I didn't really see that title as all that titillating, but I suppose there's the possibility that someone will see that and think,"That's ridiculous, there's nothing wrong with the Big 12."
That person is an idiot. If that person is you, then yes, I just called you an idiot. Please keep reading my blog.
5) Kick Iowa State the fuck out.
First of all, this is not without precedent. Six years ago, the Big East kicked Temple out, because Temple wasn't committed to athletics, and this from a conference that is to football what Jay Leno is to comedy. Sure, you have a bigger stage than most, but you still suck at it.
So why is the Big 12 holding on to Iowa State? Is it their long-standing athletic tradition? (impossible). Is it the juggernaut that is the Ames, IA media market? (this seems unlikely). Is it loyalty from the leaner Big 8 years? Granted, ISU has been paired up with the former Big 8 teams for over 100 years, but this being modern college football, we've seen what a premium is placed in loyalty as Nebraska, Utah, Colorado, Miami, Boston College, Boise State and TCU have all jumped conferences at the drop of a hat in the last few years, and head football coaches do it even more than that. Nebraska first joined the Big 8 a year before Iowa State did, and just dumped the Big 12 faster than Mel Gibson's agent dumped Mel Gibson. This is the nature of the sport. Fuck loyalty; let's take the money.
It might be something if ISU won games, and I really can't be bothered to check, maybe they have an outstanding golf team or even soccer team, on the men's or women's side. But what pays the bills is football and basketball, and Iowa State has never excelled at either one. They don't even seem interested in excelling. They just teach their students to be intelligent, educated men and women, while sitting back on the athletic side of things, and collect their checks. No wonder revenue sharing is uneven in the Big 12. If the Big 12 were a band, Iowa State is the drummer. Would YOU pay the drummer the same as the singer/songwriter head of the band? If you do, you're an idiot. Sure, maybe you've known that drummer since you were 13, and maybe he just got out of rehab and really, REALLY needs this gig. But if a member isn't pulling their weight, you're just kidding yourself. It's not like there aren't good bands out there. ISU has been making BCS money since the formation of the Big 12 in 1996, and if they gave a damn about athletics, maybe they could be sharing space in the Big Ten with the Iowa Hawkeyes by this point. Nope. Now they're just the distant cousin up north, spending way too much money to fly football players down to Austin or Norman to lose.
This isn't the pro leagues. You don't get rewarded for losing. Toss 'em.
4) Tell UT to go fuck itself.
Obviously, you want Texas in your conference. The Pac-12 sure did. But being the big fat guy who also has huge muscles and a Humvee does not mean everyone should do what you say; it just means you're an asshole. Major conference draw? Duh. But so is Ohio State in the Big Ten, Florida in the SEC, and Florida State in the ACC, and they all managed to do it without twisting the arm of every other conference member and making them say "Uncle."
The current deal is worth a shitload of money to UT, but I disagree with the assumption that UT couldn't be making a shitload of money in any situation. Sure, traditionalists will point to Notre Dame, but there's a reason UM, OSU, FSU, UF, USC, UCLA and even Air Force are in major collegiate conferences-- because it makes financial sense. All the other conferences share the money, grow the brand, help each other out. They all work to get better and showcase a marketable, appealing product (even Vanderbilt has shown signs of athletic prowess these past few years), and as they grow together, so too can they undertake new opportunities together, as with the new Big Ten network, the SEC network, the Pac-12 network... there are huge amounts of money to be made here. Meanwhile, if I'm an OU alum, how likely am I to watch "The Longhorn Network?" Answer: Not very likely. Because nobody likes a spoiled child.
3) Financially Restructure
Texas is large, but it's not as large as the nine remaining Big 12 universities. Granted, when the last ESPN and FSN contracts were negotiated, it was for X amount of money to be divided among 12 teams... with 2 teams gone, that dollar amount remains the same, except now divided ten ways instead of 12. More money for everyone. BUT... when that contract is up, it's time for the other nine schools to get in UT's face and say they want to share everything equally so they can all grow equally. Yes, taking advantage of the little guy is a very Red State way of doing things, and Texas is among the reddest of the red states. But in every other conference, this system has failed, and the equal-share system has worked for everyone's benefit. If you truly feel a particular institution is not pulling their weight and doesn't deserve an equal share-- make them earn their keep, or kick them out. See previous point.
The result here is the chance to grow the revenue pulled in, in Missouri and Oklahoma and other parts of Texas. The Big Ten and Pac-12 could get this just fine, and nobody got hurt. Hell, Ohio State has surpassed UT as the largest student body in the country... what have you got to lose, UT? Ya chicken?
2) Make Sweet, Sweet Love to the Fox Sports Network
Pop quiz, hotshot: Where are the ESPN offices/studios? If you said Los Angeles or Bristol CT, congratulations, you are correct. They sure to mention it a lot, and that's the largest sports network in the nation.
Now, where are the Fox Sports offices located?
Unless you're from there, you may not know: technicians operate in Houston TX, broadcasters broadcast from Dallas TX. I have a sneaking suspicion this is because Texas is a right-to-work state and FSN therefore doesn't have to worry about those pesky unions and their bathroom breaks, but that's neither here nor there; I know someone who works for FSN and he does very well. The point is, these offices are in Texas and this is a golden opportunity.
East and West coast bias exists, to the point we don't even notice it. Sure, the sports media still jumped all over Lebron's junk when we has in Cleveland, but the ACC and Big East still regularly get more coverage in the sports world than the Big 12, despite the Big East being terrible at football, and the ACC finishing the 2011 football season with zero ranked teams, in addition to underwhelming in basketball, or at least the majority of the teams anyway. If Fox Sports can get into the homes of the big media markets in Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, why not inform their viewers what they've been missing in the Central Time Zone? ... And maybe they have. But sharing the 2nd-most populous state in the nation with the HIGHEST number of FBS schools in the country (ten since 2001, it goes up to 12 in 2012) must create some pretty great opportunities. Take them. Because nobody else is gonna notice it's only LA and NY talking, if it's only LA and NY talking.
1) For the Love of my Ass, Go Back to 12 teams
There's a reason the Big 12 is ten teams in 2011... see #3 on the list. The FSN contract was just resigned, the ESPN contract goes through 2013 or 2014. That's 12 teams worth of money being split only ten ways, and everybody wants to cash that check. Perhaps it's even enough to offset not having a conference title game.
But not forever.
Say you've booted Iowa State, and you're down to nine. This has its upsides (4 conferences home games, 4 away games a season), but convenience isn't the same as increasing your revenue stream. And so you look to expand and build rivalries.
The problem is, unlike every other major conference, you're not on a coast. And I do use that term loosely (yes, I know, nobody refers to "The Great Lake Coasts"), but you see what I'm saying. The Pac-10 for years owned the west coast, it's only in the last 12 months they took possession of the equally-thinly populated Mountan Time Zone. The Big East and Big Ten have teams in the EST and CST. The ACC owns the 12 best teams on the eastern seaboard. And of course there's the SEC, that hotbed of recruitment, making more money than anyone, with a strangehold on the deep south.
Well, sirs, I submit to you that much like the old Big 12 North, the SEC West is weak. Granted, it's still the SEC, so even their weak arm could kick the ass of your entire family, but the heart of the conference is in the east, in Florida and Georgia and their annual rivalry. Yes, Auburn and Alabama have had a nice run, but it's hardly typical for a conference that prides itself on tradition and history. And if the Big 12 could offer LSU or Arkansas as much money as they make in the SEC, those schools might consider moving. Which the Big 12 COULD do, if they followed suggestions 5-2 on my list.
Even without that move, there are still major media markets that better get their asses in gear if they want to be considered around the middle of the decade. Currently, Memphis has an adequate basketball program, but their football is terrible. You could almost say the same thing about Louisiana Tech, and while granted their women's hoops team far outshines their men's team, the same can be said for Tennessee, and that school has been doing pretty okay.
You want to show people you're not weak, you have to push back. If not a team in Tennessee or Louisiana (or Arkansas), why not a unversity in Ohio or Michigan? The MAC has its share sleeping giants, often ranked but with their coaches getting hired away by bigger temptations as soon as they taste any success. Why WOULDN'T the Big 12 want to recruit in Ohio, or Michigan, or Missouri, or even Colorado or Tennessee? That's where the money is. You're sure not going to make any extra by adding TCU or Tulsa, no matter how good they are.
Every conference-moving team (except Temple) has moved up into a geographically-sensible conference that is nearly on the same level as the conference they left. A Sun Belt team, for example, would never make the jump directly to the Big 12 or SEC, but when the ACC expanded, they went to the Big East. The Big East went to Conference USA, and C-USA went to the WAC. The Mountain West drew from the WAC and C-USA, and now the Pac-12 has snapped up a Mountain West team. There are not 2-tiers in college football... there are three, and the Big East, Mountain West and Conference USA are right in the middle.
The Big 12 has a decision to make and they have half of a decade to make it. And they MUST make it, because in 2012 the Mountain West will have the same number of members they do, and will begin honing in on its territory (if they don't take TCU back, UTEP and Tulsa are right there, and UNT's athletics budget will surpass TCU's by 2013). That is how you stay at the top of your game and relevant, and Texas cannot do it by itself. If they could, they would, but when you're culturally obligated to play Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State every year, you might as well make it official and keep the conference. But new rivalries are okay, too.
In the meantime, 2011 and 2012 will be boring in Texas. UT or OU will win the conference every year, there will be no championship game, and whether or not they win their BCS bowl game, they'll be unable to prove anything late in the season. Competition is good... and the Big 12 needs to find some.
Or else that crisis we nearly averted a year ago... the Big 12 might not be so lucky next time.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
July 1st is Almost Upon Us
July 1st is the day any D-I university must declare its intention to leave its conference, if it wishes to join a new one for the 2012-13 season. That date is 7 days away and apparently it's not like the trade deadline. Nobody is trying to sneak in under the wire.
Previously, we had Nebraska and Colorado and Utah bolt for other BCS conferences, Boise State move up to the MWC, BYU bolt for no conference at all. For 2011-12, that was it.
Boise State was late to that game, but I'm sure the invite took them by surprise, but a welcome one at that. Other dominoes (nay, Jenga pieces) began to fall shortly thereafter, these for the 2012-13 season: Fresno State and Nevada joining the MWC in all sports. Hawaii joining the MWC in football only. TCU leaving the MWC for the Big East. Denver leaving the Sun Belt for the WAC, just as Texas State and UT-San Antonio leave the FCS Southland for the lights of the WAC as well.
So far, that's it. Any big move at the top has ripple effects all the way to the bottom, and UTSA (no football until 2011) and Denver (no football at all) are pretty much as far down as you're gonna get. Sure, UMass has plans to join the MAC in football, and Charlotte, Georgia State, UTSA and South Alabama are all starting football programs (or in the case of Lamar, re-starting), but as far as major-conference realignment, Nebraska was the highest-profile move, and Denver was the lowest-profile. Citizens of Colorado might disagree, but... again. they don't play football, and even their basketball team wasn't very good. TxST and UTSA at least have that one extra sport they might get lucky in.
My point: with UMass' recent announcment and schools like Villanova undecided about an FBS move, that leaves the Big East with eight football teams in 2011, nine teams in 2012 (and 853 in basketball). Nine is plenty for a major conference; that's four conference home games and four away per season.
The Mountain West, with BYU and TCU out and Utah State turning them down, will have ten teams going into 2012. Ten teams if they do nothing in the next seven days-- had Utah State said yes, the MWC would have eleven teams, and would seem a lock to be adding another, and soon, to qualify for a conference championship game in December 2012. But USU said no, TCU ran off in search of instant gratification, leaving the MWC with ten. Is ten enough? Could they stop here and be content for a number of years? Most likely, it would seem... the signs all point to "most likely."
The WAC will have 8 in 2011, and as of right now, 7 in 2012. Sure, they'll be stocked up on basketball, but 7 football programs in a major conference? This could be a problem. Montana: turned you town. North Texas: turned you down. How WAC commissioner could have so much go wrong and yet still keep his job is something of a mystery. And yet there he still sits, seven days until a confirmed, locked-on SEVEN teams for the 2012 football season. Well done, Mr. Benson. I do not envy you the headache you shall have to endure for the next year, at least.
At the top of things, it seems unlikely the Big 12 will add anyone soon (which we base mostly on the fact that they told the media "we won't be adding anyone anytime soon"), and besides, their current contract with ESPN was signed for 12 teams, and they are currently spreading 12-teams worth of money over ten teams, meaning a bigger check for everyone, from Texas down to Iowa State. Good for them. Play hard to get; the neighbors will shape up.
On the other end, though, in 2012, South Alabama will join the Sun Belt in football. Okay, they'll be ineligiable to win a championship that first year, but they'll be FBS, bringing the Sun Belt to ten teams. Meanwhile, the SB loses Denver in basketball in 2012, bringing them DOWN to eleven teams in that sport, and out of divisional play. The divisional format would work better for such an unwieldy conference, you would think, but something tells me the Southland won't be in a very giving mood, after having just lost two Texas schools to an entirely difference division. Will 11 and 10 leave the Sun Belt content? They claim yes, I'm not so sure.
But if no one makes a move between today (Friday) and July 1st (next Friday)... all these numbers hold from now until July 1st, 2012... and nothing new will happen until the 2013 season.
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