u/MrRogersRaisedMe

I honestly have zero clue what Dubas is doing with this offseason.

I don’t hate every individual move. Kuzmenko, Robertson, Lapierre and Korczak all have some logic behind them. But how does any of this fit together?

We’re supposedly getting younger, but we’re adding older veterans. We’re trying to compete with Sid, but we’re not making moves that make us a serious Cup contender.

The defense makes even less sense: FOUR RDs and TWO LDs. We dumped our two best LDs in exchange for two RDs. I don’t know why we hung on to Girard when it’s clear he can’t play with Letang nor Karlsson. What is the plan there?

Then there’s Koivunen.

8 years, $4M AAV. I honestly don’t even see him making the NHL opening-night roster. That’s one of the most confusing contracts I’ve ever seen a Penguins GM make.

We also let Anthony Mantha walk on an extremely reasonable contract after he scored 33 goals. If we’re trying to compete now, that makes zero sense to me.

And I’m increasingly worried about the prospect development side of this. Our AHL team is going to be packed with mediocre NHL veterans who suck up playing time that should be going to prospects. Look at McGroarty, Broz and Hayes—I’m not convinced we’re doing enough to actually develop these guys.

Maybe Dubas has another move coming that makes all of this click. I hope so.

But right now, I can’t tell if we’re rebuilding, retooling, or trying to squeeze one more run out of Sid.

Offseason grade: D-

I don’t necessarily hate the players we’ve acquired. I just have absolutely no idea what the plan

Right now I’ve got the starting 12 at:

Rakell - Crosby - Rust
Chinakov - Novak - Malkin
Kuzmenko - Kindell - Robertson
Dewar - Lizotte - Soderblom

Scratches - Brazeau & Lapirre

Hopefully he flips someone for a Top 4 LD but time will tell

The case for merging: with the Protect College Sports Act poised to lock conference structures in place, the ACC and Big 12 are on track to be permanently relegated to second-tier status. Neither conference currently has anything resembling the SEC's or Big Ten's national media revenue-sharing footprint, and once realignment is frozen by statute, that revenue gap freezes with it — there's no future expansion or poaching move left to close it. Merging into one 38-team league with a single unified TV contract is the last real chance either conference has to negotiate media rights at a scale competitive with the Power Two before the door closes for good.

Structure:

• 38 teams, 4 divisions (three at 9 teams, one at 10)
• Single governing body — one commissioner's office, one board of governors (38 ADs + a 12-person executive committee, 3 per division)
• One unified national media rights deal, split equally per school regardless of division or historical brand (local/tier-3 rights stay school-controlled)
• 11 conference games per team; the 12th slot is the open non-conference game described above
• Schools retain the right to sell their own TV rights for their one open non-conference game. This is the release valve for the bigger programs: a Florida State, Clemson, or Miami can sell that single game to a network or streamer on the open market for a premium payout on top of their equal conference share, while every school still gets full value from the pooled conference package for the other 11 games.
• Championship game: the two highest CFP-ranked division champions meet for the LC title, with a bonus revenue pool paid out to the two participants on top of their equal base share.
• CFP access: all 4 division champions get an automatic playoff bid if ranked in the CFP top 25. A champion that misses the top 25 forfeits its bid to the highest-ranked LC at-large team instead — that at-large team is still selected by the committee on its own merits, but the conference is guaranteed 4 total CFP slots any time it has 4 schools ranked in the top 25
• The conference retains the flexibility to add up to 2 additional members, for a total of 40 schools, at any time for up-and-coming programs that strengthen the league.

Divisions:

• ACC (9): Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State, North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
• Metro (9+1): Boston College, Cincinnati, Louisville, Miami, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, UCF, UConn, West Virginia — Notre Dame is independent for football but required to play 10 conference games a year and retains TV rights to its additional 2 games.
• Big 12 (10): Baylor, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech
• Pacific (9): Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, BYU, Cal, Oregon State, Stanford, Utah, Washington State