Conference realignments

[earlywinegareth]

Big Ten expanding...PAC 10 expanding...what will be the impact on the Big XII?

I think the Big XII's days are numbered. There's lots of talk of superconferences containing 14-16 schools. Big Ten could snag Mizzou, Notre Dame, and Syracuse. PAC 10 could reach out to Utah, BYU, and Colorado.

At that point, the Big XII collapses and everyone is looking for new alliances. The big boys of the Big XII South will team up: Texas, aTm, OU, and oSu. Off the 4 go to...the SEC!

Think of it - a 16-team SEC stretching from Dallas to Atlanta containing four of the top 10 most successful football programs in history. The new SEC West would be: OU, oSu, UT, aTm, Arkansas, LSU, Miss State, and Ole Miss.

The pros are big TV bucks and far and away the premier football conference. The cons are few...will we miss Baylor or K-State? I think not. Heck, now is OU's opportunity to renew the rivalry with Nebraska every year - make it a permanent non-conf foe.

Comments?

[mugofbeer]

Why wouldn't the Big 12 just add TCU, try to sway Arkansas (a natural regional rival - moreso that it is with the SE Conference), or possibly LSU? I could see Colorado leaving before Missouri because of the lack of support for sports at CU.

I could see a superconference made up of most of the SEC and the South division of the Big 12.

[bluedogok]

Arkansas will not leave the SEC, the money differential between the SEC payout and Big 12 payout (due to TV contracts) is significant. Missouri has been lobbying to get into the Big 10/11 forever.

[Soonerman]

Arkansas will not leave the SEC, the money differential between the SEC payout and Big 12 payout (due to TV contracts) is significant. Missouri has been lobbying to get into the Big 10/11 forever.

This
It's also the same reason Mizzou is trying to get in the Big eleven.

[rcjunkie]

This
It's also the same reason Mizzou is trying to get in the Big eleven.

The main reason Mizzou is wanting out of the Big 12 is because of Texas and Oklahoma---if you can't beat um, leave um!!

[Soonerman]

The main reason Mizzou is wanting out of the Big 12 is because of Texas and Oklahoma---if you can't beat um, leave um!!

Do you think they have a better chance against Ohio State and Penn State?

[earlywinegareth]

Omaha sportswriter says Nebraska should go to Big 10/11 - don't like the way Texas controls the Big 12...

Shatel: Big Ten, NU would be good fit - Omaha.com

[bombermwc]

I honestly don't see a super conference forming. The more groups, the less important a school is. That means more competition to say your a conference champ. And let's face it, we are in a conference so we have a chance to earn that title in various sports....and football isn't the only one.

Look at the Big XII. Baylor-struggling football school for how long? BUT good basketball. And an INCREDIBLE ACADEMIC institution. As much as folks like to say that the conference is only sport related, it actually ties to the whole school. If you've got a conference of all good teams but they have a insitutional gpa of 2.0, who cares. It's college...job #1 is education, NOT sports. How many folks go pro? Hardly any.

What I'd like to see happen is get rid of the North/South thing and have it open to all. #1 and #2 have it out. If that means both teams are from the south, then so be it. We have too many years when the top two teams don't play because of that and some crappy team end up in the conference game. But for that matter, why have a conference game? All it does is give you a chance to lose and then drop in the rankings.

[Soonerman]

I honestly don't see a super conference forming. The more groups, the less important a school is. That means more competition to say your a conference champ. And let's face it, we are in a conference so we have a chance to earn that title in various sports....and football isn't the only one.

Look at the Big XII. Baylor-struggling football school for how long? BUT good basketball. And an INCREDIBLE ACADEMIC institution. As much as folks like to say that the conference is only sport related, it actually ties to the whole school. If you've got a conference of all good teams but they have a insitutional gpa of 2.0, who cares. It's college...job #1 is education, NOT sports. How many folks go pro? Hardly any.

What I'd like to see happen is get rid of the North/South thing and have it open to all. #1 and #2 have it out. If that means both teams are from the south, then so be it. We have too many years when the top two teams don't play because of that and some crappy team end up in the conference game. But for that matter, why have a conference game? All it does is give you a chance to lose and then drop in the rankings.

$$$$

[semisimple]

Look at the Big XII. Baylor-struggling football school for how long? BUT good basketball. And an INCREDIBLE ACADEMIC institution. As much as folks like to say that the conference is only sport related, it actually ties to the whole school. If you've got a conference of all good teams but they have a insitutional gpa of 2.0, who cares. It's college...job #1 is education, NOT sports. How many folks go pro? Hardly any.

Let's get one thing straight: Baylor is absolutely not an "INCREDIBLE ACADEMIC institution." The only school in the Big XII that might be "incredible" by some stretch of the imagination is UT Austin. On the Big 12 academic totem pole, Baylor certainly sits well below UT, below A&M, and possibly even below CU Boulder. Regardless, the Big 12 as a whole is much stronger in athletics than academics. Conference standouts like UT and A&M would find much better academic company in, say, the Big Ten, but unfortunately athletics and money will dictate any future realignment.

[bluedogok]

This was in the Denver Business Journal today.....

Denver Business Journal - Big 12, Pac-10 conferences discuss TV alliance

[bombermwc]

So you don't think the Baylor Medical School is great huh? Do you have any idea what that school has created over the years?

[semisimple]

So you don't think the Baylor Medical School is great huh? Do you have any idea what that school has created over the years?

LOL.

Evidently you aren't aware that Baylor College of Medicine is NOT affiliated with Baylor University. The two are completely independent of one another. Thus, BCM has no place in the discussion of Big 12 schools.

[bombermwc]

Do you not think that a large number of those students don't get their pre-med work at BU? LOL all you want, there's a relationship there bud.

[semisimple]

Do you not think that a large number of those students don't get their pre-med work at BU? LOL all you want, there's a relationship there bud.

You must be joking, bud. You're actually suggesting that because you merely think (without ANY sort of proof whatsoever) that BU sends lots of students to BCM that BU must thus be "INCREDIBLE" academically?! Even IF Baylor sent "large numbers" of students to BCM, that still doesn't equal direct affiliation--is Princeton affiliated with MIT just because lots of Princeton grads choose MIT for grad school? I should have reserved a "LOL" this absurd post.

BCM does not publish a school-by-school breakdown of their entering class so one is only left to speculate on where students came from. One thing's for sure--Baylor's enormous deficiencies in, e.g., chemistry and biology (particularly relative to other in-state schools like UT and A&M) puts it at a tremendous disadvantage for attracting the best pre-medical students in Texas. Moreover, BU's research expenditures of $17 million/yr pale in comparison to other Texas schools, namely, Texas A&M's $570 million/yr or UT-Austin's $590 million/yr, so BU has little impact in scientific research.

In addition, the incoming freshman class statistics for Baylor (2010) are anything but incredible. Here's a snapshot for Baylor: 75th percentile SAT score of 1290, where 18% of freshmen scored a 30 or above on the ACT, and a 70% graduation rate for 2003 matriculants. Just for comparison's sake, at UT-Austin: 75th% SAT of 1360, 34% scored a 30 or above on the ACT, 81% graduation rate. I might agree with "INCREDIBLE" for Stanford, which has an SAT 75th% of 1540, 79% scoring a 30 or above on the ACT, and a 95% graduation rate.

I could go into a host of other reasons why Baylor is a mediocre university and give plenty of statistics and university rankings to support my position, but surely you've gotten the point by now...

[mugofbeer]

So back to the thread, after giving it some thought, I think it would be pretty cool to see OU, OSU, TU and TAM go to the SE Conference. My God, I'd almost put that conference up to the NFL!

[john60]

So back to the thread, after giving it some thought, I think it would be pretty cool to see OU, OSU, TU and TAM go to the SE Conference. My God, I'd almost put that conference up to the NFL!

The obvious pros there would be the money and the domination in football that would exist in the conference. Between UT, Bama, OU, UT, Florida, and LSU, I think the conference would have had a representative in the National Championship Game in football since 2000, with the Nebraska-Miami season being the only exception I can remember.

The money would be great, too. The SEC's TV contracts are massive. OU would generate a ton more revenue in that proposed conference based on TV exposure alone.

The drawbacks are great for UT and OU, though. Right now, both of those teams really have only 2 really difficult games, at the most, each year before they have what is essentially an automatic invitation to the national championship game. All OU has to do is beat UT (and vice versa), then win the conference championship game. Other than that, each team is usually favored by double digits in the rest of their games--with occasional exceptions. If OU went to the SEC, it would play Texas and LSU every year, then probably play Bama/Georgia/Florida every other year PLUS play the winner of the east division in the SEC championship game. Not exactly a stroll to get to the national championship game.

It would be an AWESOME conference though...every week of the season would be incredible.

[bombermwc]

Ignoring mr high and mighty semi that still doesnt get it....

If the big boys joined forces like that, you might as well tell the rest of the country to roll over and give up. MAYBE throw in there a USC or something, but they aren't what they were....besides being rude.

One bad thing that would come from that is that you would have all these really great teams playing each other for a spot in the big games, and then they'd be playing crap from the rest of the country. That's a problem with the good conferences. You eliminate good teams, while the crappy conferences suuple the best of the crap to play against the other team. The only way I can see around that is to do away with conferences and make it like high school sports. Playoffs based on a ranking. Now that nasty discussion would have to start....who determines the rankings? Personally, I think the computer should do it, but every time it ranks, so many people complain and what it changed because of this or that. Whatever...

[semisimple]

Ignoring mr high and mighty semi that still doesnt get it....

Yeah, you're doing a great job of "ignoring me" with this sentence. What am I supposed to "get" here? You are the one that can't comprehend what's being explained to you. (Well, perhaps the one thing I don't "get" is how one could possibly be so dense.)

Anyway, I'll take (this portion of) your post as a concession to my point and also as your acknowledgment that you're completely clueless about anything relating to higher education except college sports.

[bombermwc]

Take whatever you want to believe man...doesn't phase me what you think I simply chose to not waste my time on you anymore. I have more important things to worry about than a post that we all know people think about only football and not the other aspects of the conference....peace out.

[mmonroe]

back to topic?

[earlywinegareth]

Latest on this topic is Pac-10 is about to take bold action and extend invite to six Big 12 schools: OU, oSu, CU, Texas, Tx Tech, and A&M. Those six plus the two Arizona schools would form one half of a new 16-team conference.

Things could get very interesting if that happens. SEC might jump in and start a bidding war?

A couple more thoughts. It's apparent OU and Texas are perceived as a package deal. Likewise, oSu is a package with OU and A&M is a package with Texas. oSu should be happy that it has big bro OU.

[blangtang]

Latest on this topic is Pac-10 is about to take bold action and extend invite to six Big 12 schools: OU, oSu, CU, Texas, Tx Tech, and A&M. Those six plus the two Arizona schools would form one half of a new 16-team conference.

Things could get very interesting if that happens. SEC might jump in and start a bidding war?

A couple more thoughts. It's apparent OU and Texas are perceived as a package deal. Likewise, oSu is a package with OU and A&M is a package with Texas. oSu should be happy that it has big bro OU.

Mack and Bob + 14! lol!

[mmonroe]

Source: Pac-10 Conference poised to invite 6 Big 12 Conference teams - ESPN

Guess what

[redrunner]

Sweetness