Donations to the Ahearn Fund grew by 5 percent last year.
The realignment saga got rolling for real yesterday. Matt Hayes of the Sporting News, using the unstoppable power of unnamed sources, reported that Texas A&M and Oklahoma are serious about joining the SEC if their concerns about the Longhorn Network, primarily the broadcast of high school games involving elite recruits, are not addressed. Curtis Kitchen took a look at the situation and believes it's a violation of NCAA rules to broadcast games involving potential recruits. That position seems more credible now that the Dallas Morning News is reporting that the Longhorn Network has shelved its plans to broadcast high school games until the situation is settled.
Of course, that leaves the question as to what all this means. Peter did an excellent job of laying out the UT position in two posts over at BON. I recommend you go read both of them, but essentially Peter's position is that OU and TAMU have thrown a smart counterpunch against UT in the battle over the LHN. While their threat to leave may not be all that credible -- we haven't even begun to discuss the gritty details, like what the state legislatures will do and how interested the SEC really is -- it's one that Texas should take seriously, because they would prefer to make the next move in a position of strength, rather than in response to a huge defection.
Of course, that leaves the question of what it all means for K-State. With Texas backing down on showing high school games on its network, OU's and TAMU's concerns should be allayed for the near future. Of course, that leaves open what will happen further down the road if the LHN isn't successful or becomes an issue for other schools again. While I'm happy that the schools with more leverage in this conference are doing what they can to keep UT in check, we really need the LHN to have at least some success, or UT loses its biggest (or at least one of its biggest) reasons for staying in the Big 12. And if UT decides its pastures are greener in the Big 10 or, more likely, the Pac-12, then superconferences are our future and we're right back to where we were last summer.
KU quarterback recruit Brock Berglund has been dealing with an assault charge back in Colorado. He'll fit right in over in Lawrence.