no longer going to be sitting there thinking, is this a good team like they did that 2015 12-0 team? They played outside competition. Now, I know Iowa State's better now, and that's going to look good if they win this year, but this will be ensuring some of that success long term. What does this mean for Iowa State though? If the Big Ten moves to eight games, I don't know if Iowa is playing Iowa State even if they move to eight games. You add an ACC game in there, you add a Pac-12 game in there. Is Iowa really going to want to play a Power 5 opponent and only get one cupcake game to kind of work on some things?

And the other thing is, it's not just working on things, it's getting healthy. It's developing some of the younger guys, getting them experience. It's letting position battles play out. That is some of the benefit of having some of those more cupcake type of games. Does Iowa choose to play Iowa State? Or does Iowa State make a move? And does Iowa State end up in the Big Ten? We're going to talk about that here in a second as well. But that's the kind of stuff that you can see from a scheduling perspective. You also get better crossover for wrestling. Stanford has traditionally had a pretty good wrestling program. How fun would that be to see Iowa versus Stanford? How fun would it be to road trip to some of these football games? USC, Oregon, a trip to Boulder, Arizona, Arizona state, North Carolina.

I mean, those, those type of games, those type of contests would be so much from, from a fan perspective, Iowa fans would eat that stuff alive. We would love that. We would absolutely love that to be able to do that. So if this works out, I think there is some, there's a possibility that this could be beneficial for all three of these conferences. And the biggest thing is if they stay aligned, that's the toughest thing. Everyone's kind of sitting around like, what are we going to do? Let's all join together.

But if one person breaks that trust, this obviously falls and goes away. There's no agreement to this point. There's no contractual obligations between the three conferences. So as of right now, this is all smoke. This is all thoughts, no substance, no actions. So it will be interesting to see how these conferences respond to officially coming out and saying we're agreeing to work together. And if they actually do, if they actually do, I think they could be saving some of the fun history of the NCAA.

And furthermore, those 41 teams can be very powerful when it comes to dictating how the NCAA works and whether or not they need a governing body like the NCAA. The SEC was setting themselves up to be the powerful conference, but now when you have three conferences banding together, that is ultimately going to be stronger than the SEC, and they will have more power and more say if they work together. It'll be interesting to see. A lot of fun things to come out of this. Coming up on segment three, I am going to hop into what happens to the Big 12.

I know this is an Iowa podcast, but we got to talk about this. This is the big news, and I didn't talk about it yesterday. So let's talk a little bit about the Big 12 and where those teams could go and what those teams might do and how the Alliance could impact that. That's all coming up on segment three of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes and the Locked On Sports Network. Before we get into segment three, though, it is that time of year again, and all eyes are now turning to football as teams are back on the gridiron to start the football season. As always, betonline.ag is your number one spot for all the pro and college football action this season.

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BetOnline.ag, your online sportsbook experts. All right, y'all, we are back for our third and our final segment of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. And before we left, we talked a little bit about scheduling. I want to talk about the Big 12. Right now, the Big 12 has eight teams.

They are losing Oklahoma and Texas. And this is a conference that is not in a good spot. As much as the Big 12 commissioner wants to think they are in a good spot, this is not a conference in a good spot at all. They have eight teams left. No real advantage. No real bragging rights, no real ability to do anything at this point unless they try to join in to the alliance.

Here's what Bob Bowlesby had to say, though. He said, The practical impacts of the arrangement are yet to be seen. The Big 12 Conference has every expectation that we will continue to compete at the highest levels and will be intimately and actively involved in the national athletics agenda. Here's the thing. If this alliance wanted to include the Big 12, they would have. They didn't.

They don't give two craps about the Big 12. What would be interesting is, does the Big 12 try to stay alive as the Big 12? And if so, I think they will be hurting bad. What would be interesting is, does the Big 12 try to stay alive as the Big 12? And if so, I think they will be hurting bad. If they add other teams to me, you're just basically creating almost a hybrid group of five power five conference. There's no team you could add and generate more respect for the Big 12 than what they have currently without Oklahoma and Texas. Look at the group of five teams.

Now, some of these teams would be great additions to a good conference, but not to a conference trying to hold on. Cincinnati, Liberty, Boise State, UCF, Nevada, Louisiana Lafayette, SMU, Coastal Carolina. These are not teams adding the national respect to the Big 12. If they were to add, let's say, four of those teams, that is not a conference that is nationally respected. If the college ball playoff stays at four teams, the Big 12 would have a very, very difficult time to get any of those teams into the college ball

playoff. They would have to essentially went out and beat one or two big time teams or hope for all the conferences to have a one or two loss conference champion in order to see themselves get in there. Basically they need a, the worst case scenario for every other conference to happen for one of these teams to get in for the Big 12. Because there is just not going to be that level of respect. Look at the level of respect currently placed on a group of five teams.

It is not there. So what does this leave the Big 12? Again, they can add those four teams. They can try to build up that conference again. But again, I think the Big 10, ACC, and Pac-12 strategically left the Big 12 off. Because they don't care if the Big 12 dies. Now, what's going to be interesting is if they don't care if the Big 12 dies, or if they're planning on, and I should rephrase this,

they don't care if the Big 12 dies from a power perspective, or if they plan on raiding the Big 12 and stealing teams from them. The eight teams left are Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, West Virginia, and Baylor right now to form a 16 team super conference collectively between the Big Ten, ACC, and Pac-12 they need eight more teams which conveniently lines up with what the Big 12 has left

if all of those teams were to disperse amongst the Big Ten, ACC, and Pac-12 the Pacse amongst the big 10 ACC and PAC 12, the PAC 12 needing for ACC needing two teams in the big 10 needing to the most logical additions are Iowa state in Kansas to the big 10 Kansas state, Oklahoma state, Texas tech and TCU to the PAC 12 and West Virginia and Baylor to the ACC. Does that make sense though? I don't know. Who is really wanting Kansas State?

If you're that alliance, now you have to factor in, well, what teams do each conference want, right? And now you're starting to get into that greediness of, well, I want the good teams, right? No one's going to want Kansas State. I don't. And if we're being honest,

and this is not a diss on Iowa state, but they don't have the historical legacy, how much do you want Iowa state? If I'm the Big Ten, I don't. It does not add a lot from a media perspective. You don't gain a new market. You gain a big fan base, or a devoted

fan base, not a big fan base. Kansas, you got basketball, but football doesn't help that product out at all. So why would the Big Ten try to do that? Why would the Pac-12 want to get Kansas State? TCU? Maybe.

Texas Tech? Who cares? They don't need them. Oklahoma State would be the best addition, the only real good one outside of maybe TCU. West Virginia logically makes sense geographically in the acc and baylor just kind of fits in there i guess you just put baylor in there call it good they have a good basketball team would be a lot of fun in acc where basketball is king but you'd have to divide those teams up and then try to do it fairly to not piss off the other

conferences i don't see that happening this alliance doesn't give me the impression that they want to add teams from the Big 12. They certainly don't want to add teams from each other's conference. So I think they're sticking still. They don't plan on expanding at this point. This could be the end of the Big 12. If I'm Iowa State, Kansas, I'm trying my hardest to get into one of these conferences. The SEC doesn't want these teams.

Otherwise they would ask them. The SEC doesn't want these teams. Otherwise, they would ask them. So it is very interesting to see what is going to happen to the Big 12 after this alliance has been announced. That is my take on it for today. On tomorrow's show, we are going to be joined by WQAD's Celia Palermo. She's going to be joining the show. We're going to be talking, giving a preview on the Iowa football season

from an Iowa perspective, just talking about the top players we want to look at, the storylines, and what our toughest games are. And next week we are kicking off our Indiana coverage as we prepare for the first Iowa football game of the 2021 season. I cannot wait. It is less than two weeks away, almost less than a week away. So again, stay tuned, Hawkeye Nation. We'll be back tomorrow and throughout all of next week.

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