By Chris Vannini, Ralph D. Russo and Justin Williams<\/p>\n
The University of Memphis pitched itself to the Big 12 with an offer to bring sponsorship revenue to the conference while taking no media rights payments, an unprecedented offer to join a conference, but the deal has not garnered enough support within the league.<\/p>\n
According to people briefed on the situation, that proposal would include Memphis joining the Big 12 without taking revenue from the league for at least five years \u2014 what administrators dub the \u201cSMU model\u201d based on the deal the Dallas-based school stuck with the ACC \u2014 while also committing hundreds of millions in corporate sponsorships from Memphis supporters.<\/p>\n
Big 12 athletic directors recently met on the idea, and conference presidents talked about it on Monday. But the determination was that the league is not interested. One source said there was \u201cvery little momentum for this,\u201d and multiple league sources expressed concern that adding Memphis could \u201cdilute\u201d the league\u2019s value in the next television deal. Any expansion would need 12 of 16 members to approve a move, a number that was not reached for UConn or Gonzaga over the last year. Yahoo! Sports first reported the details of the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe University of Memphis is aware of the recent conversations regarding our potential inclusion in the Big 12,\u201d the school said in a statement. \u201cWhile those discussions did not ultimately move in our favor, our University and Memphis Athletics are stronger than ever, and we look forward to continuing to strengthen our position nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Memphis\u2019 proposal includes about $200 million in sponsorship deals with FedEx, Lowe\u2019s and AutoZone over five years, according to one person. FedEx, based in Memphis, has long been a supporter of Tigers athletics, currently committing $25 million over five years in name, image and likeness support. Marvin Ellison, the CEO of Lowe\u2019s, is a Memphis graduate and is on the school\u2019s board of trustees, which also includes FedEx executive vice president Rob Carter.<\/p>\n
Multiple people with knowledge of the situation said Memphis\u2019 leadership first reached out to Big 12 presidents about the idea, rather than the conference office. The proposal would also include a clause allowing the Big 12 to kick the Tigers out before the next TV deal is done if it\u2019s determined they\u2019re not bringing enough value. The tepid performance of recent American additions to the Big 12, outside of Houston men\u2019s basketball, has also caused some pause among administrators.<\/p>\n
Memphis\u2019 pitch is an attempt to make this a no-risk situation for the Big 12. The school and its big-money supporters have tried to find a pathway to a Power 4 conference ahead of what could be another round of conference realignment in the next five years. After SMU got an ACC invitation in part thanks to its billionaire backers<\/a>, Memphis is trying the same thing.<\/p>\n Memphis has also talked with the Pac-12 about a football-only membership, if the rest of the Tigers sports can get into the Big East, but that may not be a long-term solution.<\/p>\n Men\u2019s basketball has historically been Memphis\u2019 signature sport. The Tigers have reached three Final Fours, including a championship game appearance under John Calipari in 2008. That and Memphis\u2019 1985 Final Four appearance were later vacated due to NCAA violations. Memphis has 29 NCAA men\u2019s tournament appearances overall, including three of the past four seasons under coach and former Tigers star Penny Hardaway. But under Hardaway, the program has also incurred multiple NCAA investigations, including being placed on probation last week<\/a> after an academic counselor paid two softball players to do coursework for a men\u2019s basketball player.<\/p>\n The football program at Memphis, after decades of mediocrity and struggles, has had its greatest sustained success since joining the American in 2013.<\/p>\n Under three different coaches, the Tigers have had five double-digit victory seasons, including each of the past two years under Ryan Silverfield, as well as a Cotton Bowl appearance under Mike Norvell to cap the 2019 season. They have not had a losing record since 2013.<\/p>\n Memphis received $11 million from the American Conference in 2023-24, tops in the league it has been a member of since 2013 and also likely the most for a Group of 5 school. But as college sports continue to be reshaped and driven by who can find and spend the most money, perhaps toward an eventual consolidation, Memphis has tried to tap into its resources to find a new home. To this point, it hasn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n (Photo: Sam Hodde \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Chris Vannini, Ralph D. Russo and Justin Williams The University of Memphis pitched itself to the Big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1607,399,8924,398,396,397,99,1794],"class_list":{"0":"post-26878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-memphis-tigers","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ncaafootball","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sports-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}