[College Football] Big Ten, Texas have initial talks

GET EM DONNY!!!

 

Wasn't it ann richards the govenor twisting arms in 94? I was in austin in 96 and it was a strong mention of this. In fact the att general was a tech grad if i'm not mistaken and thats how baylor and tech got in. Otherwise, it was going to be just tamu and texas.

 

The Ann Richards myth is floated often, but from what I understand, it was Bob Bullock (Tech, Baylor) who did the majority of the dirty work, and a host of other Baylor and Tech grads in the higher education and finances committees that had tons of pull.

For all intents and purposes, Tech beat UH into the Big 12, and Baylor beat SMU/TCU into the Big 12, both via politics and neither on merit. The Big 12 needed a private school to keep its book's closed, that is why UH wasn't really fighting Baylor/TCU/SMU for inclusion, but rather Texas' other large public institution.

 

Why did they need their books closed?

 

Donny - The majority of your posts in this thread have been about "UH to a BCS conference." While I'm not disagreeing with you, the point I'm trying to convey is that Baylor might be a priority over UH at this particular point. Right now, Baylor is in danger of being a conference-less Texas university. That has to be a bigger concern for the Texas legislature than trying to improve UH's conference status. You seem to take this as a knock on UH but I don't intend it to be nor do I think it is.

Is the State of Texas concerned with protecting the richest schools? Probably, would that really suprise you? I agree that Baylor's affiliation with the Big 12 "essentially" makes them a player, but I also think the money they have is a HUGE factor in all of this.

 

No...the Pac 10 MUST have Texas Tech to validate themselves. :grin:

I'm with you...it's a farce.

 

A friend of mine emailed and said Chip Brown was on TV last night in Dallas saying Beebe's plan has given the Big XII-2 life....

and that Arkansas has put out feelers about joining the Big XII.

EDIT: another thing...apparently the Aggie AD was in Idaho all weekend long. While the SEC and PAC 10 reps were in College Station. not sure what to make of that.

 

also...Baylor was a lot better at football back then...ranked as high as #4 in the nation after beating CU in Boulder in 1991. they were in bowl games all the time back then. their facilities were improved and new.

 

yep, brand new state of the art weight room at floyd casey, a bad ass new basketball arena, etc. people shouldn't let facts get in the way of a good ole' baylor bashing though.

 

Considering that Baylor is a private institution and the University of Houston is a state university, why should it be?

 

Jerry Jones is probably pulling the strings at Ark. If he could get them to move back to the big 12, he would get a neutral site game for them in Jerryworld and probably lock up a Big 12 Championship game contract.

That is a huge incentive, plus it makes his alma mater a bigger fish in the market he lives in.

Somewhere a hundred pages back someone stated that if the Big 12 can stay together that it gets 3 years to keep their BCS bid and get back to 12 teams for a playoff. Arkansas would go a long way to replacing NEB. But, the kicker is still the money. They would need to be assured that the total Big 12 income (counting the the 1000,000 seats sold for Jerryworld) is equal to their SEC income.

Arkansas and TCU for NEB and CU isn't such a bad trade

It's like we are getting the old band back together.

(I still think the SEC is the third worst scenario for A&M's future.)

 

because it isn't about the schools only..it's about the economic impact of the athletic departments on Texas.

 

Every conference wants to have their books closed just so they don't have to justify all their finances, so they all have 1 private schools. The B10 has Northwestern. The SEC has Vandy. The Pac10 has Stanford. The B12 has Baylor. But since the private schools generally aren't as big or have as many resources, the big football conferences tend to keep it to one and only one of them.

 

I don't take it as a knock, and I fully understand why Baylor is getting some help to stay in the Big 12. I wrote about that here.

 

It's about more than the athletic department's economics. It's about the university as a whole, because, for better or worse, the health and success of an athletic department is inexorably tied to the health and success of the rest of the university. Especially in the south.

 

They weren't good long after that even though they had some quality recruits. My good friend,James Francis went there and he was a 1st rd pick by cincy in 90. By the time they got to the big 12, they weren't that good. They had some talent, but couldn't get it together. For all its fine academia, odell james had no business on a college campus.

 

I'm not talking about that. Sam asked why would the legislature care about a private school. There are 2 answers to that question:

1. many people in the legislature graduated from BU and/or BU law school;

2. the economic impact of BU's athletic department on Central Texas

 

no argument. but the decision to include them was made in 1994. not a year after they started playing in the conference

 

Ok, thanks for that. I have followed big time universities even though i graduated from swt and i uderstand some of the dynamics alot of the posters are putting down. I just tried following the money. That do make sense with the 1 private school

 

Why not talk about it? Baylor, as a school, has an impact on the economy of Texas just as any other university does. It's not just about the athletic department's economics. That is absolutely a reason why the State would care about Baylor staying in the Big 12. You're selling the issue short methinks.