[College Football] Big Ten, Texas have initial talks

Bottom line is...political pressures were pretty heavy against Texas schools splitting up...and were over the top heavy against UT and A&M splitting up.

If A&M had wanted to go Pac 10, this MIGHT have happened...but when they were looking elsewhere, it killed momentum long enough for Beebe to offer up something new. Neither wanted to be the "bad guy" that walked away from the other. Dubious is right in many respects when he talks about the grabass stuff. A lot of politics, generally, involved.

I don't think the Pac 10 is nearly as attractive to Texas as many of the Texas grads here think it is. And the projections for the Pac 16 media dollars were VERY VERY optimistic (bordering on ridiculous), in my view.

Let's see who they add before we start working on the next Big 12 tombstone, Mr. Justice.

 

perfect then! you should find yourself in the championship game again!!! :grin:

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5286816

In an unprecedented move, a number of influential people inside and outside of college athletics mobilized over the past week to save the Big 12 Conference, stave off the Pac-10's move to expand to 16 schools and prevent a massive reorganization of college athletics.

An NCAA source with direct knowledge of what occurred told ESPN.com that the aggressiveness of the Pac-10 caused various factions of the collegiate sports world to coalesce. They then worked to slow and try to stop the pace of moves that would have left a number of schools searching for a new conference home.

The source said the people involved were business executives, conference commissioners, athletic directors, network executives with ties throughout college athletics, administrators at many levels throughout the NCAA membership and a "fair number of them without a dog in the hunt."


According to the source, this collection of interested and influential people made phone calls, visited in person and held conference calls with the Big 12 schools that were being pursued, including Texas, as well as Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe. The influential group also helped broker the new television deal between Texas (and the other schools considering leaving the conference) and Beebe, who represented the remaining Big 12 schools.

According to the source, there was a growing sense that the Pac-10 was taking an approach inconsistent with the best interests and values of the schools impacted, both positively and negatively.

Late Monday, Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott said that Texas had rebuffed the league's invitation to join the conference. Soon after, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State announced they would remain in the Big 12. That meant the Big 12 wouldn't dissolve despite the fact Nebraska left for the Big Ten and Colorado left for the Pac-10. Several details remain, but Texas president William Powers Jr. told Scott "the 10 remaining schools in the Big 12 Conference intend to stay together."

Scott reportedly was promising a Pac-10 network that had to include Texas to be a formidable option for cable providers in the Southwest and West Coast. The Pac-10 will negotiate a new television contract in 2012 and now must approach the talks as an 11-team league (as currently situated) or a 12-team league (if the Pac-10 opts for another member like Utah out of the Mountain West).

The 10 remaining Big 12 schools reviewed a plan prepared by Beebe that reportedly will produce increased television rights and the chance for each school to have its own network, something Texas is interested in. Orangebloods.com reported that the new TV deal would pay Texas $20 million to $25 million annually from the league deal and its own network.

The Big 12 will have an unequal revenue plan and that means Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M would likely earn more revenue. And if the figures are all correct, the remaining Big 12 schools would still double their television revenue to $14 million to $17 million annually.

"The Big 12 sticking wasn't a miracle,'' said the source. "There have been a number of people who were involved -- a number of seriously key people -- unrelated to the conference who will never be known to have helped get things on track.''

The Pac-10 was looking to invite Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech to join Colorado for a 16-team league. A&M was trying to get interest from the SEC. There was some early interest from the school, but no formal offer from the SEC.

The five schools without suitors -- Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Iowa State and Baylor -- were pushing to keep the league together. They were all advised to not dissolve the Big 12 if the others left in order to collect money due the league, including exit fees and NCAA tournament payments.

The decision by Texas to stay with the Big 12 slows down what was rumored to be widespread conference expansion. Now, the only moves finalized are Nebraska to the Big Ten (giving it 12 teams), the Pac-10 adding Colorado (going to 11 teams) and the Mountain West adding a 10th team (Boise State). Nebraska and Boise State are expected to begin play for the 2011-12 school year; Colorado's status hasn't been finalized.

Colorado, Nebraska and Boise State all have had their respective runs in football -- the driving force in the move -- but none has been a major player in men's basketball, making the move almost moot so far in the second-most financially productive sport.

Keeping the 10 schools in the Big 12 will allow the conference to keep its BCS automatic berth and its NCAA basketball tournament automatic berth. The Big 12 won't be allowed to hold a football championship game unless it adds two more members or works to change the rules, which currently require 12 teams to have a title game.

A Kansas source said that, as a 10-team league, the Big 12 would be more profitable and would be one of the top basketball conferences in the country. The source said the remaining Big 12 schools will play a true round-robin 18-game schedule, much like the Pac-10 does in its current form.

The 10-team Big 12 conference will also play nine conference football games.

Preserving the Big 12 will put the Big East at ease for the moment. The SEC is unlikely to expand into the ACC. The Big Ten, now with 12 teams, could expand, but has said it will continue to study the issue.


Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.

 

What a HORRIBLE home football schedule. Enjoy that fancy stadium fans of ISU, Mizzou, KSU, KU, TT, aTm, BU, and OSU. Texas spent a ton of money for you. Seriously. Enjoy it.

 

yeah, the rest of us all feel very sorry for the University of Texas. :grin:

 

I think that's the bottom line Max, Texas doesn't need Pac 10's money, or academic clout.

its Texas dammit

 

Well, with the B10 and P10 have championship games, that basically puts Texas behind the 8-ball. Any 1-loss tiebreakers probably favor the B10, P10, and SEC now given they all get a marquee game at the end of the year while Texas doesn't.

But besides that, I am not like other fans in this respect - I would much rather play Ohio State and lose than not play them at all and win. I'm much more interested in marquee games than just running the table against scrubs.

This is the heart of it to me. What this says is that the decision was made by political influences rather than what was best for the school or what the school wanted. And that sucks.

 

Then buy your own school like T Boone and Joe Jamail.

And cupcake schedules are a time honored NCAA Football tradition.

 

Is Ohio St considered an elite public academic institution

 

I think that's a load of crap, Major.

The Big 12 with OU and UT alone are light years ahead of the Pac 10 with a USC on probation.

The SEC has always had advantage...but if UT runs the table and schedules someone worth scheduling out-of-conference, they'll do just fine.

Ultimately, teams move in cycles...they're down a bit for a while...up a bit for a while....hand wringing over this kinda stuff right now makes Texas look a lot weaker than they really are in my view.

Texas does not and should not need someone's help to be playing for a national title. Just stop Crabtree next time. And don't drop the damn ball, Blake.

 

maybe texas should actually schedule someone other than la-monroe, wyoming and rice if they're worried about sos.

 

Remember when I told you guys the other day that I heard people talking about CU having a difficult time paying the exit penalty for jumping too soon???

http://twitter.com/chipbrownob

Sources think Colorado panicked and now will have to pay between $6 mil and $8 mil to leave B12 when it couldn't afford Hawkins' $3m buyout.
about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck

 

they'll practically have to now, unless somebody else besides OU turns into a consistent top 15 program.

 

right??


you wanna play pac 10 schools?? who is stopping you??? schedule them all you want. schedule oregon state and az state and all those fantastic football programs and academic institutions. play them till your heart's content....and then lose enough to make the Holiday Bowl and play them again.

 

So it's win every game or no MNC. Hope there are no undefeated teams as well.

Congrats on the greedy f-ck up señor $odds.

 

how many conferences have 3 CONSISTENT top 15 programs?

the SEC and who else?

 

You're only looking at the top of the conference though. The Big 12 has always been top-heavy. Statistically, the middle of the conference has favored the Pac10. If you look at computer rankings over the last decade, it bears that out.

Of course - the chances of 3 teams running the table is fairly small. But if 3 teams lose a game, Texas will almost definitely lose out.

Two simple questions:

1. Do you think Texas is in a better conference today than it was a month ago?

2. Do you think there were options out there that would have put Texas in a better position than it was a month ago?

To me, the answers are No and Yes and that's the bottom line. Regardless of how much worse the conference is, there's no way to argue that losing 25% of the conference's marquee programs makes them a better conference somehow. And there's no way, with all the leverage and negotiating power Texas had, that they should have ended up in a worse conference than they started with.

 

I've been wondering about this. I wonder if the pac10 will have to cover them.

Also, Nebraskas should be around $10mil. And Neb didn't get that very much money the first few years to go to the big 10

 

Top 25 then.

The point is that it's that much more important for UT and OU that TTU, A&M, OSU, etc stay relevant, unless they want to make their OOC schedule significantly more difficult.

I'm not buying this "road to the national title" just got easier crap.

 

Conference expansion: Texas big winner, Pac-10 big loser

Texas and company have decided to stay in a 10-team Big 12, saving the league from extinction while lining their pockets in the process.

Radical conference realignment has been put on hold, at least for now. So who are the big winners and losers of the last week?


Winners

1. Texas. Sheer genius for the Longhorns here. They get between $20 to $25 million a year to stay, if you believe the reports. They get the green light to start their own network. They get rid of the irksome conference championship game. They get even more power. They get rid of Nebraska, which had been a headache. What more could have gone right? Now, Texas is perfectly positioned when the superconference era begins. Why? Because it will have already started its own network and will bring it along wherever it lands. The major sticking point for joining the Pac-10 was just that. If you want Texas going forward, you gotta take the network, too.

2. Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Baylor and Missouri. Whew. Just last week it appeared the Oceanic 5 would be left without a BCS conference. Now each is expected to rake in double the amount of revenue from TV money.

3. Dan Beebe. From goat to savior in a three- day span. But this was not all his doing …

4. ESPN. The network essentially won this round with FOX, which wanted nothing more than to start a Pac-10 network with a super-sized conference that featured Texas, Oklahoma and company. Now ESPN gets to keep its foothold into Texas, and keep FOX from essentially spanning the nation (FOX owns 49 percent of the Big Ten network).

5. SEC. Right there with ESPN is the SEC and commissioner Mike Slive. If you read between the lines of this story about a wide group of people coming together to stop the Pac-10 from going to 16 teams, you can guess Slive was most likely involved. Why? Watching the Pac-10 grow to 16 teams is against the interests of most of the influential people in college football ? and obviously against the interests of the most powerful league in America. The SEC wants Texas and Oklahoma but is not in position to get them at this time. No way was it going to let the Pac-10 wrestle them away.

Losers

Pac-10 a big loser in conference expansion.

1. Pac-10. Commissioner Larry Scott went from potentially nabbing Texas and Oklahoma to instead getting Colorado and most likely Utah. That is not an upgrade for a conference that is desperate to gain the respect ? and the eyeballs ? of people on the East Coast. Colorado is in disarray. Utah had had very solid football program but does it add ratings and interest to a league that is going to struggle now that USC is going to hit bottom thanks to NCAA sanctions?

2. Colorado. While the Buffs have always wanted to align themselves with the Pac-10, they probably didn’t envision this scenario. Losing an alliance with Texas and Oklahoma is going to hurt. Both are more powerful than any team remaining in the Pac-10. They also are going to be losing out on a windfall of cash. It’s yet to be seen whether the Pac-10 will be able to start its own network with a 12-team lineup and how successful it could be with cash flow.

3. Mountain West. Back to the drawing board. The Mountain West added Boise St. but is poised to lose Utah, leaving it essentially where it was a week ago. Losing Utah means its chances of becoming an automatic qualifying school would drop significantly.

4. FOX. The appeal of starting a Pac-10 network is not nearly as great now.

5. Jerry Jones. The Cowboys owner had brokered a deal to have his new stadium host the Big 12 championship game through 2013. But there will no longer be a Big 12 championship game after the 2010 season