Posted on 06/11/2010 5:30:09 AM PDT by iowamark
The Big 12 Conference’s possible erosion has begun.
The Pac-10 Conference announced Thursday that the University of Colorado has accepted an invitation to join the league, the first change in the conference in 32 years and the first in what could be sea change in college athletics.
“The University of Colorado is a perfect match — academically and athletically — with the Pac-10,” said Colorado President Bruce Benson.
Larry Scott, the Pac-10 commissioner who has been in office 11 months, called it a “historic moment” for the conference.
“The Pac-10 is poised for tremendous growth,” he said. “The University of Colorado is a great fit for the conference both academically and athletically, and we’re incredibly excited to welcome Colorado to the Pac-10.”
Colorada is tentatively scheduled to join the league in 2012.
Pac-10 TV contracts, among the lowest-paying for large conferences, will expire in 2012. Negotiations begin in 2011, by which time Scott hopes to have resolution on the makeup of the conference.
A move by other Big 12 schools could happen quickly.
News outlets in Nebraska have reported that Nebraska will apply for Big Ten Conference membership as early as today. The Executive Committee of the Nebraska Board of Regents meets today at 1 p.m. at Varner Hall on the Nebraska campus.
Chancellor Harvey Perlman and Athletics Director Tom Osborne are on the agenda to speak about a resolution regarding athletics conference alignment.
Missouri, another possible Big Ten candidate, is worried. Missouri curator Warren Erdman told the Associated Press the school has not been asked to join the Big Ten.
That — coupled with more teams joining the Pac-10 — could leave Missouri joining Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas and Kansas State on the sidelines, scrambling to salvage a process that school leaders hoped would result in an upgrade rather than awaiting an invitation that may never come.
“Anything could happen, but we’re working hard to stay together,” said Missouri Chancellor Brady Deaton, who added he had called Texas President William Powers to discuss the conference’s future after learning of Colorado’s departure.
Texas, the big target among Big 12 members, has said it won’t be idle during any shake-up, so a dissolution of the Big 12 seems imminent.
Judy Haggard, chairwoman of the Missouri governing board, suggested that Missouri’s fate remains unclear.
“It’s too soon to say,” she said before a closed meeting. “We’re going to be getting a lot of information these next two days.”
Despite repeated references to a carefully crafted statement pledging loyalty to the Big 12, Missouri seemed more than ready to join an expanded Big Ten should an offer have been made. Tiger fans are starting to worry.
Quinn Schortal, a 28-year old project engineer and 2005 Missouri graduate, said he would welcome a move to the Big Ten.
“The way this is being reported now I’m afraid they’re going to be left out in the cold,” he said. “They might have burned their bridges (with the Big 12).”
Wednesday, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver pledged support to Iowa and Iowa State. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said his staff is looking into possible non-profit and antitrust angles.
Thursday, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, an Iowa State graduate, addressed the topic during a weekly conference call with reporters.
“Well, while I am opposed to the kind of mischief that’s going on with the Big 10 and the Pacific conference,” Harkin said, “I just don’t know if this is a proper place for Congress to get involved unless there is something dealing with antitrust or something like that, like interstate commerce.”
He didn’t leave it at that.
“It’s interesting that those who are always going after the long arm of the federal government, that the federal government is too intrusive, the federal government is too big, now they are calling on the federal government to get involved in sports.”
Harkin put the onus on fans.
“The citizens of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma and all of the Big 12 all ought to get together and say we have a good Big 12 Conference and we want to keep it that way,” he said. Where things stand
Colorado — Gone. Sure, every road trip will be a long one. But the Buffaloes are trading Waco, Columbia and Manhattan for Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Seattle.
Nebraska — See ya. Cornhuskers have no aversion to cold-weather football in November.
Texas — Has the bidding closed to get this high-end property? Is there a last-second play call the Big Ten or SEC (or Big 12?) might make to keep the Longhorns from going to the Pac-10?
Texas A&M — Whatever the Longhorns say is fine.
Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State — They’d be delighted to be in the Pacific-16 East, which would be the funniest division name of all time.
Baylor — Pleading with Texas for help worked when the Big 12 was formed. This time? Sorry, Bears.
Kansas — Is it possible for one of the three or four elite college basketball programs in the nation to end up in the Mountain West Conference? Oh, it’s possible.
Kansas State — Kansas does have some small mountains, so the transition to the Mountain West wouldn’t be completely awkward for K-State.
Missouri — It wants to dance with the Big Ten. But does the Big Ten want to dance with the Tigers?
Iowa State — Is it too late to get Nebraska to change its mind?
No one in Texas has egos the size of the typical californicator.
Well, if the chinks joined, the big 12 is going to be a powerhouse in gymanstics. With or without Cororodo!
Having observed both I would disagree with that.
The new conference name PAC-16 doesn’t really make any sense. I think the should also rename the conference. Something that describes the geographica area from texas and Oklahoma thrrough the west coast. Bring back the “SOUTWEST CONFERENCE”
>> Bring back the “SOUTWEST CONFERENCE”
heh... I could go for that.
But what about Washington, Oregon, and Oregon State?
Are you an Ag? During football season UT & A&M talk more trash than anybody else, but when it comes to this kind of thing, we are one.
I mean, look at it from the Aggies point of view - they’ll go anywhere they have to to be able to (try to) kick TU’s ass. If that means more TV revenue, then why wouldn’t they?
Correction: No one exists who has a bigger ego than Lane Kiffen.
Very good take. It’s insane that this is happening because management couldn’t manage the golden goose. I figured it was because it was flyover country and nobody on the leftist-commie coasts cared. But this is a terrible reason to realign.
Re the colleges - you could be right - I’ve never heard anybody else bring up those ideas. Could be a lot of schools with well-known, long-held names becoming “Big State U at Bumfu(r)k”
I am an Aggie and married one too. Part of me misses the Southwest Conference.
At one time I thought this. However, I'm starting to hear rumblings that A&M is getting tired of being UT's "little brother." They've got 47,000 students and are top flight in many academic areas, especially engineering and hard sciences. One of the things that hacks the Aggies off most is that they consider UT their big rival, but UT considers Oklahoma their big rival.
Especially with the recession looming, I can see the Texas legislature getting involved. Before anyone says "why are politicians getting involved?" let's remember that these are state colleges funded by legislative acts. Right now, if A&M could split off and go to the SEC, I think they'd do it. They've already made noises about not liking the Pac 10 scenario because of two thousand mile road trips three or four times a season. Culturally, A&M is a lot more SEC than PAC 10. I don't see the Texas legislature letting Tech get left out in the rain, though, and to get Tech into the mix there has to be a package deal. There's too much potential for money loss. Baylor may end up being collateral damage, as TCU, SMU, and Rice were during the SWC break up. These were all private colleges, so their loss of revenue did not affect the state as much. Baylor was only in the mix for the Big 12 because the governor at the time was Ann Richards, a Baylor grad. This time, Baylor probably doesn't have the clout to tag along.
Thanks, I cover Baylor football, so I have a real interest in this. I like photographing Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford and Suh a lot more than some kid I never heard of from a Div II college.
After my post 50, I found this on the FoxNews web site:
The headline says: Sources: Texas, Texas A&M may head in different directions. It’s speculating that the Ags might go to the SEC and Texas head to the Pac 10.
Yeah, me too... but, having gotten to play the ags, the okies, and Nebraska to boot has made this conference work for me. Moreover, Colorado used to kick our asses, very respectable, and you could never count out Kansas or OK State. This has been a damn good conference. I don’t see why it has to break up.
The SWC, on the other hand, was doomed when SMU got the death penalty. But if SMU got the death penalty, then Miami should have gotten it too.
Well, I’d hate to see that. I don’t think Texas holds OK to be one iota a more hated rival than A&M. It’s just that A&M’s football program needs a renovation. They used to be freaking good and kick our asses all the time. You know, with the dedicated fan base that they have, they OWE it to the fans to put a quality product on the field.
Whatever the case, I’m sure Texas and the Aggies would still play each other on Thanksgiving, and maybe it would be an even bigger game, with a bowl atmosphere if they were in different conferences. One reason that the UT OK matchup might seem bigger is because of the neutral site, the fair, and that it’s earlier in the season — oftentimes, a lot has been decided already when the horns play the ags.
This is going to be interesting.
As an alum of the CU graduate program I can only laugh.
Chet Edwards, who happens to have both A&M and Baylor in his district, wants public hearings before any changes are made. That's mostly because he wants to force a package deal that includes Baylor. However, Rick Perry said the state is staying out of it, and he's the only one who has the authority to call a legislative session. Perry, being an Aggie, is giving the Ags free reign to make their own decision.
There are two schools of thought if the Ags go to the SEC. One is that they'll still play the annual game with Texas, which goes back something like 105 years. The other is that if the Aggies break to the SEC the blood will be so bad that the rivalry will end. This happened when Arkansas left the old SWC.
The Arkansas rivalry was immortalized becausae of the great shootout. But the UT — A&M rivalry is so much deeper because of all the families where some went Texas, some went to College Station. I think there would be literally riots in the streets if they did this. The Aggies would have to find a new fight song, for pete’s sake, as it’s all about beating Texas. I can see how they yearn to get out from under big brother’s shadow... but I can’t see them destroying the family entirely.
I’m with you. I went to UT, but have a nephew in the Corps of Cadets, and my daughter is looking at getting her master’s at A&M.
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