[eazyb81]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

http://dev.chuckoliver.net/2012/05/t...-big-12-story/

This is good stuff.

I am one of the few who continue to be able to recognize the Big 12 as a fundamentally instable coalition. Between its new bowl partnership with the SEC and a 13-year “grant of rights” which binds each member institutions’ media rights (TV games) to the conference, the leagues’ future appears secure. I don’t however find a commitment genuine when it’s given at the point of a gun. The current schools’ commitment to the Big 12 was given when none of those schools had any other option for a conference home. Fact is Texas (and Texas Tech) and Oklahoma (and Oklahoma State) would rather be in the Pac 12 than Big 12. They applied for membership and were denied. Florida State and Clemson, if they do join, would much rather be in the SEC than Big 12, but were not invited. The Big 12 is a marriage of convenience at best and more likely of last resort. Eleven of 12 SEC member institutions if given the ability to join any conference would choose to remain with the SEC (I’m sure Missouri still deep-down covets Big 10 membership.) Twelve of 12 Big 10 schools and 12 of 12 Pac 12 schools would choose to stay in their league. If the Big 12’s membership could magically determine its own conference affiliation how many of them do you think would stay in the Big 12? Maybe Baylor and TCU? Kansas State and Iowa State?

A lack of options and now money are the only things binding the Big 12 schools together. They share none of the brotherhood and vision for the future which exists in the SEC, Big 10 and Pac 12. When other options present themselves, or more money is available elsewhere, you can bet your bottom dollar the Big 12 will again destabilize as its members continue to seek a more desirable home.


I never viewed a potential move by Florida State UNIVERSITY to the Big 12 simply in football terms. In this discussion, no one else has been able to move past that point. For better or worse a school’s conference affiliation influences the university at large in a number of ways I don’t think have ever been fully examined and that I don’t pretend to be able to predict. I can say this with certainty however: Florida State University allowing its football program to spearhead a decision of this magnitude and reach is dangerous.


Finally, and perhaps most inexcusable of all on my part, was my failure to remember that smart people do dumb things every minute of every hour of every day and they always have and always will.