yeah, good luck with that i'm guessing the releases that were already signed amongst the schools were mutual releases.
Yes, SEC all the way. Going to be the best option for us with all that has gone on. That said, if this goes down, some in the Big XII should be thanking A&M for causing this and giving the Big XII more stability as a result of Beebe being gone and Texas making serious concessions on the LHN (still have doubts on them doing much of that). If the Pac doesn't want OU/OSU/TT, then Texas still holds all the leverage over everyone not named A&M so why would they make the major concessions needed.
billyliucci Billy Liucci Latest Big 12 'Hail Mary' thrown up not by Dan Beebe but by Texas. Staying in Big 12 (sans A&M, of course) still Horns' preference richardjustice Richard Justice Some believe DeLoss Dodds doesn't want TCU in Big 12. RT @gottahavajava: @richardjustice How about TCU, Louisville and BYU to big 12?
if it goes down like this....i gotta say, i'll be really sad to see the Ags go. i give them hell, but that's the point...i KNOW aggies. i have friends who went there. i work with aggies. that's what is fun about college sports...the rivalries. they return the hell, too. they live next door. i'll be sad to see all of that just disappear with A&M.
I believe this. Sadly, no seat for UH unless Texas goes to bat for us over TCU. I'd take Cinci over WVU, personally, though. I hope they stay at 12 and let CUSA absorb the leftovers so they can remain viable.
Completely agree. Too bad all of this had to happen. Too bad Nebraska got ticked off at UT and left last year.
I haven't been following all of this, but why does UT care if the Big 12 stays together? Can't they just try and pull a Notre Dame - independent football, [conference x] basketball? And keep and grow the LHN? The economic realities supporting the LHN haven't changed - UT still has the largest fanbase of the Big 12 schools. I'm not saying this is what I want to happen, or that UT execs should be saying "f-you" to other schools, but it's not entirely clear to me why they would be willing to make a bunch of concessions?
For anyone still wondering if the LHN was a legitimate source of problems and if ESPN/UT were upfront about what they were going to create, this answers that. It's clear that the ESPN conflict of interest between its partnership with the Big12 and its promotion of LHN is a problem of some sort, at least to OU.
All true except why do they want to go thru the trouble growing as an independent? They already have everything as top dog in the big 12.
WVU, Louiville and BYU would all be great additions. All get 50-60K fans a game. All a part of new markets in decent sized states and 2 of which come from a BCS conference.
Louisville and Cincinatti have traditionally hovered around 35K. For some reason, Louisiville's attendance shot up to 50K last year, by far the largest increase in the entire NCAA. Not sure how they pulled that off, but temper your expectations for them both. It's amazing to me what short memories people have, and how perception can become reality... just 5 years ago people would've spit on those programs as members of the Big 12. But since they've been part of the Big East for a few years, now they're respectable to a lot of people. Blows my mind. Fun to look at: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/Attendance/2010.pdf
I don't think "possible replacements" equates to "hot ****". 2010 Attendance BYU: 61K Loui: 50K WV: 56L TCU: 42 Tempering expectations for a 1 year increase for Louisville would also effect the attractiveness of UH considering their attendance was 25K in 09 and shot up to 32 last year. The few years before that they averaged about 20K. And then in 05 when they averaged 15K.
People, not singling out you here (although "great additions" irks me), seem very hot to trot about adding programs from the Big East that are literally ghosts of CUSA. To see people singing this tune when not but 5-6 years ago they would've spat at them bugs me. It exemplifies how the conference system is so broken. Yes, but what do BYU and WV have to do with your post? Where's Cinci? TCU (whom we also weren't talking about) is peaking, but attendance has always been an issue for them (even during this great run of theirs they've been hovering at 30K). I hope for their sake they've established a good baseline now though. I know they were working on stadium renovations recently, that is a big help. That is also what makes Louisville a good option. Who was talking about UH? Cinci averaged 20K in 04, and even during their undefeated, BCS run, they only pulled 30K. And that's not because of limitations of stadium size, either. (Although Nippert only holds 35K, anyway) If you want to talk about UH, then let's do it like this... UH *and* TCU would see massive boosts in attendance from Big 12 inclusion, and it's not really a secret why. UT/OU/TTU and other local programs stir up a *lot* more interest. Programs like Cincinatti and Louisville would not. Sure, a visit from a top 10 ranked team might bring out some more casual fans, but nothing like what even a mediocre local team coming to Houston or Dallas would do. People also tune in on TV. So, while it might seem like a bright idea to go the "new market" route, to me it seems short sighted compared to the potential of what you could do locally. If you want to say UH isn't good enough academically, ok, cool. If you want to say UH's facilities aren't good enough, ok, cool (even though that argument is essentially squashed by Reliant and the impending construction of new stadiums). But if you want to say that UH can't be trusted to put butts in the seats or eyes on the TV, I have to object. And doubly so for TCU. We have the case studies for this stuff (62K people showed up to see UH and TCU play each other in 2007, UH v TTU pulled great numbers on ESPN2 while airing at freaking 10PM, TCU v Baylor drew great numbers as well), and there's nothing to suggest that attendance or viewership would be a liability (if not actually an asset!) for either school in the Big 12.
Saving the Big12 seems to create problems for Missouri and WVU. Those seem like the two obvious choices for the SEC, who's clearly going to add 1 more team. With the ACC now unpoachable, I don't see who else is appealing for them. SEC seems like they prefer Missouri. But if Missouri works to save the Big12, then WVU seems to be SEC-bound, but WVU seems to be a key piece of saving the Big12. From WVU's perspective, if the Big12 gets saved, they probably can go to the SEC; but if the Big12 doesn't get saved, they probably end up in the merged Big12/BigEast as Mizzou gets that invite. Also amusing that the school supposedly rejected by the SEC and ACC thus far is the hot commodity that might help save of the Big12.
It does suck. I'm still hoping A&M/UT schedules an OOC game. Will be dumb if A&M doesn't play one major texas college. Mizzou to the SEC is picking up steam. While better than WVU, they're also one B1G invite away from ditching as well.
