This Week in the West: Early-season kickoff data, CFB format chaos, Big 12 cash, Leach’s HOF path and MW departure notices

The offseason is definitely not the slow season as yet another week delivered news impacting both the Pac- legacy schools and other universities across the region Here are five developments you might have missed Early-season kickoffs publicized Nitty gritty The major conferences circulated kickoff times for all games across the opening three weeks and the special-date games i e Friday matchups throughout the season Why it matters Yes fans need to know start times to begin making excursion arrangements and schools want to start planning campus festivities around football But our focus is a specific matter that reveals so much about the state of the sport The Hotline went week by week conference by conference to determine the number of games scheduled for broadcast television the games that will receive the widest exposure and carry the greatest value to the media companies and their advertisers We did not include Week matchups Aug Also the content listed below credits conferences for a broadcast arrangement appearance even if its participant in one of the matchups is the visiting group Because aggressive scheduling is valued We included the number of games shown only on streaming platforms to reflect the amount of inventory with the lowest media value Big Ten games on over-the-air networks with two more workable and two games that will be streamed SEC games on over-the-air networks with two more practicable and games that will be streamed ACC Seven games on over-the-air networks with two more realizable and eight that will be streamed Big Six games on over-the-air networks with games that will be streamed The breakdown reflects the disparity in media value TV ratings and brand power at the heart of the sport s bifurcation The Big Ten and SEC are leaving everyone else behind with the placement of early-season games over various networks offering additional evidence Competing models emerge for -team College Football Playoff Nitty gritty The SEC s spring meetings made inhabitants what had been discussed behind the scenes The powers-that-be are focused on two wildly different formats for the CFP when it expands in the season The model reserves five automatic bids for conference champions and allocates the rest to at-large teams The - - - - model assigns automatic bids with the Big Ten and SEC getting four the Big and ACC receiving two and the Group of Five having one Additionally there are three at-large spots that include a special pathway created for Notre Dame Why it matters CFP access is the only thing that matters in college sports these days well that and the House antitrust lawsuit settlement and negotiations over the two competing models are intense Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti is pushing for the - - - - version which is heavy on automatic bids while the ACC and Big want the format loaded with at-large slots Notably the SEC has positioned itself as the swing vote The league s coaches favor according to a Yahoo document but commissioner Greg Sankey is uncommitted At least publicly According to governance terms established last spring the SEC and Big Ten have the authority to determine the CFP format for and beyond but are required to take input from the other conferences According to Big commissioner Brett Yormark the format must be finalized by December However the CFP structure is deeply connected to another matter of supreme importance to the sport whether the SEC plays eight or nine conference games in future seasons If the SEC stays at eight its members would have more overall wins than Big Ten teams which play nine conference games Any CFP format heavy on at-large bids would naturally give the SEC an advantage The SEC must set its schedule format by the end of the summer several months before resolution to the CFP issue is required Big announces campus distributions for the - fiscal year Nitty gritty On Friday at the close of the Big spring meetings Yormark revealed the conference would distribute million to the schools for the fiscal year the first of the -school structure What it means Not as much as it will next spring when the other power conferences disclose their campus distributions and context emerges But the figure is gripping nonetheless Split evenly across campuses the total distribution equates to an average of million However there are layers The four schools that joined in Brigham Young Cincinnati Houston and UCF receive partial shares of the conference s media rights revenue The four schools that joined in Arizona ASU Colorado and Utah receive full shares of the media revenue And the eight continuing members are deduced to receive full shares plus a bonus taken from the amount withheld from the arrivals All schools share equally in the NCAA Tournament and bowl CFP revenue Pinpointing exact distribution amounts for each campus is laborious because we don t know the specifics of the media rights contract with Fox and ESPN and we won t until the FY tax filings are published next spring And even then the figures will be one-offs because FY marks the start of a new media contract cycle for the conference with payouts escalating over time College Football Hall of Fame selection criteria changed Nitty gritty The National Football Foundation which oversees the College Football Hall of Fame broadcasted on Thursday that it had revised the minimum career winning percentage required for coaching eligibility from to Why it matters The small change means so much to the legacy of one former coach in particular Mike Leach who was the architect of turnarounds at Texas Tech Washington State and Mississippi State but passed away in December is the prime beneficiary Leach s winning percentage is but the Hall of Fame did not round up Had the prior standard remained in place the man who popularized the offense system that changed the sport would never have been elected Related Articles Why June is a vital month in the college football recruiting cycle Mailbag Assessing the CFP models and how they benefit the new Pac- College football kickoffs Fox trims B G Friday Oregon-Penn St whiteout NBA Draft early-entry deadline SEC wins big Arizona among the losers Power Four tensions rise Big ACC need shared strategy vs Big Ten SEC With the bar lowered a whopping Leach will take his rightful place among the challenge s elites with his presumed electoral contest in Nice work by the NFF making the change proactively instead of in response to the uproar that surely would have come in two years New Pac- schools give departure notice to the Mountain West Nitty gritty Boise State Colorado State Fresno State San Diego State and Utah State on Saturday informed the Mountain West of their planned exit on July Why it matters While a formality in multiple regards the official notice as released by the San Diego Union-Tribune is worth noting for the inhabitants record The quintet moved on May in order to beat the June deadline that would have marked a doubling of the exit fees from million to million based on Mountain West initiative For all the scuttlebutt on social media that the schools might be pondering a merger between the new Pac- and the new Mountain West the advancement helps underscore a point overlooked by multiple fans The five schools are leaving in large part to disassociate themselves competitively from the bottom of the conference Strength-of-schedule matters immensely in the era of the expanded CFP which features an automatic bid for the best unit outside the Power Four conferences In the greater part years the champion of the rebuilt Pac- should have an excellent chance to reach the playoff That would not necessarily be the occurrence if the bottom half of the Mountain West were part of the conference The same strategy holds for NCAA Tournament at-large bids It s not just about more media revenue It s about creating a higher standard of competition to widen the path into the CFP and March Madness Send suggestions comments and tips confidentiality guaranteed to wilnerhotline bayareanewsgroup com or call - - Follow me on the social media platform X WilnerHotline