ALL THIS CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT TALK IS MAKING ME NAUSEOUS
Oklahoma's going to the PAC-12, OSU is going with them. Texas is going as well & they're taking Texas Tech with them. Missouri is going to the SEC, A&M is going to the SEC too. Baylor is threatening legal action if the Aggies try to exit the Big-12. Syracuse & Pitt will move to the ACC, will the remaining Big-12 merge with the leftovers from the Big East? Who will become the SEC's 14th team if Mizzou stays put? STOP IT! My head is spinning! You need to know this is all about two things, football & money. Basketball, baseball, softball, wrestling etc. have zero bearing on conference realignment. Oh yes, there is one more very important detail, the decisions to walk away from traditional rivalries, conferences they've been a part of for decades , are not being made by anyone in the athletic departments. They're being made by the academics, the university presidents, the board of regents. The sports departments aren't even consulted in these decisions to switch conferences. Nope these are money-driven choices made by the academics running the schools. Athletic directors & coaches hate these plans, they hate giving up fertile recruiting territory, hate that tradition has become unimportant.
Tonight, after every kind of bogus rumor flew from several directions, PAC-12 Commissioner Larry Scott announced the conference would not expand anytime soon. So OU & Okie State is staying put? Not necessarily. Word out of Norman is the Oklahoma duo will stay in the Big-12 on two conditions. One, Conference commissioner Dan Beebe should be replaced when his contract runs out next year(AMEN). Two, equal shares for every member school. If Texas wants to keep it's fledgling Longhorn Network, it will be a part of their share, not in addition to their share. Equal means the same, it doesn't mean anything else. The SEC, Big-Ten & PAC-12 all have equal shares for every member school. What makes Texas so special that they can command more TV revenue than all the other Big-12 schools? Mainly because the other Big-12 schools are scared to death they might lose the Longhorns & see their revenues drop significantly. So Beebe coerced enough member schools to keep Texas on top money-wise.
There are a number of reports regarding Mizzou, it's difficult to know which one is accurate. If they have been invited to join the SEC, it's going to be tough ignoring it. With the past two years of uncertainty, it will be hard to refuse nearly double the revenue Mizzou makes right now. After being left holding the bag with the Big-Ten, if the SEC does in fact have an offer on the table, I think Mizzou will jump. Not because of the extra money, but because of the stability & the equality. But all is not rosy for an SEC move, Mizzou has built a nationally ranked wrestling program, the SEC doesn't compete in wrestling. Mizzou would be in the SEC West along with A&M, Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, Mississippi State & Ole Miss, a helluva lot tougher competition. It will be extremely difficult to recruit the type of talent needed to compete in the SEC without their favorite recruiting grounds, the state of Texas. The Lone Star State has provided 32 current Tigers. With no conference affiliation in Texas other than A&M, it will be very tough trying to convince parents to send their sons to Columbia when he will play within the state's borders only once every other year. But then that makes little difference to Dr. Brady Deaton, this is about money, not their precious "student athletes."
What people fail to realize is the Big-12 has to be ranked 1st or 2nd in the nation. When you add basketball, baseball, wrestling, softball & women's hoops to the football programs, the conference is at or near the top in almost every sport. But this isn't about conference competitiveness or overall ranking, it's about football & money, nothing else.
I sincerely want to see this conference survive, but if it isn't made fair to all members, it will fail. maybe not this year, but soon. The arrogance of Texas & the butt-kissing of Beebe has put the Big-12 where it is today, a gigantic jumbled up mess with little stability & an uncertain future.
Did you see Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim on ESPN's Outside the Lines Tuesday? He was really steamed with the decision to move from the Big East to the ACC. Syracuse had been in this conference since 1979. They won the regular season league championship 8 times & won the conference tourney 5 other times. That's all in the past now, Boeheim said "this is about two things, football & money." Where have I heard that before? There are 8 basketball-only teams in the Big East plus 8 others that also compete in football. With Pitt bailing out also, this conference no longer is a viable football conference. The Big East had no business having an automatic BCS bid attached to it's conference champ, but that's another rant for another day. Then there's the geographical issues. Syracuse will now be in a conference that, with the exception of Boston College, will have to travel to Virginia & points south to play every conference game. The Orangemen were traveling to far away places like New York City, Connecticut, New Jersey(2), Pennsylvania(2), Rhode Island & Washington D.C. yes, they did have to travel once a year to Florida & Milwaukee, but the increased distances don't really matter. This is about football & money.
The Missouri-Kansas rivalry dates to 1891, the 2nd longest rivalry in college football. In fact the 1911 game, played in Columbia was called "Homecoming," the first one ever nationally. Ladies & gentlemen, that is tradition. It too will fall by the wayside if the conference splits up, but it really doesn't matter since all this upheaval has nothing to do with tradition, it's about money.
Tonight, after every kind of bogus rumor flew from several directions, PAC-12 Commissioner Larry Scott announced the conference would not expand anytime soon. So OU & Okie State is staying put? Not necessarily. Word out of Norman is the Oklahoma duo will stay in the Big-12 on two conditions. One, Conference commissioner Dan Beebe should be replaced when his contract runs out next year(AMEN). Two, equal shares for every member school. If Texas wants to keep it's fledgling Longhorn Network, it will be a part of their share, not in addition to their share. Equal means the same, it doesn't mean anything else. The SEC, Big-Ten & PAC-12 all have equal shares for every member school. What makes Texas so special that they can command more TV revenue than all the other Big-12 schools? Mainly because the other Big-12 schools are scared to death they might lose the Longhorns & see their revenues drop significantly. So Beebe coerced enough member schools to keep Texas on top money-wise.
There are a number of reports regarding Mizzou, it's difficult to know which one is accurate. If they have been invited to join the SEC, it's going to be tough ignoring it. With the past two years of uncertainty, it will be hard to refuse nearly double the revenue Mizzou makes right now. After being left holding the bag with the Big-Ten, if the SEC does in fact have an offer on the table, I think Mizzou will jump. Not because of the extra money, but because of the stability & the equality. But all is not rosy for an SEC move, Mizzou has built a nationally ranked wrestling program, the SEC doesn't compete in wrestling. Mizzou would be in the SEC West along with A&M, Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, Mississippi State & Ole Miss, a helluva lot tougher competition. It will be extremely difficult to recruit the type of talent needed to compete in the SEC without their favorite recruiting grounds, the state of Texas. The Lone Star State has provided 32 current Tigers. With no conference affiliation in Texas other than A&M, it will be very tough trying to convince parents to send their sons to Columbia when he will play within the state's borders only once every other year. But then that makes little difference to Dr. Brady Deaton, this is about money, not their precious "student athletes."
What people fail to realize is the Big-12 has to be ranked 1st or 2nd in the nation. When you add basketball, baseball, wrestling, softball & women's hoops to the football programs, the conference is at or near the top in almost every sport. But this isn't about conference competitiveness or overall ranking, it's about football & money, nothing else.
I sincerely want to see this conference survive, but if it isn't made fair to all members, it will fail. maybe not this year, but soon. The arrogance of Texas & the butt-kissing of Beebe has put the Big-12 where it is today, a gigantic jumbled up mess with little stability & an uncertain future.
Did you see Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim on ESPN's Outside the Lines Tuesday? He was really steamed with the decision to move from the Big East to the ACC. Syracuse had been in this conference since 1979. They won the regular season league championship 8 times & won the conference tourney 5 other times. That's all in the past now, Boeheim said "this is about two things, football & money." Where have I heard that before? There are 8 basketball-only teams in the Big East plus 8 others that also compete in football. With Pitt bailing out also, this conference no longer is a viable football conference. The Big East had no business having an automatic BCS bid attached to it's conference champ, but that's another rant for another day. Then there's the geographical issues. Syracuse will now be in a conference that, with the exception of Boston College, will have to travel to Virginia & points south to play every conference game. The Orangemen were traveling to far away places like New York City, Connecticut, New Jersey(2), Pennsylvania(2), Rhode Island & Washington D.C. yes, they did have to travel once a year to Florida & Milwaukee, but the increased distances don't really matter. This is about football & money.
The Missouri-Kansas rivalry dates to 1891, the 2nd longest rivalry in college football. In fact the 1911 game, played in Columbia was called "Homecoming," the first one ever nationally. Ladies & gentlemen, that is tradition. It too will fall by the wayside if the conference splits up, but it really doesn't matter since all this upheaval has nothing to do with tradition, it's about money.
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