MU -> SEC: Inevitable Imminent

Only good news is this will be over soon. Louisville will be a more than adequate replacement once the TX pipeline stops for MU and opens for UL. I've also liked BYU from the beginning but would be excited about UL basketball (definitely an upgrade over MU).
 
As the heart of the Big 12 continues to be cut out of the conference, losing a great school like Missouri, only to be (likely) replaced by a commuter city-school from the Big East, I continually get mental images from the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the Black Knight gets his arm completely cut off, there's blood spurting out the stub, and the now one-armed Knight says, "Tis but a scratch! Fight me!", as he waves around his sword with his uninjured arm. "Your arm's cut off!," says Arthur. "No, it isn't," says the Black Knight.So Arthur swooshes down with his saber a second time, cutting off the Black Knight's other arm, then proclaiming, "Victory is mine!" But the Black Knight, now armless, kicks Arthur in the head with his foot. As the Black Knight continues kicking Arthur, Arthur points out to the Black Knight that he has no arms. The Black Knight, blood spurting from the remains of his missing arms, says, "Yes I have, it's only a flesh wound," continuing to kick Arthur.Arthur's slashes a third time, cutting off one of the Black Knight's legs, who says, "I'm invincible!", and who, armless and hopping on one leg, begins to head-butt Arthur.

Cutting with his sword a fourth time, Arthur removes the Black Knight's last remaining limb, rendering the Black Knight a quadriplegic. On the ground, limbless, the Black Knight surveys his situation, looks up at Arther, and says, "We'll call it a draw", as Arthur crosses the bridge and leaves.

Like the wounded Black Knight, the Big 12 has now lost many of its vital limbs; to-wit:

05. Texas: 100,654
11. Nebraska: 85,664
12. Oklahoma: 84,738
13. Texas A&M: 82,447
26. Missouri: 61,540
32. Texas Tech: 57,108
41. Oklahoma State: 50,812
43. Kansas State: 49,816
48. Colorado: 46,864
54. Iowa State: 45,395
55. Kansas: 44,851
61. Baylor: 40,043

We have replaced one of those teams with:

56. TCU: 42,466 (35,500 for 2011, in 3 games)

We are thinking of adding this team next:

42. Louisville: 50,648 (49,000 for 2011, in 3 games)

You simply cannot add a #56 and a #42 and pretend they are equal in measure to a #11 and a #13. That is not a win, nor is it a draw.

Look, Texas is determined to stay in the B2. We're going to add more mid-majors from the Big East and Mountain West. And it's completely okay to want Texas to remain a part of the B2, regardless of who is added. As rational Longhorn fans, however, we really shouldn't be sugar-coating these additions as something "equal to or better than" what we lost. It is delusional.

It's ok to admit the conference is less than it was, it really is. As long as Texas and OU hang out, there will be a B2 conference. But we don't have to pretend the new B2 is something equal to, or more than, what it was. Without Texas and OU, the B2 is right around the level of the Big East. How can it be otherwise when we're adding teams from the Big East and Mountain West? With Texas and OU, the B2 is right around, maybe just above, maybe not, ACC level, at best. This is just reality.

Let me put it in football terms. Do you remember the A&M v. OU game a few years back where OU beat the aggy something like 77-0? And then, at the very end of the game, with less than a minute remaining in the game, an aggy DL sacked the OU QB and started dancing around, waving his arms, like the aggy had just won the game? Was his name Jolly? That aggy looked absolutely ridiculous, remember?

We don't have to emulate the aggy and we don't have to emulate the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, who screams out, while laying on the ground with no arms and no legs: "Come back here, you coward, and I'll bite your legs off!"

We're Longhorns. We don't need to act like we're ridiculous. The Big 12 Conference is no more. It is ... something else now.
 
XOVER,

I THINK WE NEED ANOTHER THREAD REGARDING MIZZOU TO THE SEC. PLS MAKE SURE TO GIVE US YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE LHN. ALSO, PLS LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK POWERS AND DODDS SHOULD DO NOW. IF YOU HAVE A NEWSLETTER, PLS LET US KNOW HOW WE CAN SUBSCRIBE.

MUCH LOVE AND RESPECT.
 
Yea, I know WASHU. I've kind of developed a college football realignment neurosis.

It will self-heal once all the fun passes, I feel sure. And your attitude will pass as soon as the wine wears off in the morning. I feel sure of that, too.

I wonder: Why not just ignore threads that bear my handle? Lots of people do avoid them. It's a form of "voting with your fingers".

At any rate, no need to subscribe to my newsletter, which I do have. It's called "In the Stands", and can be located here for free. Now if you want to send me a few bucks anyway, we can make appropriate arrangements to accomplish that. Click my handle to send me an email for remittance information. You will then be notified each time I make a post.

In the meantime, I will be posting new information and giving my thoughts on that information. My thoughts may or may not be complimentary of Bill Powers or DeLoss Dodds, depending on if they say something like, "We didn't start this realignment, but we will finish it". Therefore, please accept my apologies in advance for all of my shortcomings.

By the way, do you oftentimes act out in public, WASHU? Or only when you're drinking?

Love your handle. Noam Chomsky, isn't it? MIT?
 
Its interesting that so far there has been no mention of how much it would cost A&M and Mizzou to leave the Big-12.

In addition to what mizzou has to pay for exit, Kansas City stands to lose a fair bit too!
 
XOVER -- I enjoy your posts. Keep writing them. Well written, well argued and devoid of bile and adolescent chest-thumping. In short, the opposite of anything Wash-U writes, which is why I have taken your advice to him and I ignore his posts.

FWIW, I agree with your analysis that the big 12 is clearly diminished, and that anyone who disagrees on that score is simply delusional. There is just no rational argument that TCU and some combination of the following mid-majors (Lou/BYU/SMU/Tulane/Rice/UH/etc) is an UPGRADE over Nebraska, aTm, CU and Missou. Facts are facts. In terms of school size, prestige, national following, fanbases, research dollars, budgets, stadium sizes, facilities, etc etc etc -- in short, every metric imaginable -- that list of mid-majors doesn't even compare to the flagship institutions we have lost.

Where I might disagree is that UT should just learn to live with this chain of events and make the best of it. Shoring up the Big 12 with assignments of TV rights for 6 years and increased penalties in order to entice more mid-major wannabes into the fold is just lashing ourselves to mediocrity for the forseeable future.

Until we get a playoff, college football is a beauty contest, and contests have judges (media, talking heads, voters, etc). Those judges are not going to respect a program that intentially spurned more competitive pastures and restocked their conference with glorified Div II schools (whether its because we are "skeered" as SEC fans allege or just greedy for LHN lucre won't matter). Going undefeated against a schedule of mostly former mid-majors won't get us much -- 1-loss SEC teams will get the nod over us, something that never happened with the old Big 12 makeup. On top of that, its boring. Spending 9 months of the year qwaiting for college football season to arrive, only to have 10 of the 12 weeks of your schedule come against lackluster nobodies that the national media won't cover and the local fanbase won't get amped about is just a real downer.

So, for my part, I'd rather just cut the cord than spend the next 6 years competiing with OU to see who gets to be "King of the Dipshits."
 
XOVER, thank you very much for your insight. I have to agree with just about everything that you have said. Some people seem to think that this conference is improving by replacing the fleeting schools with smaller, less prestigious ones. I'm not sure why, but some people do.
 
The B12 is over, it's dead. When idiots are getting excited about BYU and Louisville- it means its time to leave the party. Fun while it lasted.

The smart thing would be to collect the early departure fees of atm and Mizzou, and then bolt ourselves with OU, OSu and TT (if the Pac 12 will take them)
smile.gif
 
Gone To Texas: No, that 50,812 number is OSU's average attendance per game for 2010 according to the NCAA official statistics, not stadium capacity.

Zona Horn: Man, you really put your finger on the problem that Texas is creating for itself: diminishing brand, and therefore potential decline.

I know it angers many people, but if Texas does enter a period of decline, it will be due to a weakness of leadership.

I really, really want the LHN to succeed, and therefore I hope our leaders (Powers and Dodds) have plumbed the continuation of the LHN with every conference out there, including the SEC and the B1G, before we merrily go along with membership in the B2.

Powers' recent comments seem to confirm negotiations with the ACC and the PAC, but the details are unknown with respect to the ACC, except that the ACC didn't want TT. It appears the LHN did preclude a movement to the PAC this year, best I can tell.
 
If we bring in Louisville, and West Virginia....do you think that can entice Notre Dame to step into our conference?
 
We're already trying to entice ND as a non-football member. We'll see how that goes since the BE is getting more watered down than even the B2. Non-football affiliation might be possible, maybe. But there's no obvious chatter I can find about that other than something a few weeks ago that Texas would "talk" to ND about non-football affiliation.

As for a full membership, highly doubtful ND give the B2 the time of day. From what I've read in the recent past, ND seems to be leaning toward the ACC; however, if I were betting money, I would bet ND eventually goes to the B1G.
 
Well there if Texas goes down, then so does OU. The same forces that will be working against Texas will also be against OU.

In a way after all this is said and done, Texas and OU could emerge either as winners or losers.

Losers of course because they may face a period of decline, Winners in that only 3 super-premium programs will be left out there for conferences to try and add, Texas, OU, and ND.

That could give these schools a pretty strong hand when it comes to negotiating with another conference for membership. I mean what if B1G and PAC both realize that they need to add Texas and OU?

Now OU is saddled with Okie State at least until Pickens is alive, but after that, unless there is some state law prohibiting their move without OSU, I think OU will be able to switch conferences without having to drag in OSU, that will be a huge plus for OU.

Texas is saddled with the LHN which is probably no easier to give up right now, than it is for OU to dump OSU, but Texas has maybe a little more flexibility in morphing/merging the LHN into a conference network, if ever the need arises.

Tech may try to ride Texas' coattails, but unless a Pickens like sugar daddy comes along for them, I doubt they'll have much success keeping Texas from dumping them, if that is what Texas decides it needs to do.

One of the reasons I am not too keen on having too many Texas teams in the reformed Big-12 is that the more Texas teams there are, the more pressure could be brought to bear upon Texas not to leave or take along one or more teams to the new conference.

A&M is lucky in that they are getting away with no political pressure at all. That may not be the case if ever Texas has to go to a new conference.
 
One way to alleviate a decline in strength of conference is upgrade out of conference.

Seems we are doing that with games against Cal, USC, Notre Dame. Plus we have games still slated for Arkansas, Maryland, Ole Miss, and BYU.
 
Of the teams you just mentioned, how many are currently ranked? Not exactly stiff competition, but maybe they will be by the time that we play them. When you have power programs in your conference, you have a better chance of playing quality opponents rather than hoping future OOC schedules will provide one.
 
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