[College Football] Big Ten, Texas have initial talks

This whole thing is a just a mess... I would just go to the Pac-10 and get it over with though.

 

At first, the barrage of news update on the expansion is exciting, intriguing, and almost addicting in some ways. I find myself refreshing clutchfans/orangeblood/twitter/espn/si nonstop getting my most current fix on the status of the expansion.

Now the freshness of it is wearing off. All the possible scenarios have been said and rehashed dozens of times by different sources. Keeping myself constantly updated to all the rumors are just exhausting

 

sounds like smoke screens... bidding war to see what big 10, pac 10, & sec can offer.

 

It's Summer, the Astros suck, The Rockets can't do anything much till the draft or July 1st.

This is the most entertaining scenario I can imagine for June. Big time power brokers with their panties in a wad ,,, and leaking every rumor.

This is a great day.

 

I hope Maryland joins the Big Ten so I can wear a Block O hat and be an enemy to the masses here in Baltimore.

 

OrangeBloods update on UT/A&M and SEC

http://www.texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1093010

 

Superhigh, fort collins is 30miles from denver and utah is salt lake. Both are bigger and have more people than lincoln.

 

Just heard Chip Brown on Austin radio. Some interesting stuff:

-Nothing was resolved in the UT/A&M meetings today. A&M really wants to explore the SEC option, while UT wants PAC-10.

-SEC has apparently offered Texas & A&M to join. They would move 'Bama and Auburn over to the SEC Eastern division, which probably cause some unrest within the conference. SEC really wants to tap into Texas market (both for television and recruiting) and are doing all they can to accomplish this.

-Neither Texas nor A&M are going to Big 10. He was very emphatic about this.

-Oklahoma wants to go where Texas goes. And Okie State and Tech are happy to go anywhere. Apparently, the 5 Big 12 schools (UT, OU, OSU, TT, and CO) could potentially go west and invite KU or Utah to replace A&M.

-Most interesting to me: If UT and A&M split, it will get ugly. So ugly that they will no longer schedule each other, for a while at least. Would be interesting for A&M to have a fight song about a team they don't even play...

 

If every other conference is expanding, why not the Ivy league? Stanford, Rice, Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon and Duke would make great additions to conference.

 

wow..

 

I'm not at all convinced the Big Ten is out of the picture for UT and A&M, especially given the news of the SEC's interest. The Big Ten is where the most money is. It has the best academics. It would combine 6 of the top 7 most-winning teams in the history of college football.

The only issue? The "Tech problem", as hinted at in the linked emails. But at the same time, Chip wants us to believe that A&M is seriously flirting with the SEC (without Tech), and that the SEC is also offering Texas (without Tech). So given that, why in the world would the Big Ten be out of the picture? It would make zero sense.

My suspicion is that Chip knows he'd look like an absolute buffoon if the Big Ten scenario came to fruition, and has turned a deaf ear to it because of the consequences for his credibility if it were to happen.

By the way, one more note on Chip Brown and orangebloods.com: in December 2008, on BCS selection day, he posted the scoop of all scoops - that Texas had passed OU in the final standings and would play for the national championship. I think we all know what happened there. In the past, Chip's sources have sometimes had a way of telling him what he wants to hear.

 

I've heard from other places going back a few months that Powers wasn't interested in the B10 due to a combination of the travel and the fact that ALL the games would require lots of travel. That fits with the idea of a bunch of teams moving to the Pac10 to create a new division, which minimizes travel issues and lets Texas still play lots of away games at a reasonable distance.

Not sure what I believe anymore, but it came from a totally different place than Chip Brown but would fit with his current "facts".

 

Maybe, but then why the email communication in April and referencing of the "Tech problem"? Seems it would be simple to explain to Delaney the situation early on and move forward. Also, the extra money sure could buy a lot of plane tickets. In addition, we've heard that Texas is a game changer for Notre Dame - potentially the reverse could also be true.

Of course I don't know any of this for certain, but I can't help but think the Big Ten has a "home run" up its sleeve - and Nebraska isn't it.

 

I think it may be good for A&M to break away from UT, although I don't think it will happen. A&M is a great school, but it seems it will always be in UT's shadow if they are in the same conference. Also, as a football fan, I like the SEC much more than the Pac-10. USC is really the only team I care anything about in the Pac-10, but I enjoy watching all the SEC games. I think the Texas schools would fit better in the SEC than in the Pac-10. Come on Aggies, you don't need UT, shake things up and go to the SEC!

 

Nah. I don't think much good can come from moving to the SEC. Gonna be a long time before they can compete with those teams. It may or may not help recruiting. Academically... meh.

 

Well, it may be a long time before they can compete with anyone( I hope not though). I don't think Academics is not much of an issue in all these changes.

 

It might not be, but for me it is. TAMU does fit, tradition - blah, blah, blah. I just don't like it. When I think of the SEC right now I think old school, I want to be part of something progressive. Then again, I'm not the typical Aggie.

 

I'm a die-hard UT grad, but I really do not want to be separated from A&M. I love that rivalry. Growing up, you were either a Longhorn or an Aggie in school. If they no longer play each other, I really think the sense of state pride is diminished, and good recruits will go elsewhere. (Which will be much easier if these mergers happen, since now California schools and the SEC will have teams in Texas.)

Also, I'm not really sure why most of the Aggie fans I have seen are so in favor of the SEC. Is it just to get away from UT? A&M played two games against mediocre SEC teams last year and lost 47-19 and 44-20. Sure it will be nice to be in the best conference, but why would you want to be at the bottom of the conference. At least with Texas, you always have the last game of the season to look forward to, no matter the team's records. Plus, as morally sound as most Aggies are (not a joke, sincere), I think they will be in for a rude awakening when they get to that cheating conference.

I think if A&M joins the SEC, the SEC will gain way more that A&M will. Suddenly they have a Texas presence. Certainly, A&M will be able to gain a few recruits with the move, but I think a lot more would be heading east to LSU, Bama, and Florida as well.

I don't like these new developments, if true.

 

Yeah, I don't know - too much conflicting info. It may have been that Powers was concerned that Tech could stop any deal but that turned out not to be true. Who knows. I hope someone makes an FOIA on the UT people and some of the admins were stupid enough to put this stuff on paper.

I think B10 gets Notre Dame no matter what here. Whether they get Texas also, I have no idea. Hopefully we will know within days, not weeks!