Having at least one private member allows the conference to keep some of its books private so dropping Baylor for Colorado State, Arkansas, UH, etc. isn't going to happen. Neither (unfortunately) is dropping Baylor for Rice or TCU. TCU does nothing for me, but Rice....I want Rice in the Big 12. They bring academics, a great baseball program, and they can't be any worse than Baylor in football and basketball. Give Rice the welfare check Baylor receives and IMO they'll be just as good. Baylor academics is step down from UT and A&M. No offense to you Baylor Bear fans but I love watching Baylor take it up the *** in the Big 12.
brian.. to continue your argument further. baylor's student body isn't even THAT small. a heck of a lot larger than Vandy's that's for sure.... And most of the "private schools" at least contribute some.. in our case this year it was sweet 16 in basketball.. super regionals in baseball.. not to mention in the non revenue sports quite a few elite 8's , final fours etc this year.. actually this year we ended up being the 28th best athletic school in america... baylor was ranked 47th best athletic school in the nation this year by comparison.. and the 84th best academic school.. sadly enough their athletics were actualy better than academics hmm
to be fair to baylor though. if you count all the athletics they did rank ahead of colorado.. kstate.....
UH has had good fan support since the early 80's. Even during the Run n Shoot era crowd size was pretty low. I remember the Dome being full during the 70's when I was a kid. When the Coogs joined C-USA I figured the conference initials secretly stood for Cavernous Unfilled Sporting Arenas. I don't believe UH is ever going to have the fan support of a Texas or Texas A&M. I don't believe UH is ever going to do any better then a conferance like C-USA. I do not believe that C-USA is such a bad deal. As a UH alum I always thought UH was treated as the step-child of the SWC. Personally I could care less if the Aggies or Longhorns ever play UH again. Good riddance.
UH hasn't had good fan support since the early 80's. Even during the Run n Shoot era crowd size was pretty low. I remember the Dome being full during the 70's when I was a kid. When the Coogs joined C-USA I figured the conference initials secretly stood for Cavernous Unfilled Sporting Arenas. I don't believe UH is ever going to have the fan support of a Texas or Texas A&M. I don't believe UH is ever going to do any better then a conferance like C-USA. I do not believe that C-USA is such a bad deal. As a UH alum I always thought UH was treated as the step-child of the SWC. Personally I could care less if the Aggies or Longhorns ever play UH again. Good riddance.
Uof H fought their way into the SWC by posting impressive wins over the SWC schools and some national powerhouses in the 60's. Besides Coach Yoemans famous veer offense he is known to have recuited the best black athaleetes in Texas when the SWC schools were avoiding them. For commuter schools with less ' tradition' , only winning teams breed excitment and until Coach Briles wins big the school will continue to be an attendance also-ran. There aren't any big rivalry games for UH. Baylor is very competitive in the Big 12 in everything but football. Check out how many olympians were from Baylor as well as a couple of NBA players. Why they can't get recruit the best Baptist players, I don't know; but I do know why no other top football recruits will go there. Do they still ban dancing on campus? Oh yea , one reason the SWC broke up was that their image had been severely damage by cheating scandals.
Rice in the Big 12? Come on guys, that's even worse than wanting TCU. I can understand wanting to kick BU out but bringing in a school like Rice is a joke. And as for BU academics being a step down from UT or A&M, judging by some of the Aggies and Horns in the work force, it isn't that big a step.
Just wondering didn't Baylor get beat by North Texas last year? If so, I can't imagine a "Big" 12 team losing to NT (no offense NT).
Good riddance I say!!! The SWC was a major drag on Texas, made even worse after Arkansas left (who at the time at least had a fine basketball program). Texas gained little by winning because they were supposed to beat those teams and those teams had such little national profile, but it made all those teams day to beat Texas and thus they were bringing all their best game, losses by Texas would be costly when they happened. Now in the Big 12, Texas can gain from winning. In basketball beating Kansas, Oklahoma, Missou and Oklahoma State is an accomplishment of national scale. In football beating Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas State and Colorado is an accomplishment of national scale. The only good thing about the former SWC is baseball, but even without it Texas is still the preeminent baseball program in the nation so that move has hardly hurt too much. The only problem I saw is Texas got intimidated from joining the Pac-10. That would have been ideal and probably would have made the Pac-10 the clear academic and athletic #1 conference, and Texas would have been even a greater national powerhouse. A&M probably would have been fine and scrambled to a BCS-level conference (Big 9, SEC), Texas and them could then arrange non-conference games to continue the rivalry. Tech probably would have gone to the Wac/Moutain West where they could have been one of the better programs there along with more reasonable competitors like Utah/BYU, etc. UH and the rest of the SWC could have banded together, or strengthen the Mountain West, UH more than any program got screwed with the fall out (when A&M, Tech and Baylor come along with Texas). The fact all the other school's Alums fought Texas doing what was right for Texas pretty much showed they had been leeching off of Texas for a long time. Too bad Texas in part caved and allowed A&M, Tech and Baylor to come along. Yes, Texas is doing fine--the top Texas school and nationally among the top in the Sears cup, football, basketball, & baseball, etc--but they would probably be out even farther from the rest of the state and perhaps the clear #1 national program with the solo move to the Pac-10. So I am glad the SWC blew up, but it could have been even better.
