Do you remember the last realignment era and how salty, sh*tty, and overall hyper-defensive the Big 12 fans were about people doubting the long-term viability of their conference? It's so funny to me to see some of those same fans who were so adamant that there was nothing to worry about now suddenly acting like "welp we all saw this coming". Yeah, sure ya did.
The best analogy I've heard is that TAMU worked so hard for so long to find a nice place on the water to retire in peace, and then UT helicopters in and drops a mansion in front of their property blocking their ocean-front view.
I think that was all mostly a headfake. I think UT feels about the PAC the same way I do. It's a low-ceiling conference. Yall need to secretly cahoot with OU to go back to the Big 12 and leave Texas alone in the SEC. The ol' rope a dope, CFB style. There's one problem with the super conference model, and that's the zero-sum problem. If you put together a conference of 16 teams, 10+ of which have expectations of winning conference titles every 5 years and Nattys every 10... you start to see where things might go awry. Money means a lot, but like, if you're crowded out of glory for 20... 30... 40 years? That's a lot to stomach. I think 12 is the right number, but without a governing body to mandate and organize it, it's not gonna happen across the board.
A super league would basically just turn into the Premier League. One table of very rich teams improving around the margins every year and occasionally making a championship run every now and then. It'd be fun if there was a smaller "super league" where the bottom teams were relegated back to the conferences and new conference champions were promoted every season.
The promotion-relegation model is perfect for NCAA football but it will never come to pass without a powerful central governing authority. Sigh
I think if you're a part of a conference that can be effectively torpedoed by one member means you're probably their b****. Not sure how culpable OU is in all of this, but the rest of the 8 are their b**** too, it seems.
Wasn't one of them but to be fair, the Big 12 could have had (and maybe still could) long-term viability as long as Texas/OU stayed. This is like Michigan St. and Purdue leaving the Big 10 and people saying the conference is doomed. Then having Ohio State and Michigan all of a sudden leave a decade later and coming back to say I told you so. But you are absolutely right, they got complacent and were reactive on everything which is a recipe for disaster in college athletics. So it was only a matter of time before the current set blown up.
OU/UT holding the conference together is an inherently unstable arrangement, as we are seeing in real time now. It was unstable before they left, now it's just even less stable.
I'm not even close to an A&M fan but I would definitely find it annoying following me where I go. Could A&M move to the Big 10? Nebraska is only 2 states over
Yup but isn’t this true for all conferences outside the SEC? Pull the 2 biggest schools from any conference and it’s effectively on life support. Edit: Actually think the PAC would be the safest in this hypo based on geography alone.
This x1000. But you now feel sorry for the Baylors and co. who SWORE UP AND DOWN the Big 12 was as viable as any other conference. This thread is like the END GAME to the old thread's s Infinity Wars, lulz.
Better it’s the SEC than PAC ##…. The SEC is the undisputed elite football conference. They are head and shoulders the premier show. And now with Texas and Oklahoma, they got that much more elite. The PAC 10 is solid and is a distant number 2, and they just got even further separated in quality. Gesh, with the SEC set, why even have the other schools compete?
They were pretty far along that path, if I remember right. The two things that killed it were an inability to sort out LHN and lawmakers throwing fits about Baylor being left behind. https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...30-minutes-of-leaving-for-the-pac-10-in-2010/ At the time, there were reports that Oklahoma (as well as Texas, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Texas Tech) could be leaving to join Colorado in the Pac-10 to help form the first "super conference" of 16 teams. Obviously, it didn't happen, but the possibility may have been closer than you think. ... The Big 12’s dysfunction is no secret. An Oklahoma source told CBS Sports that the school was “within 30 minutes” of leaving for the Pac-10 in 2010. That’s a reference to Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott’s reported interest in raiding of six Big 12 teams in June of that year to form a Pac-16. According to Dodd, both Texas and Oklahoma -- the Big 12's most valued properties -- were close to leaving in 2010 and 2011. Ultimately, the Pac-10 would not allow Texas to move the Longhorn Network west. The rightsholders -- ESPN and Fox -- also promised the Big 12 the same money for 10 teams as they were paying for 12. That hammered home the point that any conference with Texas and Oklahoma in it was worth saving. That's basically why the Big 12 still exists today, surviving through two rounds of conference realignment earlier this decade. https://www.sbnation.com/2010/6/5/1503382/baylor-pac-10-expansion-colorado-texas-legislature-big-12 Report: Texas Legislature Pushing For Baylor To Replace Colorado In Possible Pac-10 Expansion
It seems your issue here would be with the A&M President. He's the one upset that UT would go to the SEC because their primary reason for leaving was to get out of UT's shadow.