It's Over
by TB on Jun 10, 2010 12:15 AM CDT
in Commentary
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PrintWhile the title of this post may be a bit melodramatic, all signs point toward the end of the Big 12 -- at least as we know it -- by shortly after noon on Friday. I'm happy that I will actually be in New York when this occurs, as Kansas City is pretty much ground zero for the bomb Nebraska is about to drop on the Big 12.
I'll apologize in advance for what is sure to be the rambling nature of this post. There are so many thoughts running through my head right now about what is going on, and as hard as I've tried, I can't seem to piece together one coherent, central theme for a post. So what you're going to get won't be a comic-but-sadly-realistic masterpiece like Panjandrum provided earlier this week, but rather a stream-of-consciousness ramble from a young man who is equal parts frustrated, resigned, sad and angry with what has happened to the Big 12.
As pathetic as this probably sounds to the hard-hearted Internet crowd, my overriding reaction to the Big 12's imminent demise is sadness. When I started this site on SB Nation, I recreated several of the previous posts from my independent blog. Among them was one titled "The Best of the Big 12." It was a recitation of my favorite things in the conference, and it ran the gamut. I grew up a Big 8 fan, and learned to be a Big 12 fan midstream. Over time, my team affiliation changed, but my enjoyment of the history of the conferences was constant.
First of all, I'm going to drop what is probably a bit of a shocker. I don't really blame Dan Beebe for what has happened. Was he the best conference commissioner in the world? No. Did he apparently really drop the ball on a college football playoff? Yes. But blaming him for every single thing that's happened is like blaming the president when a hurricane or oil spill strikes the Gulf Coast. Take a civics class. The man at the top really doesn't have that much power.
OK, that said, back to the topic at hand. When I was 11 years old, a bunch of rich, greedy professional baseball players got mad at a bunch of rich, greedy, baseball team owners and a long strike ensued. To say that I loved baseball when I was 11 would be a grand understatement. My favorite team was the Atlanta Braves (Turner Broadcasting FTW), but it didn't matter who was playing, I watched every inning of every World Series game, hanging on every pitch. I played the game in the summer. I knew all the stats. Then, all of a sudden, watching the game I loved on the highest level was taken away. The World Series wasn't played. Suddenly, I saw behind what I loved and realized that the men playing the game and running the league didn't care about me, or the millions of other baseball fans. They cared about money, and nothing more. It hasn't been until this very year that my interest in MLB returned in earnest. I went years without attending a major league game or even watching them on TV.
Time will only tell if my reaction to this sea change in college football will be similar, but if K-State ends up on the outside looking in, as projected, I can't imagine having any interest in an Ohio State-Florida showdown. I'll be a fan of K-State until the day I die, whatever level they're playing on, but the events of the last six months have brought the lesson that my 11-year-old mind learned in August 1993 from baseball to college athletics. No matter what the NCAA says, no matter what these hypocritical and greedy university presidents and athletic directors say, it's not about the student-athletes. It's not about the fans. It's about money, plain and simple.
By choosing money over history and tradition today, Nebraska toppled the first domino that will change college athletics forever. Tom Osborne, Harvey Perlman, and the Nebraska Board of Regents have made it clear that they don't care about the decades of history they share with Iowa State, Missouri, Kansas State, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma. They didn't do this because they don't think the Big 12 is a viable conference moving forward. Seven months ago, did anybody question whether the Big 12 was anything but a powerhouse conference, in football and basketball, for the foreseeable future, despite the fact that it wasn't the highest grossing league?
Don't say this is about academic standing, Nebraska. Sure, your academic "ranking" will probably climb as you join the CIC, but the vast majority of your fans don't care about that unless it's the supporting phrase to "five national championships." You tout your all-america athletes, while conveniently forgetting about the fact that you fought tooth-and-nail for unlimited partial-qualifier eligibility when this conference began.
Don't say this is about the Big 12 being against you, Nebraska. You'll throw all those 11-1 votes out there as evidence that everyone was wrong and out go get you. One of those 11-1 votes was for a conference championship game. Yeah, that was a really fucking terrible idea. Only brought more money in to your athletic department every year. The other was partial qualifiers. I suppose it's true that limiting partial qualifiers is one more hypocritical gloss on the blatant hypocrisy that is big-time college athletics, but the pitiful use of "partial qualifiers" as the crutch upon which you based all your problems got old quickly. The reason that Nebraska fell from its rightful perch among college football's elite couldn't possibly have been that Tom Osborne mandated that they hire a long-time assistant who was woefully unqualified to be the head coach of a major-college football team. Or that they followed that guy up with one of the worst hires in the history of college football (right up there with Ron Prince). No, if they had been permitted partial qualifiers, all would have been just fine under Frank Solich and Bill Callahan. Oh yeah, and one final comment on this topic: I'll bet you right now no Nebraska fan will mention another 11-1 vote that happened recently. That would be the 11-1 vote against the University of Texas on the conference's fifth tiebreaker to break a three-way divisional tie in football. It seems that, rather than trying to tear any one university down, most Big 12 schools are capable of recognizing a galactically stupid idea when they see it, and voting accordingly.
That last mention turns my attention to Texas. We really appreciate that you "did everything you could to save the Big 12" recently. Because it's obvious you were willing to go to any lengths necessary to save this conference, other than actually, you know, doing something. Texas was willing to do anything, as long as it still got a disproportionate share of the revenue. Texas was willing to do anything, as long as the conference changed an obscure tiebreaker rule that probably never would have affected it again. Texas was willing to do anything, so long as it was permitted to start up its own TV network, with no interference from a conference-wide network that would benefit all schools, or a new deal from FOX this week that might have saved the conference.
We shouldn't have been surprised. In the past 20 years, two major conferences have been relegated to the dustbins of history, and Texas was a member of both of them. It was tired of the cheating that went on in the SWC, and its perception that all the member schools were out to get the big, bad Longhorns. Despite running the show in the Big 12, getting more money from the conference than any other school, and bullying the conference into letting it explore its own network, Texas wasn't interested in going to the table with Nebraska to work this out. Instead, it backed a short-term ultimatum (along with the other schools, there's blame to share) and, when Nebraska unsurprisingly bolted for greener pastures when the offer arrived, threw up its hands and said "well, we tried!" as it sprinted off to the west coast for the promise of a new conference network, which will preclude it having its own network, and the promise of riches from a conference that currently hands out less money to its member institutions than does the Big 12. You were committed to the Big 12 from the beginning, you said. And it was true, except that your commitment was only valid so long as it didn't affect $0.01 of your bottom line. God forbid a conference work together to improve the standing of each of its schools.
If I sound like a bitter old man rather than an idealistic 27-year-old, well, sorry. College football and college basketball replaced baseball as my favorite distraction from the pressures of everyday life. Now, because of an accident of geography and, to me, unfathomable greed on every side, the school I've chosen as my own will likely be relegated the outer fringes of the college athletics world, if not shut out entirely if (when?) these new conferences bolt the NCAA and set up their own semi-professional league. And yet, I'm not sure that competing at the highest level of college athletics is what I'll miss most.
I think I'll miss checking off the list of road trips I've made within the conference even more. I think I'll miss the fact that, no matter which conference town I go to, I know their history and they know mine. I think I'll miss going to Austin and watching K-State break TXHoney's heart. I think I'll miss the Red River Shootout, and the Border War, and the Bedlam Games as games that meant something in the Big 8/12. I think I'll miss watching Ralphie run. I think I'll miss Peter's thoughtful analysis, Rock M's brilliant statistics, Jon's curmudgeonly anger, Double T's thorough and passionate coverage, and all the other SB Nation Big 12 blogs when they're no longer covering Big 12 schools. I know I'll miss the Unholy Alliance.
In the end, none of it should matter too much, though. It will be much more important to me that I have a healthy family, a prosperous career, and children who grow up to be successful. Keep sports in perspective, folks. It's not war and peace. It's not the death of a loved one. If the worst thing that happens to me because of this is that I no longer care about watching four football games every Saturday that don't involve K-State, I can already think of one benefit.
I'll get to play more golf.
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TB, I still plan on stopping by.
Thanks for the good articles and great coverage. If your golf game is anything like mine, you most certainly need as much practice as possible.
Cheers.
" Answers --Become Resources."
Without Questions, There are limited Resources...
We'll still be here
Not going to go away just because of this. We’re still Wildcat fans, regardless of our conference.
We'll carry the banner high!
Bring On The Cats
by TB on Jun 10, 2010 6:40 AM CDT up reply actions
maybe something good will happen
I’ll always root for the Cats regardless of where or who they play.
Great post...
…I don’t really have much to add. I feel sick about the whole thing. I’m still holding out hope that our Cats end up in a high profile conference, but I realize that isn’t very likely.
I know this wasn’t your main point, but the exact same thing happened to me with baseball and the strike. I’d never heard anyone else our age describe that … I basically gave up on baseball after that and pursued other sports … makes me wonder how many other kids across America gave up on baseball then as well.
I can hope....
I can hope that UNL is playing the patsy, we’ll have an announcement on Friday from UNL saying they are asking to be invited to the Big 10. Which leads the Big XII south start saying things about Pac 10, which leads Notre Dame to realize that they should join the Big 10. And over the weekend ND is invited to join the Big 10 and UNL doesn’t receive an invite.
At which point, the Big 12 minus UNL ask another school to join and UNL is left as an independent. Then the Big 12 gets on the ball and joins forces with the Pac 10 to form their own network which brings in more money than the Big 10 network for sports. And the Pac 10 and Big XII join forces to make a really large research group.
and the color of the sky in m world is purple.
The time for calm and rational discourse is past, now is the time for senseless bickering -Anonymous the Younger
by Anon_the_younger on Jun 10, 2010 7:30 AM CDT reply actions
ooops...
and the color of the sky in my world is purple.
should be awake before typing on blogs …..
The time for calm and rational discourse is past, now is the time for senseless bickering -Anonymous the Younger
by Anon_the_younger on Jun 10, 2010 7:31 AM CDT up reply actions
This is a really great Post
This is a really bad day. All of this garbage turns into money. A bunch of great schools (Big 8) that have had a ton of tradition are no longer going to have much to do with one another anymore. This takes teams within a whole region and throws everything into turmoil. College athletics are supposed to be about competition for non professionals getting a higher education. The sad nature of reality is that everything comes down to money. Nothing seems pure anymore
This has not been K-State's week...
and next week probably won’t be any better. This just sucks. TB – great thoughts and honesty. It really is equal parts humiliating, insulting, and aggravating.
If it’s any consolation, and it may not be much, other than $, I don’t see too many teams really benefittng from the new mega-conferences. When UT has to regularly play games in Seattle and UNL finds that Ohio State, Michigan, & Penn State don’t take them seriously either, they may wish they’d stuck around.
Probably the most depressing and anger-filling aspect for me personally is that because of all of this I feel bad for KU too. Something is wrong in the world when a K-State fan like myself is commiserating with a Jayhawk.
2010 is a weird tough year.
Sigh
You see, this is where people are missing the point. Is it really greed if you are doing it to help your athletic department? I mean it isn’t like Big Ten revenue drops into anyone’s pockets. It goes to things that athletic departments need, like facility upgrades, better salaries for coaches and staff, and other major expenditures. That money doesn’t just impact football, it goes to every sport on campus. Having the best coaches and facilities maximizes your ability to recruit and your ability to achieve success.
Sorry but if the Big XII wasn’t allowing schools like Nebraska to maximize their revenue so member schools could achieve at the highest level, what was it doing? Sorry but it is hard to blame Nebraska or anyone else or wanting to maximize their competitive potential.
You could blame the Big Ten, but it’s the same thing. Revenue sharing means that money from expansion candidates benefits everyone, and I could deffinetly think of a few new facility changes for us where that money is certainly needed. Plus in the long term it provides better television revenue which will allow our schools to maximize our competitive potential.
Also you dismiss academics because it isn’t related to sports, but the reality is that it does mean something. When you are running a university, you want to bring in the best minds to do great research and raise the profile of your school. Sure it doesn’t impact the fans, but not everything is about the fans. It does have adirect impact on future students and faculty members because it can lead to more grant money for research, better equipmentand facilities, and establishing a reputation as one of thebest institutes of higher learning. Ithas been said, correctly, on this site and others that reputation in academics matters, and trying to build one to better your university shouldn’t have to be counted as greed.
All that being said, the costs of this have been too high. I have hope that KState, Iowa State, and KU find a suitable conference to make sure that they are not hurt by this change. it sucks, and alot of it has to do with things beyond your control like geography which isn’t fair at all. It sucks.
I have hope that something good will come out of this for the state of Kansas (my home state) and everyone else left in the Big XII. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I hope everyone at KState, ISU, and KU comes out better because of this somehow.
http://victorypolka.blogspot.com/
FWIW -
Nebraska was one of the schools that voted FOR the unequal sharing of revenue…
The Kansas City Royals; Successfully failing since 1986
Kansas and Iowa State is your new best friend
you will need to band together to give yourselves leverage. If Kansas legislator allows Kansas to merely become a basketball school and for K-State to end up in a less than desirable conference, then shame on them.
As for the blame…Texas. Plain and simple. They blew up the SWC and now they have blown up the Big 12. I find it ironic and borderline funny that they, along with Texas A&M — a school identifies as the most conservative research university in America annually — will be chumming it up with California-Berkeley (a school that banned Army recruting from campus) in a league run out of Hollywood by a commisioner who is FAR more interested in TV rights and advertising deals than his football (athletic) product.
College football’s most enduring strength, and what separates it from professional football, is that it is cultural. Plain and simple. Once you stitch together conferences based on TV markets and population and not compatibility in the classroom and on the field, you become a time bomb waiting to go off.
I give the PAC-10 until 2015 before the infighting begins to tear is asunder. My best wishes to the Wildcats—home of family and friends for me—that you find a great home and get the last laugh.
Careful what you wish for Texas…
"I’m sick of following my dreams. I’m just going to ask them where they’re going and hook up with them later." M.H.
Quoting Garfield
from Garfield’s Christmas special (which kicks ass fyi)
-“Wake me up when it’s through”
by williewildcrack on Jun 10, 2010 9:49 AM CDT reply actions
What sucks the most
Is that I hate declaring defeat like this. I hate saying, “our conference despite winning 2 Titles during its short existance (three if the NCAA sanctions bite USC in the ass), we still tanked” Tanked because of a failure of leadership of a guy like Dan Bebee. Fu¢K!!!! I blame him.
Knowing that our conference grew out of the tradition of the Big Eight Conference and the ashes of the SWC, makes it tougher to swallow. To think that one of the founding members of the Big8 Conference, was the one that pulled the Jenga Stick that brought all of this crashing to the ground. Fu¢k, you Osborne, Pelini, et al…
Bummer!!!
The Lyle Leong Bandwagon will Continue to Roll!!!
Respect Everyone....Fear No One!
Wreck 'em, Tech!
by Tortilla Pirate on Jun 10, 2010 10:08 AM CDT reply actions
on a side note
Im gonna enjoy your FINAL CHAPTER of “Adventures of the Big 12”
The Lyle Leong Bandwagon will Continue to Roll!!!
Respect Everyone....Fear No One!
Wreck 'em, Tech!
by Tortilla Pirate on Jun 10, 2010 10:09 AM CDT reply actions
Great article
I agree with the sections on Nebraska and Texas. One aspect I will disagree with you on is Dan Beebe. He absolutely deserves a huge share of the blame. From the moment Big Ten expansion was announced, Beebe should have been out there publicly strengthening the conference’s image. That would have been the time to talk about a Pac-10 media deal. He even could have announced that the Big XII was considering its own expansion plans. Instead, he kept quiet, only occasionally popping up to say the Big XII was awesome. He let the lingering resentments between Missouri, Nebraska and Texas build and fester. He allowed the media to control the narrative to the point that when the Pac-10 media deal was announced, the public perception of the Big XII was that of a conference on the chopping block. He was consistently and comically outmaneuvered by his colleagues. Watching Dan Beebe in action was like watching Wile E. Coyote wearing a pair of rocket skates.
So true but...
you could also argue that his nuts were in a vice. Texas had the pencil and they could have drawn an anvil or a parachute.
And is Texas going to keep paying Beebe's salary when the conference implodes?
At some point you have to decide if you’re going to be your own man or someone else’s. Beebe’s job has been on the line since day 1, so what did he have to lose? Terminally weak leader, no question about it.
I will miss the Unholy Alliance
Growing up a Mizzou fan in the football wilderness of the mid ninties, I despised K State when they emerged from nowhere as a powerhouse, but I got over that last decade and embraced our mutual hatred of that yellow-buckled-shoe-wearing cartoon bird, but if its any consolation, if Mizzou gets screwed too, which is looking more likely as of late, at least we’ll probably be in whatever midmajor conference together.
it has begun....
Colorado is going to the Pac 10
fader nation is a conquered nation
Jerry Jones is Al Davis with a smile!
CHICAGO...Where Quaterbacks' careers go to die!
Hey Currie
start calling any and all conferences who may be willing to listen. I don’t care if there’s only a half percentage chance. Do it.
Surgeon General's Warning: K-State-Mizzou basketball may increase the risk of high blood pressure. Please consult your doctor prior to watching any of these games.
Call in any favors he has
somehow some way accrued. This is a good time to cash in on anything like that.
Ready? GO!
--VegasCat07
MWC will take you in a Manhattan minute
if you want it.
"I’m sick of following my dreams. I’m just going to ask them where they’re going and hook up with them later." M.H.
by StoopsMyAss on Jun 10, 2010 12:04 PM CDT up reply actions
Yeah not the direction we're hoping to go...
And besides, it’s the other way around – if all else fails the MWC will be knocking on our doors.
Surgeon General's Warning: K-State-Mizzou basketball may increase the risk of high blood pressure. Please consult your doctor prior to watching any of these games.
maybe ...
Maybe, just maybe the TX legislature will insist on the TX’s schools remaining together and the OK legislature will insist on the OK’s schools remaining together. Then after the NE announcement tomorrow then just need to find 2 schools to fill out the league.
And then talk with the SEC about a joint TV network.
The time for calm and rational discourse is past, now is the time for senseless bickering -Anonymous the Younger
by Anon_the_younger on Jun 10, 2010 12:58 PM CDT reply actions
If this recent 'claim'/report is true
on TMZ, then the OK schools are headed west…
http://www.tmz.com/2010/06/10/oklahoma-state-pacific-10-ncaa-conferences-football-big-12/
Otherwise, yeah I would think sticking around with just CU and NU gone is fixable.
--VegasCat07
TMZ....
talk about worthless. I want to smack anybody who either works there or takes what they do serious. Isn’t it illegal to stalk people?
Surgeon General's Warning: K-State-Mizzou basketball may increase the risk of high blood pressure. Please consult your doctor prior to watching any of these games.
They may be sleaze bags
but my observations have told me they usually get stories/scoops…
However, it is still take it for what it is worth…
--VegasCat07
Honestly, that's the only hope the Big XII has now.
If the U gets strongarmed by the legislature into standing pat since they now cannot take Baylor with them, things can be salvaged.
However, if A&M slips over to the SEC (they’ve been talking for months, apparently), the pressure on Texas to keep A&M with them decreases much the same as a balloon being popped, and it allows the Pac 10 to take Baylor anyway.
I am now channeling Will McDonald's optimism.
Great post
Fucking. Lame.
But, at least all the kids Frank Martin is recruiting from Miami and DC could care less that they were coming to the Big XII…football, on the other hand, is in trouble.
by 2.1 seconds left on Jun 10, 2010 1:38 PM CDT reply actions
It might if you used the sarcasm font
But i don’t really understand whats so bad about being pissed off that the Big XII is done, and complementing TB on a great post.
by 2.1 seconds left on Jun 11, 2010 9:15 PM CDT up reply actions
In his defense
it wasn’t 100% sure what you were calling lame.
Surgeon General's Warning: K-State-Mizzou basketball may increase the risk of high blood pressure. Please consult your doctor prior to watching any of these games.
mystman is correct.
I tried to go the ‘safe by not being rude’ route. Suppose I could have just asked what you meant was lame… :-P
--VegasCat07
Classy stuff, 'Cats
Here’s hoping you guys land on your feet with the rest of the Big 8, and that we can maintain the series down the road. Always enjoyed my trips to the Little Apple.
Something to keep in mind...
I don’t care if 8 teams jump ship…we own the Big 12 and Big 14 monikers. And all of these grass is greener schools are going to paying the rest of us a nice chunk of money for breaking their Big 12 contracts. Meaning we can still keep the Big 12 and go on the offensive ourselves rather than waiting another conference to ask us out on a date.
by Catbacker98 on Jun 10, 2010 3:17 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
I don't think it matters, though.
First, the other BCS conferences are going to have one item at the top of the agenda at the next BCS meeting: voting the Big XII out.
Second, as I noted in another post, we’re going to lose our NCAA auto bids unless either KU, KSU, ISU, Tech, and Baylor manage to stay together or some serious chicanery occurs.
The extra cash (which could be used as an inducement for potential new members) would be nice, but I’m having trouble envisioning the scenario where the remains of the conference stay together and everything works out well.
I am now channeling Will McDonald's optimism.
Capitalism in College Football
I have been watching this drama unfold for the last week.
How did we gey here? We have two schools that are acting like free agents in the draft. They are going to do what is best for them, i;e;, money.
And the acedemics thing is so laughable that I can’t believe it figures into the equation. We have great acedemics and research and all that other great stuff, but we have 50 plus guys that can’t read or write. But we are offering this great opportunity for higher learning at _ university. The better the football program, the worse they are.
Nebraska and UT share equal blame for all this. Crazy.
Friggin' KU
I hate KU as much as the next guy, but unfortunately it really isn’t Texas or Nebraska that hold the key to our survival (anymore). Its KU. Although a 16 team MWC could be the fifth “power” conference with some key additions from the Big XII leftovers, it would be nothing without KU. If KU leaves for the ACC/SEC/Big East remnants we had better pray their coattails are big enough for us. Too bad this couldn’t have happened after the 1999 season instead of the 2009 season. Things may be a bit different.
Bottom line is, the only way I could stomach membership in the Mountain West is if KU came too. Can you imagine them in a BCS AQ league and K-State not? Makes me sick just thinking about those smug bastards grinning all the way to the bank.
Honestly
As a KU fan, I hope that K-State does hold onto our coattails, if we are able to move to another BCS conference. The Big XII is dead, like it or not, and the two Kansas teams a package deal. It just would not feel right leaving half of our state in the abyss while the other goes on to enjoying more success. No matter what happens, we need to stick together to make sure our entire state ends up in one of the new Super Conferences.
Also, f*** Mizzu, ISU, CU, NU, and all of the Big 12 South schools. Mizzou, Nebraska, Colorado, and the Texas schools are the reason (Along with Beebe) that the Big XII is falling apart. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are prepared to leave their former Big VIII team’s in the dust. While, Iowa State, as unforunate it is to see them be left in the dust, would be fair better suited in the Mountain West Conference. If all else fails, we can always begin a MWC Super Conference, with the edition of the Big XII leftovers, Boise State, and Houston added.
R.I.P. Derrick Thomas. The Chiefs and the World have never been the same since your untimely death.
by ChiefsFan90s on Jun 10, 2010 11:47 PM CDT up reply actions
I can only hope
you saved beforehand so you can reload.
I am now channeling Will McDonald's optimism.
Havent talked to you guys in a while, but figured with all of the "Alignment" chaos
this was as good a time as any. What is REALLY going on out there? We keep hearing that you folks are headed to the Big East, or looking to rebuild the Conference USA group, there is even some scattered speculation you folks could be headed to us here in the SEC. The only fairly solid info is that you guys and Kansas are a package deal.
I AM THE CAT......The Cat In The Hat!!!
I think it’s terrible that you guys, Baylor, ISU and KU are left out in the cold wondering what will happen next. I don’t think college football became as popular as it has because of conference affiliations. It’s because all of us fans, and our fathers and their fathers, love the concept of the rivalry with our next door neighbor who happened to pick a different college for whatever reason, be it financial, familial, or whatever.
We grew up teasing our rivals, and being teased. We watched some of our HS classmates go off to play at University A, while others went to Univeristy B – and then sat back and watched them pummell each other for four years. Friends to foes, just like that.
We spend the most important years of our lives – the one’s that shape our futures – bleeding our school colors, toiling in study hall, getting pennied in to our dorm rooms, trying (and usually failing) to bed every chick with two tits and a heartbeat. Then we graduate and get a job and come back to relive the memories each fall Saturday. And we give money. In some cases lots of money, in the hopes that our nickel will help our team boot-stomp our neighbor. And then we share a beer after the final whistle blows. And tell lies about our conquests of said chicks with two tits and a heartbeat.
That’s what made college football and college sports great. It brought people together while at the same time keeping them on the other side of the fence. NOT the fact that some politicians and administrators thought they could squeeze $10mm more out of a TV contract. And don’t let any aggie or husker tell you this has anything to do with academics because it doesn’t. Not even remotely. It’s about TV sets and contracts. And while things will be different and I’m sure successful, it will unceremoniously kill one of the most amazing things about college football.
Ask Grantland Rice, Army, Navy, Harvard and Yale how popular college football was in the 1920s. Before TV was invented. It was the biggest sport in the country. And it was big for the right reasons.
Now I can't wait for the whole damned thing to come crashing down
The NFL will have a lockout or something equally stupid to bring it down, and college sports will crap out too. I’m excited for that.
Landing Pad
I would be all for the SEC. I have reservations about the Pac 10 just because of the start times of events. The Big East is a non starter for me, it’s my last choice for joining another league. Keep the Big 12 add others before that, which is actually my preference anyway if we just have to fill two spots. Well, I’d really like to fill three. Kick Mizzu out for starting this whole mess.
A non-BCS is not an option.
Domino #2 (officially):
Boise State has joined the Mountain West.
I am now channeling Will McDonald's optimism.
Interesting really...
Perhaps MWC is trying to be preemptive. They are trying to make sure that if we have to we will come join them now and not the other way around. Chess matches are being played all over the country now.
I think all the rumormongering is taking its toll
in conference HQs too. I mean, we’ve reached the point where there is at least semi-serious supposition about Kansas schools in the SEC, which really proves that nobody knows anything at all.
(I am not suggesting that anyone who thinks we might end up in the SEC is a know-nothing idiot, but that everything is so crackamamie crazy that it’s impossible for anyone on the outside, journalistas included, to know anything at this point.)
I am now channeling Will McDonald's optimism.
Landing Pad
To be clear, I don’t actually think KSU would get an offer from the SEC even if they went to 16 teams.
With that said, here’s a little rumor coming out of the big meeting Currie crashed down in Florida…OU and A&M to the SEC, KU KSU to Pac 10.
I don’t think that will happen either, but I’ve somehow become a terrible gossip in the last week.
Oh, I don't think they would either.
KU actually makes a perverse sort of sense, but I just can’t see KSU in there. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t object to it, but.
I am now channeling Will McDonald's optimism.
Hmm, now that I think about it
On Monday, the MWC was “holding off” to see what would happen elsewhere. If they thought the Big 12 was falling apart then, then there’d be no reason to hold off if they intended to invite Boise regardless, but if they thought the Big 12 was in trouble then and they intended to invite Boise regardless, there was no reason to put it off. And if they wanted to wait to see if the Big 12 was falling apart first, the only reason they’d hold off on the invitation to Boise is if they saw the possibility of a situation wherein they wouldn’t want Boise.
Therefore, it stands to reason that something has changed in the last four days: either
a) they’ve got inside information that the Big 12 is going to stay together,
b) they got wind of someone else being interested in taking Boise off the table, and quite frankly the Big 12 is the only possibly option for that scenario, which leads back to Scenario A, or
c) they’ve already talked to the rumored left-behinds and gotten the “thanks, but no thanks” speech… which would mean that someone’s already working out a parachute.
Of course, it also just occurred to me that maybe they were only waiting to see if Colorado was going to be available, which would void all the previous supposition — but it likely means that if they’re interested in expanding further, they’ll be going after an even number of teams.
I am now channeling Will McDonald's optimism.
More news:
AP reporting that the Texas Board of Regents will be meeting Tuesday to decide what they’re doing, so we may as well just get drunk or take some valium for a few days and wait.
I am now channeling Will McDonald's optimism.
MORE news:
AP also reporting that Missouri has “confirmed their commitment” to the Big 12, although couched in weasel wording (“this is the first inning of a nine inning game”). Frankly, I think they’re just making sure they don’t get thrown out before they can leave on their own, but I guess we’ll see.
And multiple sources are reporting that Nebraska has now joined the Big Ten, but there’s no official statement as yet.
I am now channeling Will McDonald's optimism.
Correction: They will APPLY to join the Big Ten.
If Notre Dame panics and calls Jim Delany at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, I’ll bet you anything that application “gets lost in the mail.”
This isn’t over yet by a long shot.
Noted, although
the “sources” have indicated, based on conversations with Big Ten people, that it’s a done deal.
That comes, of course, with every imaginable sort of caveat. ;)
I am now channeling Will McDonald's optimism.
the Big 10
Has officially accepted Nebraska’s application to join their conference. On espn and others…
by jtarkman on Jun 11, 2010 5:07 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
I’m gonna miss the KSU fans. They were Aggies, just happened to be born in another state. never met a KSU fan I didn’t like. Cannot say the same for the sips, or even the KU fans.
Your friends from Texas with respect
Watch this inspirational video and beat Nebraska:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q47bpOCTcaY
Ok Texas here is your last chance to "save" the Big 12
Funny how I came up with this sitting around this evening. In a truly bold move the Big 12 lets CU and NU go and then shocks the Pac-10 by picking off Arizona and Arizona State. The Big 12 would break down like this:
North:
Kansas
K-State
Mizzou
ISU
OU
Okie State
South:
Texas
A&M
Texas Tech
Baylor
Arizona
ASU
Now the conference is balanced once again in football and we trade up in the basketball department by acquiring Arizona. CU and Nebraska can then really see if the grass is greener on the other side. In certain years you get two Red River rivalries both of which determine the conference championship. Almost every other rivalry is kept intact to include Arizona and ASU. I really think this would be a great conference. Stoops brothers now coaching against each other in conference. Fiesta Bowl could be a home game for the Arizona schools if they make the BCS. Start sending out the emails now.
P.S.
Your welcome Beebe. Feel free to send me Championship Tickets for the rest of my life.
by Catbacker98 on Jun 11, 2010 10:54 PM CDT up reply actions
Ahhhhhhhh, now I see what you did here...
You jinxed it into not happening! Brilliant move again, TB.
--VegasCat07
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