Did anyone else N-O-T watch the Texas Shorthorns, Texas A&M Maggies, Texas Tech-Western Auburn University Red Taiters, and the Oklahoma Spooners over the weekend? Oklahoma State is “sooner” to join that list (because whatever big brother OU says, they do)…. I have no intentions to watch them, even when they play my beloved Wildcats of K-State.
Ahhh the foul-smelling list that already includes Nebraska Cornsuckers and Colorado Duffalos just keeps growing.
Why should we watch disloyalty football?
No longer can I enjoy the excitement and energy the college game of football brings to the fans. Seemingly these days it’s now all about forming a collegiate semi-pro league with four divisions. These self-serving colleges obviously don’t give a flip about the Big 12 -2 -1 -4 football any more. Loyal fans, what makes you think your favorite university will care about the Big 10, Pac 12, and SEC…or those leagues about you guys? It is only the greed and hoarding of money that college football can/does/will generate that rules every Saturday in the fall these days.
I call a 15 yard personal foul – unsportsmanlike conduct penalty!
So where does that leave the Big Leftover 5? Bailing-Bears to the Big East (if they give up their lawsuits)? Jaybirds to the Big 10 (only by the skin of their roundball hide)? The Tiggers beg…plead…embarrass themselves for a seat at the Big 10 table? Sic-clones are left standing in the Iowa cornfields? The Mildcats are left scratching their flea-infested fur wondering why there DVD and book sales of the Snyder-glory-years (a decade ago for crying out loud) can’t get any other league’s attention?
Here’s my thoughts….
Let everyone scatter and fire-the-heck-out-of Dan Beebe – that should have been done last year!
It costs $28 million per university to leave the Big 12. If eight schools were to leave the conference this week (Texas, TAMU, OU, OSU, TTU, KU, MO, BAYLOR), then K-State and Iowa State are left with $224 million dollars in the Big 12-10=2 Conference. Realize, the Big 12 still has a bargain chip in a BCS Bowl contract (even if its with the corrupt, stale Corn Chip Bowl), not to mention an ESPN television contract of some kine (I think).
We could re-build the Big 12 (which by the way has no regional affiliation in its name…unlike the “Pac-???” or “ACC” or “SEC”) with the Big East schools left over (good riddance Pitt and Syracuse). Bring in a BYU, maybe a Houston and Boise State, make sure TCU stays committed, grab a few others and looky here what we have: a really nice football conference.
K-State
Iowa State
Rutgers
UConn
West Virginia
Cinncinati
Louisville
South Florida
TCU
Boise State
Houston
BYU
Baylor
East Carolina
Navy
Marshall
Now one question in this scenario would be this: if Baylor were to bolt to the Big East now and drops $28 million in the Big 2’s bank, then they join in with the Big 2…will they sue to get their money back? Ha!
And in defense of my dear KU and Missouri fans out there…they seem to be waiting around like KSU and ISU these days. They too are taking a wait and see stance…. It would be nice to keep those rivalries intact. If so, then East Carolina and Marshall might be left out…unless we were to consider an 18-team superduper conference. Hmmmm.
One more thing: does anyone else see a trend here BTW? In 1996, 8 Texas schools squabbled and threw daggers, darts, and diapers with each other. Then 4 of them joined the Big 8 (forming the Big 12), leaving the other 4 to fend for themselves. Today, we again have Texas schools squabbling, they’ve convinced 2 Oklahoma backbone-less schools to join in, the throat of the Big 12 is about to be severed. With this kind of Texas and Oklahoma loyalty and southern hospitality on display, huh? Who wants them at our party anyhow? You are un-invited so take your Shorthorn Network money elsewhere, you turds.
LIMEYFISH 
Now lookie here Mr. Mildcat May! I don’t know if you’ve noticed but we are the only Texas girl at the dance without any suitors…so…with that being said we HAVE to do something. And another thing…yes Baylor is threatening to sue the pants off of A&M…but whom else in the conference would you like to take A&M on legally? Does anyone else have a President or someone on their Board of Regents that caused the impeachment of a President of the United States? We might be the “little guy at muscle beach,” but obviously we’re the ones with the best legal experience to threaten A&M to attempt to keep the rest of the group together. But I do have to agree with you…this is sickening and an embarrassment to the Big 12. We are NOT the farm leagues to the NFL!
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Okay…I was trying to be hopeful earlier…have a “Snap out of it!” moment…but yet the shorthorns and the sooner than laters have once again left me shaking my head. This is just rediculous…and for the love of the game hope is sinking like a beautiful Texas Panhandle sunset in my head. *deep sigh*
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I am just so sad! That’s all I have to say. I love college athletics but money is the root of all evil. That’s all I have to say … just so sad! ;o(
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In time of conference realignment madness, KU silence golden
By Matt Tait, Lawrence Journal World, September 21, 2011
Late Tuesday night, as one of the wildest days of the conference realignment saga was starting to wind down, the Pac-12 Conference released a statement saying it was not interested in expanding past its current 12-member set-up.
Moments after the statement was released, officials at Kansas University said nothing.
Smart move.
It’s been debated for the better part of the past three weeks whether KU athletic director Sheahon Zenger and chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little were going about things the right way with regard to KU’s position in all of this. As it stands right now, it looks as if they played it perfectly.
Look no further than Missouri for proof of that. Sources close to KU said all along that MU chancellor Brady Deaton and athletic director Mike Alden were all-in with the Big 12 Conference and that both were working tirelessly to ensure the conference’s survival. Deaton, the chair of the Big 12’s board of directors who, later this week, is scheduled to meet with OU president David Boren to hash out OU’s demands for a more perfect Big 12 union, continues to work toward that end.
But while those two toed the line, a Missouri booster almost cost the Tigers their spot in two conferences. All by opening his mouth.
Earlier Tuesday, a report surfaced about MU having a deal in place with the SEC. The report stated that the deal was contingent on the Big 12 imploding, but it was never intended to get out. Once it did, reports indicated that SEC officials were furious with the Tigers. At the same time, officials in the Big 12 were forced to at least question Missouri’s allegiance.
By saying little and working a lot, KU ensured its survival. If the Jayhawks had made a deal elsewhere or taken a hard stance against OU, Texas or the Big 12, they’d be saddled with the tough task of crawling back to the league and asking for forgiveness right now. If the Jayhawks had spoken out against the other conferences freely attempting to poach their brothers, they would’ve buried themselves in the event that the Big 12 did die.
It may have been nerve-racking, and still may be; but it also was 100 percent in line with what Zenger is all about. Substance over image.
“You have to be consistent with your message and you have to treat people the right way, inside and outside,” Zenger said in an interview earlier this summer.
He nailed it here.
This thing isn’t over yet. Until the nine remaining Big 12 schools hash out their issues — including those that existed long before OU’s list of demands went public on Tuesday — the conference will remain on unstable ground.
In the end, the one thing that’s been holding it together all along may be the thing that saves it: The Big 12 is the best place for every current member to be. Period.
Some benefit from the power and prestige. Others are aided by longstanding traditions and rivalries. And still more are buoyed by geography, fertile recruiting ground and revenue beyond their wildest dreams.
One of the biggest questions still to be answered is what happens to Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe. Early Tuesday, OU said it would return to the Big 12 if Beebe were removed. With the Pac-12 off the table, will the Sooners hold their ground?
I’m not of the belief that Beebe’s solely to blame for all that ails the Big 12. He’s not perfect, but he’s not clueless either. He is, however, a direct link to a checkered past, and if this conference is going to survive, it’s going to have to be without him.
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Geez Bec…I think your latest comment word count is more than my post :) But good stuff! Beebe has to go…Missouri is just being Missouri (like the Harry Potter’s fat cousin Dudley)…I’m not sure I like KU and K-State just sitting on their hands through all this but they do have a “meeting” tomorrow hopefully to discuss more than just how to sit on one’s hands…I know I don’t like OU trying to be the new bully in our dysfunctional bunch…and dammit, Texas and their TV cameras just plain o’ sucks.
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Way to hold back, Tim!
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