All the Big 12-3 Conference news that is and isn't fit to read...
And some other stuff.
Yes, we are just that good. [Omaha World]
The Longhorn Network is now the 800-pound gorilla in college sports. Texas can't go anywhere else because of it. The other schools in the Big 12 want to minimize it, cut it down to size.
But herein lies the rub: If the Big 12 lessens the LHN, or it goes away, then Texas is free to leave for the Pac-10, SEC or ACC. So, the best way to keep Texas in the Big 12 is to keep the LHN intact.
These Longhorns are really good, aren't they?
SI's Andy Staples refuses to rank Texas. [PollSpeak]
Thanks, but no thanks. [The Tennessean]
Yo, Texas. It’s time to bring all your sports teams and your beloved Longhorn Network to the SEC. This is, after all, the league of conspicuous consumption, a principle upon which your athletics department was built. You ’Horns will fit right in.
Look, Texas, everybody in what’s left of the Big 12 already hates you, so why not come to the SEC, where it’s in the conference bylaws that everybody hates everybody else?
Land Thieves
LB Travis Lewis had a few words for his fellow Sooners. [Tulsa World]
"Horrible. Disappointing. We relaxed. That's what happens. Everybody's disappointed, coaches, players. We gave up 530 yards. We played like a 25- or 30-ranked team. We're not the No. 1-ranked team in the nation right now...
Man hug in Norman. [Tulsa World]
A little known fact: Sources familiar with Stoops's contract confirmed to the Tulsa World that Oklahoma's football coach can leave without paying a single penny of a buyout should Boren unexpectedly resign as OU's president.
Great. Something else to worry about. [NewsOK]
On a night when the Sooners won 38-28 and avenged a loss last year in Columbia, they turned to Landry Jones and Ryan Broyles after the Tigers got out to an early lead. But a year after the Sooners had trouble scoring when they needed points against the Tigers, OU might have discovered a couple guys who can help them in a bind.
Whaley and Millard give them a power game that was missing a season ago.
Pokes
There are no more doubts. [Tulsa World]
"I think people see us differently. And I think our players themselves have a different attitude."- Mike Gundy
Thank the Pokes' S&C coach. [NewsOK]
"I thought our team was in tremendous physical condition," said Cowboys coach Mike Gundy. "I thought that we had a lot left in the fourth quarter.
"What this came down to was I thought our team was in better physical condition – by a long shot."
An analysis from the Aggies' Defensive Gameplan. [Cowboys Ride For Free]
Thanks are in order. [NewsOK]
The Aggie president better hope Ken Starr wasn't watching.
So, which is it? [Boston Globe]
Texas A&M took another step toward leaving the Big 12 on Thursday, formally telling the conference it was exploring all its options.
Less than a week after publicly expressing interest in joining the SEC, Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin said in a letter to conference Commissioner Dan Beebe that it shouldn’t be considered notice that the Aggies have already decided to leave.
"As I have indicated previously, we are working very deliberately to act in the best long-term interests of both Texas A&M and the State of Texas,’’ Loftin said in a statement released by the university. "This truly is a 100-year decision. While we understand the desire of all parties to quickly reach a resolution, these are extremely complex issues that we are addressing methodically.’’
The Aggies want to be the Texas school. [Business of College Sports]
In speaking with Aggies during my recent visit to College Station, the real value in this move isn’t in conference distributions, its in the ability to build a national brand for the school. As part of the Big 12, A&M was "one of the Texas schools." In the SEC, they’ll be the Texas school. There’s a lot to gain from this move if the Aggies capitalize on the opportunity.
We could have told you that. The Aggies aren't ready for prime time. [ESPN]
These people are not ready for the Southeastern Conference.
Texas A&M's ghastly collapse against Oklahoma State on Saturday was not greeted with shrieks of outrage from the 87,358 fans in Kyle Field. From field level at the final gun, there was no visible rending of garments or gnashing of teeth -- to the contrary, the Aggies fans politely clapped for their players as they jogged to the locker room. I didn't hear a single call to fire the coach, fire the coordinators, fire the athletic director, yank anyone's scholarship or waterboard the officials.
That lack of murderous intent is not going to get it done in the SEC, Aggies.
You assume that we will stop laughing at them now? [ESPN]
In the end, it's pretty simple. This is what happens when you tell Aggie jokes for nearly a century.
Texas A&M took the last laugh on Sunday. After a century or so of being disrespected, teased, mocked and scorned, the Aggies had enough. How else to explain that the school would leave all that it left behind?
They were no more an equal partner to Texas in 2011 than they were in 2010. But the dispute over the ESPN-operated Longhorn Network served as the last bruise to Aggie Pride. And the Aggies without their pride aren't much more than Michigan State on the Brazos.
Texas A&M, like Michigan State, lives in the shadow of a sister public institution with a richer football tradition. Texas A&M, like Michigan State, has won one national championship (1939) and won it so long ago that no one remembers the players. Jarrin' John Kimbrough, anyone?
It is an ESPN conspiracy! The sports leader loves Texas and the Sooners, but the Aggies? Not so much. [ESPN]
Chuck Neinas is ready for the job. [Mercury News]
Neinas, who officially starts his job on Oct. 3, served as the Big Eight commissioner from 1971-80. But why join a conference under an interim term that has so many issues?
"It's going to sound corny but I can't help it. I have a strong affection for that conference," said Neinas, who owns a consulting firm that assists in coaching and administration hires, as well as assistance in TV negotiations. "The Big Eight was very good to me and people don't know this, but I was kind of in the background helping the Big 12 get formed too.
"I've got a lot of friends and people I've worked with for years who are involved and dad-gumit, if they think I can be of assistance, I'm willing to try."
The Big 12 Conference has been dysfunctional from the beginning. [Kansas City Star]
They became business decisions, which, as the schools left behind in the old Southwest Conference — TCU, Rice, Houston and SMU — learned were cold and heartless. It was in that environment the Big 12 was created.
Hey, TCU, don't get your hopes up. [Boston Herald]
The NCAA really should be involved in all this. [Forbes]
All this realignment mess really does matter to recruits. [ESPN]
TCU pledge Daje Johnson, a defensive back from Pflugerville, Texas, is doing just that. He turned down offers from the schools in the back of the Big 12 bus -- Baylor, Texas Tech, Iowa State and Kansas State -- for a chance to play in what he considered a more stable league.
Johnson picked TCU in part because of its move to the Big East. He wanted to play games on the East Coast so his mother, who lives in North Carolina, could travel more easily to see him.
"If something happens," Johnson said, "if they change from going to the Big East, it would probably make me reconsider."
The time is right for a playoff. [Yahoo Sports]
Superconferences benefit no one. Not the current members, not the new ones, not the coaches, not the players and certainly not the fans. They are arranged marriages of convenience designed to stave off the tumult in college athletics and maximize future revenues, essentially making the rich slightly richer in ways few will notice. They wreck traditions. They cast aside rivalries. They so gerrymander geography, politicians blush.
The uncertainty of the wild weeks that have seen college affiliations and loyalties shift again has created a similar feeling across the country among the many administrators, coaches and commissioners I’ve spoken with: It stinks. It’s ugly. It’s unnecessary.
There are some positives in college realignment. [National Championship Issue]
What do coaches say when they meet after a game? [KJRH]
Who is the most hated college football head coach? [The Lost Lettermen]
And finally...
This is what most of us are missing.
BDR doesn't endorse any of the rubbish out there in the interwebs, we just link to it. For a lot more daily rubbish on a somewhat timely basis, follow me on Twitter.com/dimecoverage.