The Big 12 may be doomed

[PrivateO]

Getting back into Colorado?

Ah, that's true. Forgot about them just losing Colorado.

Another possibility is Utah, if the Pac-10 balks on giving them an invite. Though from what's been reported, it's all but inevitable once the Texas schools make their decisions.

[KansasO'sFan]

Ah, that's true. Forgot about them just losing Colorado.

Another possibility is Utah, if the Pac-10 balks on giving them an invite. Though from what's been reported, it's all but inevitable once the Texas schools make their decisions.

Air Force would replace Colorado, BYU would replace Nebraska. Seems to me to be close to equal. Nebraska would have an edge in football, but other than that I don't see much difference.

[Birds of B'more]

My take on the apparent survival of the Big 12:

Winners

- Texas: They were going to come out winners no matter what. But now they may end up getting even more money than they would have in a Pac 16 and they still get to keep their King of the Hill (pun intended) status.

- Kansas, Kansas St, Iowa St and Baylor: I think Kansas might have landed in a BCS conference if the Big 12 dissolved, but now they all will get to keep their BCS status and money, even though they will likely never sniff a BCS bowl game.

- Nebraska: Sure, they'll have to fork over some cash now that I'm guessing they were hoping to avoid with the dissolution of the Big 12, but they will make more money in the long run and the Big 10 just seems like a much better fit for them.

- ACC/Big East: It looks like the SEC and (for the time being) the Big 10 will hold off on more expansion. So the ACC/BE conferences are safe for now and actually have a little more time to circle their ranks and maybe prevent a future poaching.

- Dan Beebe: He still has a job. 'Nuff said.

Losers

- Pac 10: Give them credit for being bold, but they have to feel like they have egg on their face right now. Plus, they're left with an uneven 11 schools, no championship game, and a dead-weight program like Colorado that brings nothing but a few TVs in the Denver market. I guess they could go after Utah now, but what a lousy consolation prize that would be. Which brings me to...

- Mountain West Conf.: They just added Boise to make a run at an automatic BCS berth. If they lose Utah now, it ends up being a push and they're right back where they started...on the outside looking in. And if the Big 12 actually decides to go back to being the Big 12, then look out, the MWC could be big in trouble.

- Colorado: Like Nebraska, they now have to pay to leave the Big 12. Unlike Nebraska, I don't know if they will be as good a fit in the Pac-10. We'll see though. Long-term there's a chance this could be better for them.

- Missouri: They practically begged for a Big 10 invite and were spurned. They hated the way the Big 12 treated them like a red-headed stepchild. What are the odds the rest of the conference is going to treat them like even less than that after all this? Pretty good, I'd say.

- Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, OK St: Maybe in the short term the money they get out of this new TV deal will be nice. But long-term I fail to see how it would be to their benefit to turn down the Pac-10 so that they can just continue to be Texas' b***h.

[PrivateO]

ON ESPNEWS BOTTOMLINE:

Texas will stay in the Big 12: Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott told the Dallas Morning News.

They declined the Pac-10 invite.

[Greg Pappas]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5286672

Texas will remain a Big 12 Conference member, the university announced on Monday.

Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott says Texas has turned down an invitation to leave the Big 12 and join his conference.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press, Scott confirms that Texas has rejected the Pac-10's offer.

The news first was reported by The Dallas Morning News.

[KansasO'sFan]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5286816

Apparently some powers-that-be didn't want any massive shifts in the college sports landscape. Wonder who it was?

In an unprecedented move, a number of influential people inside and outside of college athletics mobilized over the past week to save the Big 12 Conference, stave off the Pac-10's move to expand to 16 schools and prevent a massive reorganization of college athletics.

A high-level NCAA source with direct knowledge of what occurred told ESPN.com that the aggressiveness of the Pac-10 caused various factions of the collegiate sports world to coalesce. They then worked to slow and try to stop the pace of moves that would have left a number schools searching for a new conference home.

The source said the people involved were business executives, conference commissioners, athletic directors, network executives with ties throughout college athletics, administrators at many levels throughout the NCAA membership and a "fair number of them without a dog in the hunt."

[Orioles West]

One of the Utah sports blogs is suggesting the Utes have an invite to the Pac-10.

A report from the Denver Post said the breakdown with Texas was the refusal of the Pac-10 to accept a Texas only channel.

Interesting.

As someone who has been out here in Colorado a long time now, I think the smaller expansion will work for the Buffs and the Pac-10. Unless the Pac-10 now starts trying to invite more WAC and MWC schools to get to 14 or 16.

With the Utah rumor, I've also already seen several 'sources' post the new division of a Pac-12 would be north and south -- placing Colorado, Utah, Washington, WSU, Oregon and Oregon ST in one division, USC, UCLA, Arizona, ASU, Cal and Stanford in the 'south'.

[Orioles West]

Losers

- Colorado: Like Nebraska' date=' they now have to pay to leave the Big 12. Unlike Nebraska, I don't know if they will be as good a fit in the Pac-10. We'll see though. Long-term there's a chance this could be better for them.

[/quote']

The word is the Pac-10 will be helping with that escape clause payment.

And, while I agree Dan Hawkins has pulled the program down a few notches, Colorado isn't that far from the run that had them in the Big-12 Championship game three times in four years. The weirdest part of Colorado's fall, was the pipeline of Texas recruits drying up. Any chance of a rebuild seems to be recruiting California, where the few solid players they have are from.

To me, it makes sense, and in a selfish way, may end up being better for CU that the Texas cabal stayed home for Texas cable.

Pac-10 is still going to get a new TV deal, just not as pretty without the remnants of the old Southwest Conference in the bag.

-Don

[Birds of B'more]

The word is the Pac-10 will be helping with that escape clause payment.

And, while I agree Dan Hawkins has pulled the program down a few notches, Colorado isn't that far from the run that had them in the Big-12 Championship game three times in four years. The weirdest part of Colorado's fall, was the pipeline of Texas recruits drying up. Any chance of a rebuild seems to be recruiting California, where the few solid players they have are from.

To me, it makes sense, and in a selfish way, may end up being better for CU that the Texas cabal stayed home for Texas cable.

Pac-10 is still going to get a new TV deal, just not as pretty without the remnants of the old Southwest Conference in the bag.

-Don

It would surprise me if the Pac 10 is going to help Colorado pay that fee. A lot of these athletic departments are cash-strapped already. Of course if Uncle Phil is excited about having Colorado, then he may have cut a check to cover the Buffalo's exit fee already. But seriously, I do agree that at least culturally Colorado is a better fit in the Pac 10. Boulder is a lot more like Berkeley and Eugene than it is Norman and Lubbock. I'll be interested in seeing what the Pac 10 can get for a new TV deal. The last one was pretty terrible. But part of that was due to the conference's inflexibility in doing things to accommodate their TV partners....like playing more Thursday night football games or Monday night basketball games. The schools seem more willing to bend on that now, so that should help. But everything I've read says Colorado isn't going to bring the TV viewers that the numbers in the Denver market suggest it might.

As for Utah, I kind of hope the Pac 10 decides instead to sit back and wait. A major reason the Big 12 almost died was the acrimony between the schools due to the favoritism shown to Texas. The reports suggest that even though this new Big 12 TV deal (and I think the math sounds pretty fuzzy anyway) will pay all of the schools more than what they got before, both the money and power will still be heavily skewed towards Texas. If I'm the Pac-10, I just hold off and wait a couple of years....the opportunity to go to 16 could very well present itself again soon.

[RShack]

the opportunity to go to 16 could very well present itself again soon.

Doesn't mean it's a good idea. I think it's too big...

[RShack]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5286816

Apparently some powers-that-be didn't want any massive shifts in the college sports landscape. Wonder who it was?

Sounds like it was a gathering of more-than-several influential people. Sounds like they didn't want the PAC-10 rocking the boat. The BCS schools already have a gold mine, but they're facing increasing crap about the BCS charade that lets them keep most of the money away from other schools. If they now went and upset the apple cart for other schools and conferences, that would just create more animosity towards the guys who have the gold mine. Sooner or later, some smart lawyer is gonna find a way to make them share the money rather than keep it all for themselves, and getting lots of people pissed off would just make that day come sooner...

[carolinaoriole]

Sounds like it was a gathering of more-than-several influential people. Sounds like they didn't want the PAC-10 rocking the boat. The BCS schools already have a gold mine, but they're facing increasing crap about the BCS charade that lets them keep most of the money away from other schools. If they now went and upset the apple cart for other schools and conferences, that would just create more animosity towards the guys who have the gold mine. Sooner or later, some smart lawyer is gonna find a way to make them share the money rather than keep it all for themselves, and getting lots of people pissed off would just make that day come sooner...

I would bet money that one of them was Jerry Jones.

He is a huge supporter of the big 12.

[carolinaoriole]

My take on the apparent survival of the Big 12:

Winners

- Texas: They were going to come out winners no matter what. But now they may end up getting even more money than they would have in a Pac 16 and they still get to keep their King of the Hill (pun intended) status.

- Kansas' date=' Kansas St, Iowa St and Baylor: I think Kansas might have landed in a BCS conference if the Big 12 dissolved, but now they all will get to keep their BCS status and money, even though they will likely never sniff a BCS bowl game.

- Nebraska: Sure, they'll have to fork over some cash now that I'm guessing they were hoping to avoid with the dissolution of the Big 12, but they will make more money in the long run and the Big 10 just seems like a much better fit for them.

- ACC/Big East: It looks like the SEC and (for the time being) the Big 10 will hold off on more expansion. So the ACC/BE conferences are safe for now and actually have a little more time to circle their ranks and maybe prevent a future poaching.

- Dan Beebe: He still has a job. 'Nuff said.

[u']Losers[/u]

- Pac 10: Give them credit for being bold, but they have to feel like they have egg on their face right now. Plus, they're left with an uneven 11 schools, no championship game, and a dead-weight program like Colorado that brings nothing but a few TVs in the Denver market. I guess they could go after Utah now, but what a lousy consolation prize that would be. Which brings me to...

- Mountain West Conf.: They just added Boise to make a run at an automatic BCS berth. If they lose Utah now, it ends up being a push and they're right back where they started...on the outside looking in. And if the Big 12 actually decides to go back to being the Big 12, then look out, the MWC could be big in trouble.

- Colorado: Like Nebraska, they now have to pay to leave the Big 12. Unlike Nebraska, I don't know if they will be as good a fit in the Pac-10. We'll see though. Long-term there's a chance this could be better for them.

- Missouri: They practically begged for a Big 10 invite and were spurned. They hated the way the Big 12 treated them like a red-headed stepchild. What are the odds the rest of the conference is going to treat them like even less than that after all this? Pretty good, I'd say.

- Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, OK St: Maybe in the short term the money they get out of this new TV deal will be nice. But long-term I fail to see how it would be to their benefit to turn down the Pac-10 so that they can just continue to be Texas' b***h.

Winners - USC , with all the problems they have right now the last thing they needed was texas getting a bigger shot at recruiting California as a pac 10 member.

And Notre Dame a winner because maybe this will take some of the pressure off and they can remain independent.

[Birds of B'more]

I would bet money that one of them was Jerry Jones.

He is a huge supporter of the big 12.

He's probably the guy trying to get Arkansas (his alma mater) out of the SEC too. Seriously, I think the Big 12 Championship Games were agreed to be played at Jerryland through 2014, right before all this started going down. As it stands now, after this coming season there won't even be a Big 12 Championship Game. You can bet JJ will use whatever influence he has to get the membership back to 12 schools ASAP.

[Birds of B'more]

Doesn't mean it's a good idea. I think it's too big...

I think it was a good idea, and it could work if you have the right schools. But college sports just wasn't ready for it yet.