Posted on 06/07/2010 8:57:56 AM PDT by Bad~Rodeo
The Big 12 is done for. Not big enough to feed Texas ego and not in the big TV markets which is what’s driving all of this. Texas will go where they want, and bring along whomever they want - probably to PAC 10.
The future will be 4 16-team conferences, all with TV network deals. That will be the new Division I, everyone else will be Division II whether they are called that or not.
I used to think that Frank Broyles made a big mistake when he took Arkansas to the SEC. I thought that Arkansas would be much better off playing Big 8 schools like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri, and of course the Texas schools when the SWC folded. Its now looking like old Frank made the right choice.
Texas can have their “fiefdom” in the SEC as well, if the SEC goes to 4 four-team divisions. The SEC would be THE conference. A lot more money than if they go to the PAC-10.
They could have a “Texas Division” either way, but the TV markets demographics actually favor the PAC 10. I personally think that would be a bad choice, but money talks in this little drill.
The team for Texas to beat in the Big 12 is Oklahoma. Win that game, and they punch their ticket to the title game. (unless there is a three way tie in the South). Even if they lose the title game, they still will likely get a BCS at-large bid. In this “Pac-16” scenario, the same would be true.
That absoultely would not be true in the SEC West. Texas would have to get past LSU, Alabama and Auburn (and Arkansas is no pushover) just to get to Atlanta. That’s more talent than Texas faces in the entire Big 12 or would face in an entire “Pac 16”. If it doesn’t win the SEC, then Texas has to compete with those schools, plus Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and potential SEC East additions for an at-large birth or even a tier-one bowl.
Ehhh, wrong. Beating Zero U, OU, is more a rivalry than a stepping stone to the Big Dance. Texas' mantra is to beat EVERYONE we face.
Pac-10 administrators arrived in San Francisco this weekend to a report that the conference was ready to invite Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor from the Big 12 to create a 16-team megaconference. There has also been a report that Baylor could replace Colorado in that scenario or the Pac-10 could choose to keep the status quo or add only two teams in a smaller move.
I think the Big12, SEC, and Big10 will figure this out and it won't be as radical as formations of 16 team conferences.
As for the PAC-10, leave it the hell alone. I'll totally against adding any teams east of the rockies to a division where most of the schools are a stones throw from the pacific ocean.
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