Conference Expansion: Big 12/10/9?
The title sums this one up. Has a conference ever been more of a certified disaster than the current state of the Big 12?
Last year you lose Nebraska and Colorado. No matter what Gallagher says, losing Nebraska really hurts. Huge fan base, lots of money, typically good at football and a lot of other sports not named basketball… I’m sure both Colorado and Nebraska are happy with their decisions. The Big 10 and Pac 12 are significant upgrades from even the best possible days of the Big12.
But now what? Texas A&M is out. Missouri has a deal with the SEC…which isn’t clear if that is a backup plan or THE plan just yet. The Pac 12 just came out and said… ehh, we’ll pass on having the Oklahoma and Texas duo’s join the conference. Oklahoma wants a new conference commish (which is about time someone came out and said this). The future of the conference, shit… the current state of the conference is hanging on by a thread.
But how about the Pac12 holding their ground? Love that move… really do. I said it before, but this is more than just football. The Pac12 already will have enough money and fatty tv deal that they don’t NEED Oklahoma and Texas, especially if Texas has to come with their Longhorn Network package. I still think Texas should say eff it and go independent… because they can. I think the Pac12 knows it shouldn’t go to 16… that 16 is just a ticking timebomb. Keeping 16 schools happy, together, and financially stable is challenging. A challenging that I’m sure Larry Scott looks at and says, oh I COULD do it…but do we really WANT to do it?
So now what? Well… the Texas/OU pod will shop their conference affiliation to others… probably the ACC and see if they can get them to bite. I imagine they will run out of options pretty soon and be stuck at square one…and have this mess linger. I do understand Oklahoma/The rest of the conference’s beef with the Longhorn Network. If you say you can’t show high school games yet you show high school highlights on the channel, how, exactly is this not a ridiculous recruiting advantage? I imagine Texas will either need to make significant adjustments to their attitude (highly unlikely) and programming (possible) for the relationship to continue with the Big 12.
But the better question becomes, now what? No matter what Texas A&M is leaving. Missouri might be (really they SHOULD be) following them right to the SEC. Leaving the Big 12 with potentially 8 programs. Adding BYU would be a huge coup, but I doubt BYU is that interested now that they are doing their football independent thing. I think the Big 12 has to look at potentially Houston, Tulsa, TCU and SMU. Shit, didn’t we try something like this before called the Southwest Conference? Where is Arkansas when you need them? Shit you could throw in UTEP and just make it a state of Texas affair if you wanted to.
But this much is for sure… the big 12 needs to hug this one out. Quickly… then again, I’m kind of enjoying watching Texas suck it up at football and Mack Brown falling back to the reality of he’s MACK BROWN.
3 comments:
what doesn't make sense to me is, why doesn't regional proximity matter to conferences as much as it should?
Jim Boeheim came out and said "We are leaving the 17-team Big East Conference that is going to include a team from Texas and Florida and Chicago and Wisconsin and Kentucky. We're not leaving what we founded." TCU being added to the Big East was the last straw for that conference in my opinion, no matter how good or bad TCU is.
I think the WORST decision the ACC could make is adding Texas or Oklahoma. I realize they poop rainbows, but there's a lot to be said for stretching a conference too thin, not only in the quantity of teams but also in the distance between them. What the Pac-10ish and ACC have going for it, is they haven't quite whored out enough to include anyone outside their proximity. I think that strengthens the conference and the fan base for each team.
Oklahoma and Texas belong in the SEC or Big 12 or whatever else comes out of the plains states area. Also, it sounded like BC at some point was whining that their travel expenses were getting too large to be in the ACC. I don't know if that's true or if travel expense matters to schools, but that's all apart of my argument that proximity should matter.
One more thing, why in the world does the SEC want to add crap bags like Texas A$M and Missouri. They aren't exactly powerhouses that strengthen their conference right? The SEC would irrefutably be the best conference in the country if they added Oklahoma and Texas, right? I guess money/tv deals is what's stopping it, and that's the part I don't know anything about.
i know... we're in for a big shift in 8-10 years if conferences get bigger and bigger. they'll split back up and go more regional. there is only so much money to go around. football is easy to travel, 5ish weekends a year. what really adds up is the other 17-20 sports. Ask the WAC how that ended for them...
Texas A&M's president and the SEC commish (Mike Slive)are boys... i'm guessing that is how that came about.
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