Rice would not accept an invitation to the Big XII. President Gillis is furious about how athletics are reaching a professional level, completely compromising the "student" part of student-athlete. He is really sour about the state of college football in particular, and how universities not in one of the "super conferences" just don't have a chance. He's not about to throw Rice to the hounds and join up with 11 large state schools to play sports with that are clearly on a different playing field in terms of which student-athletes they allow in and how much money they have for their athletic departments. Besides, the Big XII wouldn't want us to play baseball with them anyways. We were the Big XII champs last year with an 8-0 record. 3 wins versus UT, 2 versus A&M, 2 versus Baylor and one over Nebraska.
True. But the location of the stadium isn't an issue. There is no chance that UH will be a part of a conference with UT in the near future. All this back & forth is pointless. There's no reason to kick Baylor out if you're not going to add someone better, in either athletics or academics. Arkansas makes the most sense, and it's true that they're unhappy in the SEC.
But can Baylor "pay the bills" without the big welfare check from the Big 12? Since football and mens basketball make schools money, how would Baylor be adding to the pot if both programs suck? Baylor takes much more than it gives to the conference. Care to explain how the Big 12 "needs" Baylor? Baylor is the Richmond Strip of the Big 12. We're just trying to clean it up
Seeing how UH got rid of Gladchuk (the cause of the problem) and Dimel, and hired Briles (who is tight with Leach and Brown), the chance is not 0%, but not good either for other reasons. Currently dropping a school without adding one makes no sense. If the NCAA changes the rule on having a conference championship to 11 schools, it makes sense to drop dead weight. Lopez's article is tame compared to the others I've read. It is true Baylor does the least with the most. Do they deserve a cut of the Big 12 pie? Not anymore. Give it to someone else.
Baylor is an economically solvent, private university. While it (along w/ every other school) doesn't get a cut off of every damn barrel of oil sold like UT does, it does not need to have a winning college football team to profit & thrive. Besides, how would these mighty Big 12 powers make $ if they didn't have a weak team or 2 or 3 to beat up on in their conference? Also, if you think that these violations are not occurring at UT, A&M, Nebraska, etc. you're sadly mistaken. Do you think that there aren't boosters giving Aggie players cars or money or sheep? Do you think there aren't UT basketball players who have taken money to, alter their play during games? Do you think there are ANY school's athletes who are not getting high? Were it not for Dennehy's tragic death this crap would be overlooked or ignored, the same damn way it is at every other school. NONE of Bliss' "arrangements" would have come to light w/out the Dennehy issue. Geez, you could make the same argument about so many schools on the bottom rung of so many conferences. It's pointless.
Like UH? LMAO. Why should they get a "welfare" check as you put it? Yeah let's give the welfare check to the commuter school w/ a horrendous athlete graduation ratio, horrible transfer/retention ratio, poor academics, craptastic athletic programs (other than baseball), and utterly pathetic alumni relations & support.
If Rice's peers like Stanford, Northwestern, and Duke (basketball) can compete in BCS conferences, what's stopping Rice?
I wanted to post a thread about kicking Baylor out of the Big 12 last week. I never got to it. Oh well. Glad it is being talked about though. There was a good read about this in Texas Monthly Magazine.
Historically only Stanford has really competed in football. Northwestern and Duke have been doormats for years and years. (although NW has had a few decent seasons recently). Our president would not be high on the competitive pressures which would accompany a move to the Big XII. Anything that jeopardizes academics is frowned upon at the Institute. There's no way Rice would be invited to join the Big XII anyways, so I think this point is somewhat moot.
Colorado State in the Big XII? That'd be intersting. They have a great program going, but they're in the Mountain West so they get screwed every damn year. Plus, when CU punks them every year it'll be a conference win. That'll be nice.
So that is Baylor's place in the conference? To be everyones little b****. I think we will survive without playing Cupcake U every year. Poor BU. Yall can't even win through cheating Did I say UH? Keep telling yourself whatever makes you happy. Without Ann Richards, BU would be struggling to make ends meet.
Every major conference always has a private school, apparently (don't know why). So I would dump Baylor and add TCU. They have been at least competitive in both football and basketball many times over the last decade. It gives the B12 an immediate presence in the 2nd largest metro area in the state. The B12 doesn't need Baylor to be a doormat -- doormats are a dime a dozen. As for Baylor's problems starting and ending with Bliss, they've been cited for numerous NCAA violations since the 1980's. There are some serious problems in that program all around, apparently. None as big as this, obviously.
Houston isn't an upgrade over Baylor. It's a major downgrade if you ask me. Arkansas won't leave the SEC Colorado State is an improvement, but not much...Baylor's basketball team was getting good...
Actually TCU would do a lot better than UH...heck, even SMU could probably rebuild their program better than UH. I do agree that it would be cool for Longhorns and Aggies to have basically a home game in Houston every other year or so.
If you think that Baylor would be broke if not for the Big 12, then you are either the stupidest man I've run across on this board, or you have such a pathological hatred for Baylor that it makes you say idiotic things, regardless of their veracity, just to slam the school. If I recall somewhat correctly, Baylor was the first university chartered by Texas, so that gives them something like 150+ years of history, and financial solvency, before they even thought of the Big 12. They are a private university and the ample tuition they charge is more than adequate to cover their expenses. Also, while UT or A&M or whatever Big 12 school would "survive" by not playing Baylor & Kansas, they sure as hell wouldn't be able to add to their win tallies. This is what you fail to understand - THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CUPCAKES IN EVERY CONFERENCE! YOU CANNOT HAVE A F-ING FBALL CONFERENCE MADE UP OF FBALL POWERHOUSES! The conference would not be viable! Thank heavens conference commisioners realize this & the fact that fball is one of only many, many sports & academic programs tied in by these associations. PS, I went to neither Baylor or UH, but it amazes me to see people hate on schools for no reason at all... If you're going to make a statement like that, back it up. I still would like you to show us all how a 150+ year old private university would be "broke" if not for the Big 12. C'mon Smokey, give it the old college try!
Hey genius, name one non BCS school that is not struggling financially in athletics? What kind of school uses students tuition to pay for athletics? I am not familiar with other schools, but at UT not one single penny goes towards athletics. Athletics should be self sufficient. 4 wins in 7 years is unacceptable. That's not competitive. Time to take out the trash. Do you have reading comprehension problems? The whole discussion has been about athletics, not the university. BU athletics would struggle if not for the Big 12. I thought you would understand my use of BU was referring to athletics
Let's take your updated post that now applies to the athletic program only. In 2000-2001, I believe the average Big 12 payout per team (not including extra revenue earned through indiv. bowl appearances) was something like 1 million+ For C-USA I believe it was like 400k. If you think Baylor's athletic department would be broke if not for the extra $ the Big 12 pays them then you are nuts. I think you and the other who are whining about this need to understand that the problem is the BCS & the bowl system. That is what screws teams like TCU, UH, Rice, BYU, etc over. b****ing b/c Baylor's sucky fball team still merits them a larger payout than C-USA give to its crap teams is pointless. Read this & instead of hand-wringing about Baylor, call John Lopez's dumb ass & ask him to write about how the Big 12 is helping to stifle CUSA and the other small conferences. http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2000/12/25/editorial3.html
My posts have always applied to athletics. I'm sorry you took BU to mean the university in general when this whole thread has been about athletics. I don't know how you came to that conclusion. Answer my question. Name one non BCS school that is not financially struggling in athletics? I agree the system is flawed. So what? Does that excuse Baylor? I also would like to point something out:
