Friday, June 11, 2010

YES, THE BIG TEN HAS TWELVE TEAMS, AND THE BIG XII HAS X: Continuing Conference Musical Chairs Coverage -- Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are likely to become teams #12-15 in the Pacific 10, Nebraska is officially the Big Ten's twelfth, and Texas A&M is unsure whether to become the Pacific 10's #16 or the SEC's #13. I will note, as I did on Twitter earlier today, that Austin, Texas is actually about 250 miles closer to the Atlantic Ocean than it is to the Pacific, and has a shorter drive to the furthest Ivy (Dartmouth) than its furthest new rival, the University of Washington.

Potential Big XII orphans Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Iowa State are weighing their options (Big East?), while Boise State has left the WAC for the Mountain West, becoming the tenth team in a conference with Utah, BYU, TCU and others. And at least for the moment, Notre Dame wants to stay put.

19 comments:

  1. Beth M.11:45 PM

    As a Baylor Alum, I got a mass email from Baylor's new president Ken Star (yes, that Ken Star.)  He seems to want all the TX schools to come together and fight some of this.  There are also TX state legislators wanting hearings on economic impacts and such.  http://edwards.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1129:edwards-urges-dewhurst-straus-to-hold-immediate-hearings-on-future-of-big-12-a-impact-on-texas&catid=25:2010-press-releases&Itemid=47  And http://www.statesman.com/opinion/dunnam-decisions-affecting-the-big-12-should-be-740104.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. piledhighanddeep12:03 AM

    In Ohio, we're now referring to The Big Ten as The Big Tent, which allows us to make appropriately circus-related jokes about our imprisoned running backs behaving like clowns, the opposition performing like trained monkeys, etc., etc., etc.

    I don't think Notre Dame can hold out for much longer.  Their ratings are way down; I can't see NBC renewing their TV contract next time it comes due.  The Big Tent is the logical place for them to land, geographically speaking.  They have some oft-renewed rivalries with Michigan State and a few other Big Tent teams.  It will be interesting to see how that plays out.  What's the over/under on Notre Dame caving?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mr. Cosmo12:15 AM

    Between USC getting stomped and Mizzou being orphaned, boy, has this been a bad week for a certain cricket-loving sailor. 

    ReplyDelete
  4. isaac_spaceman2:16 AM

    Pinocchio?

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Pathetic Earthling10:54 AM

    What does this do for the down-ticket sports?  I'm sure Texas boosters will get a Gulfstream V set up for the basketball team, but does Women's Washington Track have to play regularly against Texas Tech?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Notre Dame is not caving.  They just extended the NBC contract through 2015 (http://www.und.com/genrel/061908aab.html).  They are close to inking a three game series (12, 14, 16) with Miami.  If Brian Kelly is a failure of a coach, then the contract won't be extended and they'll be forced to join a conference.  Even a bad Notre Dame team - which they've been for most of the last two decades - gets decent ratings, and with the Comcast/NBC/Versus anti-ESPN channel supposedly being launched, they are going to need content.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ugh.  I am a KU Alum and truly, all this is just sad.  I was never a big fan of the Big 12 and preferred the ye olde days from the Big 8, but still.  This is crazy.  And again, sad.  Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mike D12:01 PM

    The plan is to handle each sport differently, since some new schools (namely CU) don't even have a lot of down-ticket sports, and, wherever possible, keep the two sides (the Pac 8/Southwest 8) apart, with at most, one 'long' road trip per season per sports team. 

    Really, it sounds like the idea, in every sport other than basketball (which is proposing a 15-game regular season, where you play every other team once), is to create almost 2 separate conferences.  Even in football, the current plan/rumor doesn't even include a championship game, with the hope being each 'division' gets an automatic BCS bid, as opposed to only having one if they hold a championship game.

    ReplyDelete
  9. They think that each division should get an automatic bid.  Well, that's crap.  If each of their divisions gets an automatic bid, then I think that both divisions of the SEC should get an automatic bid.  And why do I have this feeling that the ACC might feel the same way?  Etc.

    Dear Pac-whatever-the-hell-you're-calling-yourselves-these days:  Get an f'g championship game.  If you want an automatic bid, make sure that your two best teams are forced to play each other in a season.

    ReplyDelete
  10. cagey, I don't know many KU people and am curious as to what's your preference as far as a landing place.  I've heard Mountain West and to a lesser extent, Big East.  Any thoughts, or still just sort of numb right now?

    ReplyDelete
  11. The Pathetic Earthling12:36 PM

    Pac-10 Football produces an undisputed champion every year, because every team plays the other nine.  There's no need for a championship game.  Pac-10 Basketball has a championship game, if I recall.

    I'm totally opposed to this Pac-16 nonsense.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The worst part about all this expansion is you're losing the opportunity for real round robin.  ACC basketball used to have a home-and-home between every opponent, but when they added VT, Miami and BC, they lost that.  (I believe Coach K opines about this annually.)  The PAC-10 played more conference games than any of the other major leagues so they got a true champion, and now that's gone.  As far as the BCS - for the scant years it has remaining in its putrid existence - it might actually help the PAC-10 to drop down to eight league games, as it lets them load up on cupcakes like other conferencess and secure the elusive second bid they never get due to, you know, actually playing real competition.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The Pathetic Earthling2:15 PM

    And every time there were two national quality teams in the Pac-10, they *had* to play one another.  No longer.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dan Suitor2:31 PM

    Here's what I know: college football fans take their sport far too seriously. There will be games this fall, and they will be good.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Jenn.2:37 PM

    TPE, we're not disagreeing.  I have issues with the concept of any conference boosting its teams ratings by not ensuring that at least their top two teams have to play each other.  The SEC is too big for everyone to play each other in football, but everyone within a division plays each other (as well as about half of the teams in the other division), and then the winners of the division play each other. 

    I'm down with a conference either maintaining a size where everyone plays each other or holding a conference championship that forces the top contenders for the BCS to play each other.  But in a BCS world where there is no national tournament, it really irks me that a team can manage to maintain its undefeated status and gain a BCS bowl berth and sometimes even a national championship berth without even having to play the other top contender in their own conference.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Jenn.2:40 PM

    It's partly a school pride sort of thing, partly a sports thing, and partly a product of a world where there isn't a "March Madness" equivalent for football.  I, for one, will never forget the year that an undefeated (and, to be frank, awesome) Auburn didn't even have a chance to play for the national championship because teams that were higher ranked in the preseason were also undefeated, but hadn't necessarily gone through an equivalent gauntlet to maintain their undefeated status.  Crap like this "just give the Pac-thingie two automatic bids to the BCS and don't make our top teams play each other" increase the odds of that kind of an unfair situation, and also increase the odds that there will be undefeated teams who automatically outrank a team with one loss who played a tougher season.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Meghan7:20 PM

    And, as a faithful Michigan alum, it pains me to say that Brian Kelly will not be a failure of a coach.  ND is on its way back.  sadface

    ReplyDelete
  18. isaac_spaceman10:10 PM

    In response to TPE's initial question, Washington's women's track team has one All-American in the sprints this year (a hurdler), but is stronger in the distances.  Katie Follett ran in the finals of the 1500, I think today (I haven't checked the results); she's a many-time All-American in both cross-country and track.  Mel Lawrence is running the 3200 steeplechase final as well, and hopefully will be an All-American again (she took third last year), but was injured most of the year and is really just rounding into shape.  Worth mentioning that Kailey Campbell (from my high school) was on her way to nationals in the 1500 as well, but got tripped and didn't finish the race.  I realize the Texas schools have better sprinters, but Washington will hold its own otherwise. 

    Washington's other downticket sports will do just fine.  The former Big-12 teams are better at baseball (though Stanford and ASU, I think, regularly field good teams), but the Pac-10 dominates in softball (Washington won the title last year but washed out in the CWS this year after being a unanimous #1 in the polls from wire to wire) and has national champions in women's cross-country (Washington, last year), volleyball (Washington, two years ago), and men's crew (Washington, the last four years) in the last few years.  As for the travel, a flight to Dallas or Houston isn't that much more inconvenient than a flight to LA.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Numb.  And the nastiness up here is at an all-time high.  Like comments to the tune of "if KU fans didn't suck so hard, everyone would not be bailing so quickly"  Definitely does not make me love our conference, so let it all blow up, I suppose.

    ReplyDelete