Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss: Texas Saves Big 12

Green Day

Then schedule a Pac 10 team, Big Ten team and a SEC team

As a Californian Texas fan, I’m disappointed the Longhorns won’t be coming over to the Pac 10. It would have been nice to see them out here every now and then.

I think the Big 12 will seriously need to look at adding two more teams (so they can have a conference title game) if they don’t want to regress…it’s going to be hard for Big 12 teams to stay in the national title picture withouth one, IMO.

The fact that TAMU agreed to this proves their position in the hierarchy – on their knees kissing Emperor Dodd’s burnt orange ring. Hook em.

They no longer have to worry about losing in the conference championship game to get to the NC game. When the schedule goes into play, it will be just as always (playing all the south teams) but tossing in a few mediocre north teams that are left. If the loser of OU-UT game goes undefeated the rest of the way, 2 BCS bids are very likely now for the Big XII-2.

I’d be interested in seeing the math in how Beebe thinks he can double the leagues T.V. revenue.

That if everybody is pissed off and confused then you must have done the right thing?

who have a stellar record over the past 12 years. Wait to take a deep breath and get this thing right.

I propose LSU every other year. Reliant/ Cowboy Stadium for home games and the Super Dome for away games. I would hate to see us undefeated and on the outside looking in at the MNC game because of a percieved conference weakness. And I would love an extra excuse to escape to NO.

Who will even get this network anyways?

Screw you, we’re from Texas. That goes for you, too, Mr. Osborne.

Wouldn’t have minded taking Kiffen down a notch or three,little “Ricky” too

One big thing I see is this has kept A&M from allowing the pipeline from the state of Texas to the SEC. While not as big a deal as the financial gain, this is something that helps as well. While I would have like to have seen Texas and everyone else in the PAC-Whatever, I’m okay with this.

IMO it was A&M that saved the big 12 by refusing to tag along to the pac-10. If they hadn’t been willing to strike out on their own, you would have jumped ship.

CU was becoming a joke. Nebraska has been nothing the past 5 years other then last year and isn’t the same Nebraska.

I was going to be pretty unhappy with any move that didn’t involve us going to the Big Ten, so I like the fact that it is still on the table in the future, if only in theory.

I don’t really see how we would benefit from a loose association with the Pac 8 schools. I think it would be more like getting rid of 4 AAU members (A&M, KU, ISU, and Mizzou) and adding one (Arizona). I don’t think people would associate the two giant divisions very much in their minds, especially if there wasn’t a championship game.

Well, whatever the outcome, be this what it may, blah blah blah…

I enjoyed my time on BON with you guys, and you entertained me quite a bit. Hopefully we will get to continue discussions of the fun nature of this past week in the upcoming season.

Onward and upward, Longhorns!

Aggies little SEC hissy fit when into causing all this?

I really hope that the new big 12 works out for you guys. I think super-conferences will be bad for college football, and I really don’t want the sec to expand. So this is great from my perspective. Not having a championship game will suck to an extent, but you didn’t really have good competitive balance in your divisions anyway. So in some ways this can be positive.

Some of you have mentioned that this will be an impetus to schedule strong ooc matchups, and I think that will be great. I’d love to have a rematch with the longhorns, and I’m sure you’d love to get another shot at Alabama. Restricted ooc scheduling is one of the reasons that I dislike expansion.

At the very least, this will hold back the tide for a while. Maybe you guys can find a couple of teams to add that will get you back to 12.

The conspiracy theorist in me may be coming out, so I’m going to play the devil and throw some mud against the wall.
 
1) What if the Powers to be wanted to make sure our older sister (whatever we want to call our aggie sibling) did not blindly follow the cool kids and play into their cruel joke (insert your own joke) and open the gates to our rich recruiting environment. Other than recruiting, the rivalry would have been lost. More importantly, it seems that our friends at the capital in Austin were wanting to step in. Nothing may have been said in public, but it is not what is said publicly that can change everything. Knowing we wanted Aggie to go with us we had to wait for little brother to catch up so he did not get lost. We may not know for months what REALLY caused us to keep the league afloat. I’m sure we gave it lip service before Nebraska and Colorado split, but the league is much weaker with the those two names. While they have been down the past four years, they still carry name recognition. Unless….
 
2) There is a big name ready to come aboard. I’m not talking the Piggies or LSU, nor am I thinking TCU or another team from the damn fine state of Texas. This is way out there, maybe I have listened to too much realignment talk the past few week, but if you can have your own TV deal and let them do their own thing in football, could the Big (XII – II) have given an invite to (insert drum roll) Notre Dame? While I really doubt they would do this (same reasons some of us did not like the idea of the Big (11 + 1), distance etc) but if the come over to the Big (XII – II + I), that would stall out the Mega/Super Conference thing and possibly Armageddon. The Big (11 + 1) would stay at 12. They could add some other teams, but the home run would be gone. The Golden Domers > Nebraska + Colorado in name recognition. Then we could invite SFA, SWT (Can’t call it the other name) or Sam Houston and the conference would be good. Not SEC good in football, but if ND gets better along whoever else we would bring in, money.
 
3) Maybe Texas told the Pac (10 + 1) to hold up because they knew someone could be leaving and we did not want to be the bad guy. Or, as I stated above, we did not want to leave little brother behind.
 
4) Some more mud for the wall, we did not want to be associated with conference Armageddon. Let the other cards fall, see what happens. Get our TV deal going so we can take it with us when it all hits the fan. This follows the PB line of thinking and maybe DeLoss reads BON and took PB under advisment.

Just some rambling thoughts.

(1) Do you think we’ll stay at 10 without the CCG (yay!) or add two lesser schools just to get the CCG (boo!)

(2) If staying at 10, would you assume an 18-game, pure round-robin basketball schedule (KU twice a season, yay!)?

(3) Any chance at all that Dodds’ Big 8 roots (he is a K-State grad) played any role in the last-ditch effort to save the conference?

Does this mean that OU now moves to the North Division to even things out?

Me.

What the hell do I do with my life now? :)

Will it still make money?

have hurt USC and Ohio State on the national level? I find it pretty damn funny the way people whine about the poor games that Texas will play in conference beginning in 2011. If I am not mistaken Texas was going to be in the East Division of the PAC 16 which included OU, A&M, Tech, CU, OSU, ASU, and UA. Hmmmmm, the strongest of those foes is still with us, the two biggest underachieving programs are in the PAC now, Tech and OSU are still with us, and the last time we saw UA they were being prison raped by Nebraska’s offense. Tell me how have ASU, UA, and CU as part of your conference schedule is so much better than say Mizzou, Kansas, and Baylor. There was the possibility of every 6 years or so playing USC, but does anyone really want to tell me adding UW and Wazzu would dramatically improve the Horns conference schedule. Shit, Cal does nothing but underachieve, Stanford got beat by one of Stoopes worst teams in the past few years and UCLA still sucks.

Texas gets to keep the same mailing address, up its income, gets the green light on its own network, and can prepare itself for the next re-allignments.

What I find interesting is the men’s basketball conference games. You will now get home and homes between all 10 teams. Considering the state of the programs at KU, KSU, A&M, UT, and Baylor you could argue the conference is on the level with the Big 10, better than the PAC and better than the SEC.

Bottom line is until you get a true play-off system where early season losses don’t hurt a team you won’t get the non-conference schedule many want to see. Additionally, I have yet to read one of the better developments from this arrangement. A 10-team conference means no Conference Championship game and means that fucking hill billy from Arkansas loses a big game for his stadium.

…for the extra TV bucks:

Under Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe’s plan, Texas would see a sharp increase in revenue under a new cable TV right deal with Fox Sports.

I was at least hoping the split national issue with ABC/ESPN would have been solved. Is that asking too much?

To whom should we address the invoices? I bet DeLoss Dodd’s hangs a picture of that NU $10 Million dollar check on his wall. Bill collectors will have to go after CU.

it’s not like we signed a 5-10 year unbreakable contract. Lets give this UT TV network a chance. We could very well revisit this whole chaos next year, or 2/3 years later if we’re not happy with the revenue we’re generating.

I’m personally looking forward to being able to watch ALL football, basketball, and baseball games without any interruption. No more networks switching games. In basketball, maybe the subtraction of two north teams will allow us to play KU twice a year? Love it.

I also love how everyone in the conference pretty much hates us, and now they have to acknowledge that we saved their asses from oblivion. Instead of big brother, we’re more the caretaker dad who bails out all his kids from trouble.

From the Denver Post:

A source close to the Pac-10’s expansion negotiations told The Denver Post that Texas insisted on better revenue sharing and its own network, which essentially killed the deal.

“In the 11th hour, after months of telling us they understand the TV rights, they’re trying to pull a fast one on the verge of sealing the deal in the regents meeting,” the source said. “They want a better revenue sharing deal and their own network. Those were points of principle. (The Pac-10) wants to treat everyone fairly. It’s been that way for months of discussions.”

just got hammered, your biggest offensive stars play in places that are the college football equivalent of being in the witness protection program, you just adding the biggest underachieving program in the Big XII to pair with the country’s biggest underachieving athletic program in ASU, and you counter by adding Utah? Tell me again how Texas got the short end of the stick get $20-25M a year, their own network, and games when most of America is awake?

All I have to say is I deserve my own column on BON IF I hit on BYU joining the Big 12 because early in this “Gold Rush of Realignment” I called Texas staying in the Big 12 & being the leader vs. the follower in the Pac-10 or SEC AND called FOX being the one to stop the ESPN bloodbath.

I for one am fine with the decision to keep the Big 12 as is for the time-being. The Pac-10 will always be there as will be the SEC. This run on conferences in the past 10 days had me looking for someone to start screaming “Sell Mortmer Sell”! Plus, once the details on the TV deal come out and the money starts to trickle, in the next year or two, we might be able to pursuade a school or two from other conferences that the grass is greener in Texas…

I’m going to bed. Goodnight everyone.

It’s like waiting to find out which girl is going to ask you to the Sadie Hawkins Dance (do they still have those?), only to find out at the last minute that the dance got canceled.

So I wonder how much my season tickets are gonna go up for the privilege of watching ISU/KSU/KU/Mizzou every other year instead of every fourth year? 15%? 20%?

is still less than 3M and if you think all those are BYU fans you haven’t been to Utah. BYU is solid in football and no presence in basketball. They are also hated by a good percentage of those in Utah.

than getting to have CU, UW, and WSU come to town. The PAC 16 football was anchored by 3 national programmed, One just got hammered by the NCAA and two stayed put. How is this a bad deal again?

That would be funny as hell to see the Big 12 poach the Pac-10.

Butler then to the conference. Please tell me how many tv’s get turned on when the Stormin Mormans hit the court.

In regards to ASU, the conference just got rid of the biggest piece of rotting dead weight masquerading as an athletic department in CU. Why in the world would be want to take on an underachieving program like ASU and its little brother in UA?

…a kick in the academic nuts directed at us from Frank’s blog:

Also, the Big 12 lost 2 of their top 4 research institutions, so now the Big 12 isn’t really far ahead of the SEC in terms of academic quality as measured by AAU and research grants…

UT fan here in KC and you would have thought UT just invented BBQ. Talk shows, callers, etc.. are all saying Texas should be allowed to do whatever the hell they want for saving MU, KU and KSU. I’m personally wishing KSU gives us a win in something going forward… Just glad to hear UT get the accolades they deserve from some very gracious people. The best part is that now everyone here hates Nebraska. Used to be the other way around.

What if we make Big Conference, a 16 team one and be proactive. Add 6 more teams so that once we and the current south sans Baylor +MIZZOU leave, they can still be at 10 teams. Part of the reason this was halted was the smaller schools would left on their own. Say we add more teams and make them seem good, then bolt. Baylor and Kansas schools would still have a conference at full size so they would not need to moan.

what BYU and Air Force bring to the conference. TV sets in bases across the world ? A fan base even more righteous than Baylor?

1) I love T. Boone Pickens now

2) So is it Fox that’s doing the TV deal?

So the PAC 10 gets Colorado? WTF. They are loser program that brings nothing to the Pac 10. Because they are near Denver – they bring the Denver market? That is insanity, as they bring little passion from the Denver area – as it is reserved for the Broncos only.

If you worry about the quality of the product – the rest will work itself out. Texas should go get Utah and BYU. Don{t worry about the demographics – the growth rate in the state of Texas will take care of that. Utah and BYU would bring great football and basketball, and are both better than Nebraska and Colorado on average.

Can’t we just kick Nebraska out of the conference effective immediately?

USA Today article

“UT has done its due diligence on this. They’ve been looking at it for years. They’ve got a great number of large markets in which they are the No. 1 team,” said A.J. Maestas, president of Navigate Marketing, a Chicago-based firm whose services include helping colleges assess the potential value of marketing and media rights.
Texas’ multimedia rights partner is IMG College, a division of IMG, a global sports, entertainment, management, marketing and TV behemoth. “IMG is ready to move on a network,” Maestas said. “Texas knows what’s feasible, and Texas really knows what it’s worth.”
However, he called the projected average annual TV splits of $20 million for Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M, with the other schools getting $14 million-$17 million each, “too high, just not realistic.”
“Now, who knows? Maybe they can break the mold and come up with a model nobody’s seen.”
His firm projects an average annual total of $135 million a year for the 10 schools.