[College Football] Big Ten, Texas have initial talks

I don't see Arkansas leaving the SEC.

 

Isn't USC expecting sanctions soon? (CU would fit perfectly! Then again, Baylor is currently under probation though, so never mind.)

 

And STILL made the Elite Eight!

Last year of probation...ends in December

 

The SEC makes plenty of money and is a very healthy conference going forward. There's no reason for Arkansas to leave it for the Pac10 and deal with all the logistics of going cross-country. The B12 is ripe for picking because it's financially a bit of a mess.

 

Guess what school has slashed their athletic spending the most....

 

LOL

we couldn't get any decent scholarship players anyway, but this is just another blow to the ongoing joke that is CU athletics

 

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/cont.../06/08/its_pac10s_call.html?srcTrk=RTR_661354

It’s Pac-10’s call on Baylor
By Kirk Bohls | Tuesday, June 8, 2010, 05:00 PM

Speculation that Texas is calling all the shots and will determine whether Baylor is included among the Big 12 contingent that could be invited to the Pac 10 Conference is untrue, one Texas school administrator said.

“They’re the ones (doing the) inviting,” the school official said of the Pac 10 on Tuesday. “The people in power at Baylor are not saying that (it’s up to Texas).” If the Big 12 dissolves because Nebraska and Missouri continue to entertain hopes of joining the Big Ten, the Pac 10 would have some tough decisions to make and might have to choose between Baylor and Colorado.

Baylor has mobilized support from pro-Baylor legislators and high-profile Bears supporters like Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane for its inclusion in the Pac 10, along with Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

The Pac 10 probably prefers Colorado because of the Denver market, but as one Big 12 athletic director told me, “I don’t think they carry that market. It’s a pro sports town.”

Even if the final call is up to the Pac 10, most figure Texas will have some or a lot of say in who goes and who doesn’t.

“I’ve heard Texas is so extremely influential,” a Big 12 official said, “if they wanted to bring Stephen F. Austin with them, it could.”

 

Colorado had a girl kicker. Its all up hill from there.

 

She transferred to New Mexico because she said she was raped by CU football players.

 

What hurts u of h sports as much as anything is the lack of a big conf affiliation. Sure they had some lean years before the end of the swc, but when the coogs have been good,, they have filled stadiums althbeit the outdated ones.

 

Thanks for the updates guys! Keep em coming

This is nerve-racking for me!

 

from another board:

http://www.shaggybevo.com/board/showthread.php/59394-Spoke-briefly-with-Bill-Powers

however unlikely it's at least interesting.

 

Please refrain from bringing up "schools" like UH and Arkansas in this discussion. UH brings nothing to the table and Arkie has no interest in leaving the SEC (and why would Texas have any interest in bringing back into the fold the school that ultimately led to the demise of the SWC?).


Bad timing on "sanctions" for CU (for those who actually care). The Baylor issue is intriguing. The Bible-Thumpers don't really fit any aspect of life out West. Of course, by the same token, it would be interesting to watch the fan reaction in Berkeley and/or Palo Alto to the Milkmen and Sheep "Hearders" from Bryan Station, right? Pure comedy gold? I think so...

 

awesome! not sure how i missed this

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/justice/7043406.html

Commentary
Big 12 needs to keep Baylor at the table
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
June 8, 2010, 11:08PM

Please don't throw Baylor University overboard. Please, please, please. Baylor deserves better.

Baylor has come too far and has too much to offer. Baylor deserves to be rewarded, not punished.

In some ways, Baylor is a bright and shining light for what college sports ought to be about. If you're rolling your eyes, you haven't been paying attention. Baylor today isn't Baylor of yesterday.

Baylor has first-rate facilities and academics. Baylor has competitive teams, too. OK, other than in football.

Even football has become interesting under Art Briles. The Bears have an electrifying quarterback in Robert Griffin and an entertaining product.

Baylor's climb to respectability provides a road map for Houston, Rice and every other school that would like to make itself relevant. Instead of cursing the darkness, Baylor lit candles.

Baylor raised $62 million to upgrade its facilities the last decade. Baylor has led the Big 12 in graduation rates three of the last four years. Ninety-two percent of Baylor's student-athletes who complete their eligibility get degrees.

Remember March Madness? It might have been Baylor's finest hour with that ocean of green and gold following the Bears and Lady Bears through the NCAA basketball tournaments. There was a spark lit in the hearts and minds of Baylor alums around the state.

Those basketball teams were symbolic of a rebirth. Only Texas and Texas A&M have won more Big 12 championships the last seven years, and 15 of Baylor's 18 varsity teams played in the postseason in 2009- 10.

Duke game well-watched
Last March's Baylor-Duke men's game was the highest rated NCAA Tournament game since 2005, excluding the Final Four.

Yes, Baylor will remain vulnerable until it wins more football games and sells more tickets. But to throw away a school that has remade itself the right way would send a terrible message about the state of college sports.

And it doesn't have to happen. Texas is the school with the power and the appeal, and Texas can protect Baylor. “No Baylor, no Texas“ ought to be the message from the Longhorns.

This is an economic issue for the state of Texas, too. Baylor president Ken Starr this week quoted from a study claiming Baylor's teams “had a $155.6 million impact on the greater Waco economy during the 2008 calendar year.”

Besides, keeping Baylor makes sense for the Longhorns. Texas could go to the Pac-10 and still keep most of its same schedule and travel. For Texas, insisting on Baylor instead of Colorado is a no-brainer — and the right thing to do.

The Big 12 is on the verge of coming apart for many reasons. One is a stunning lack of leadership and vision from commissioner Dan Beebe. If the conference somehow survives, Beebe must go.

The Big 12 needs vision and innovation. Hey, Dan, how about you raid another conference for once? How about Arkansas, Dan? Or TCU. Or Utah. Go get two more schools, and start your own television network.

So we're a bit egotistical
And isn't there a way to get Texas and Nebraska into a room and work out their differences?

Nebraska apparently resents Texas' power and influence. Some Nebraska journalists have suggested there's a touch of arrogance in the way Texas does business.

OK, they've got us on that one, but is that enough of a reason to leave?

If Nebraska goes to the Big Ten because it can double its television revenues, that's a legitimate reason. If that happens, Texas will strike a deal with the Pac-10, and the Big 12 will be a memory. Is all of this a cash grab? Yes, it is. Is there anything wrong with that? Absolutely not.

Big 12 teams can double or triple their television money by going elsewhere, and that money funds the golf, tennis, swimming and baseball teams.

At a time when schools are being battered economically, it's unconscionable to ask them to subsidize sports programs.

When you think of the NCAA, you might think of John Calipari or football coaches making $6 million. On the ground level, though, the NCAA gives thousands of kids the opportunity to attend college.

These are tough, scary times at Texas Tech and Texas A&M, where budgets are tight and tough decisions could be forced. If you're the parent of a Division I golfer or swimmer or tennis player, you're hoping and praying that the next budget knife that falls isn't on your kid's team.

Chance to hang on
Perhaps the Big 12 will survive. That could happen if the Big Ten decides to add only Notre Dame or if Nebraska decides to stay.

Regardless, Baylor shouldn't be left behind. Baylor ought to be as joined at the hip with Texas as Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Baylor matters.

 

i saw on ESPN this morning that some Big XII rep believed Nebraska was leaving for the Big Ten by Friday.

EDIT: and here it is from the Omaha newspaper:

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100608/NEWS01/100609687#nu-to-big-10-as-early-as-friday

Published Wednesday June 9, 2010

NU to Big 10 as early as Friday?
By Lee Barfknecht
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU


LINCOLN — An executive at a Big 12 school relayed to The World-Herald on Tuesday that he expects Nebraska to become a member of the Big Ten as early as Friday.

NU Chancellor Harvey Perlman has declined all interviews about conference realignment and expansion. He is expected to address the topic with the Board of Regents at its Friday meeting in Lincoln.

Direct confirmation from Nebraska of a conference change for the Huskers wasn't immediately available. Sources at two other Big 12 schools told The World-Herald that their athletic directors have instructed them to be ready by week's end for a briefing on probable Big 12 changes.

Nebraska A.D. Tom Osborne offered implicit confirmation Tuesday night that the timetable on national conference realignment has been accelerated.

 

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100609/NEWS03/706099921#big-12-breakup-a-federal-case

Published Wednesday June 9, 2010

Big 12 breakup a federal case?
By Joseph Morton
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU


That's what Nebraska's U.S. senators are hearing from their Kansas colleagues at the Capitol. The Kansans fear that a Big Red departure from the Big 12 could spell the league's doom and leave their beloved Kansas Jayhawks and Kansas State Wildcats shivering in the cold without a major conference to call home.

If that happens, at least two lawmakers — one from Kansas, the other from Iowa — suggested that congressional action is possible.

On Tuesday, Sen. Pat Roberts, Wildcat Republican, buttonholed Sen. Ben Nelson, Husker Democrat, addressing him in a hallway just off the Senate floor.

“Don't be the domino that blows college football up into four major conferences and gets rid of the NCAA,” a World-Herald reporter heard the Kansas senator tell Nelson. “It isn't going to do anybody any good when those dominoes start falling.”

Roberts added, in apparent reference to Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne: “He doesn't want on his tombstone ‘He ruined the Big 12.'”

Nelson, for his part, deferred: “I just have a lot of confidence in Coach Osborne to make the right decision, ultimately.”

Roberts then asked about the timing of Nebraska's decision.

“He didn't give me a time frame,” Nelson said.

“Well, even Turner Gill is saying ‘Hey, don't do this,” Roberts said. Gill, a former Nebraska quarterback, now coaches the football team at Kansas, Nebraska's oldest football rival. The two teams have met 116 times, marking the country's third-longest series — and longest continuous one in college football's top division. That streak could end if Nebraska leaves for the Big Ten.

Roberts later told The World-Herald that if the Big 12 falls apart, Congress could act.

“There's going to be a lot of litigation, and then Congress will probably try to stick its nose into it,” Roberts said. “I would prefer that that not be the case, but there have always been antitrust concerns.”

Roberts suggested a Big 12 break-up could result in only four major conferences and even the demise of the NCAA.

“I think the big concern here that Congress could take a look at is how the network television contracts are driving different schools to consider different conferences to attract the money — and those that will be in those big conferences, or super conferences, will get the money and others won't,” Roberts said.

Roberts planned to call Osborne himself Tuesday afternoon. Osborne, who served six years in the House of Representatives before becoming NU's athletic director, did not respond to a World-Herald request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Roberts' home-state colleague, too, has lobbied for Nebraska to stay put. Sen. Sam Brownback is a Republican with Jayhawk and Wildcat degrees.

The two wrote a joint press release Tuesday, saying, “Students, fans, and alumni on both sides of the Kansas-Nebraska state line take great pride in competing against Big 12 Conference members within a three and a half hour drive from the home field, close enough for family, friends and fellow students to be able to attend the game.”

Sen. Mike Johanns, a Husker Republican — though he graduated from St. Mary's University and Creighton — said he'll root for Nebraska regardless of the conference in which it competes.

“This is a decision that should be weighed carefully by individual universities and not subject to meddling by the federal government,” Johanns said. “I reached an agreement with Tom Osborne a while back — I won't tell him how to run the football program if he doesn't tell me how to be senator.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, a (Northern Iowa) Panther and (Iowa) Hawkeye Republican, said the situation bears watching by Congress.

“It seems premature for the federal government to intervene at this point, but there is precedent to get involved in sports matters,” Grassley said.

Roberts isn't just twisting Nebraska arms on the issue. He has urged Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas to give Longhorns football coach Mack Brown a call.

And Roberts plans to ring up Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds, who previously held the same position at K-State.

His message: “Look before you leap.”

 

It's laughable that people keep bringing up "end of rivalry game" arguments. Ummmm...that didn't hurt Texas-OU for almost a century. People do realize Texas and OU have been in the same conference since 1996, right?

 

Pat Roberts sounds like a desperate man and it's a shame he's threatening government action. I doubt it helps his cause. I don't like what all of this might do to KU & KSU, but so be it.

RIP Big 12.