He is just waiting for someone ANYONE to explain why Mizzou would leave the conference.

That is all.

SEC's stability beckons Mizzou

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/10/02...ns-mizzou.html

In each of the last two years, the Big 12 has cheated death, but survival has come with pain and scars.

Three schools and counting are gone. So is a commissioner. Still, the Big 12 lives, without the conviction of other conferences, but the heart beats just the same. And the pulse figures to quicken this week with news on two fronts.

Missouri and expansion.

A decision for the ages may await the Tigers. Interest from the Southeastern Conference appears real, and the school’s Board of Curators’ meeting on Tuesday will address the issue.

That may be all they do, according to a Big 12 official. “My guess is they will do what Texas A&M did, what Oklahoma and Texas did when their boards met and give (Chancellor) Brady Deaton the authority to deal with the issue,” the official said. “I’d be very surprised if what came out of the meeting was news that Missouri made application and was accepted an offer from the SEC.”

If that’s the case, there would be more time to further consider a move — yes, everybody has realignment fatigue, but a possible decision this important shouldn’t be fast-tracked — or to have the Big 12 meet the concerns of Missouri.

But even if some Big 12 schools give or bend on issues — displeasure with high school content on Texas’ Longhorn Network remains a hot-button topic — would it be enough? Perhaps not.

The SEC, like the Big Ten and Pac-12, offers the kind of long-term athletic financial security that only exists in conferences that understand the greater good is achieved through an equal partnership approach.

The Pac-12 came to this notion late, but it’s there now, and it’s a reason why Texas and its network weren’t welcome.

The Big 12 is working toward this approach, and an announcement on equal revenue sharing of its largest TV contract income could come soon.

But twice having been driven to the brink of collapse, the Big 12 cannot assure long-term guarantees, no matter how many years of television rights are signed over to the conference.

Stability becomes the overriding factor, and the last people who could point a finger at Missouri are from Texas and Oklahoma, who only two weeks ago had saddled up for the ride out of the Big 12.

Other factors in such a monumental decision deserve discussion around the curators’ table. Goodness knows, the fans have flushed them out for weeks, and there are many reasons to oppose a move.

Joining the SEC ends the possibility of becoming a member of the group Missouri has long coveted, the Big Ten. The school has inquired several times over the years to different commissioners about membership. If college sports become super-sized as some project, perhaps the Big Ten reopens the expansion file.

But the SEC is a death-do-us-part commitment. No more dreamy-eyed looks at a region and school grouping that’s a better fit.

Competitively, the Big 12 offers the better home. Although Missouri has the fewest conference regular-season and postseason championships among Big 12 schools, several sports compete nationally.

And football would be fine. The SEC is the nation’s most ferocious conference — we all know that. But by most measures, the Big 12 has been the second best, and no worse than third, for most of its existence.

The football staff, however, would live in a new recruiting world, less in Texas, which has been so good to the Tigers, and more in the Southeast. Not to say Mizzou couldn’t pull it off, but as one recruiting analyst told me, the Missouri staff is as well-connected there as anybody outside the Lone Star State.

The two games in Texas have become a major selling point. The staff would need to come up with new sweet-talking lines.

Finally, for Missouri, there’s the Kansas City factor. With the basketball tournament and Border War game with Kansas at Arrowhead, we could be affected by a conference switch more profoundly than any other region in the state.

But that would be our tough luck. Missouri, if faced with a decision, has to act in the best interest of the school.

Whatever Mizzou’s future holds, the Big 12 seems determined to replenish. Rumors ran rampant last week that Brigham Young and the conference had come to an agreement, a story denied by both sides.

But BYU remains a favorite, a school that at some point in the last month, when it was becoming apparent Texas A&M would leave for the SEC, was seen as a schedule filler for the Aggies. Just plug the A&M holes on everybody’s schedule next year with BYU. It might not have been that easy, but perhaps a starting point.

If Mizzou also leaves, the Big 12 will need to move aggressively. Boise State would love to become a member, and although Big East presidents said Sunday that they would “aggressively pursue discussions” with expansion targets and change bylaws to make fleeing more difficult, no deterrent has prevented a move yet.

Big 12 interim commissioner Chuck Neinas is expected to make public comments today, and he’s as pro-Big 12 for Mizzou as it gets. Who knows where the story goes? Wherever it does, we’re in for at least another week of realignment competing for attention with great matchups like Saturday’s Missouri-Kansas State and Oklahoma-Texas games.



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/10/02...#ixzz1Zh09QK6E

I'm not a Mizzou fan at all, but there is no way if the SEC wants you that you should turn them down.

If they decide to stay in the Big 12 the people running the show there are stupider than the idiots running the Royals.

I agree, if they stay and an SEC offer was on the table, Deaton, Alden, and the whole board of curators should be fired immediately.

Jesus HH, what is the point of you shitting all over this thread? Anyone with a functioning brain understands the allure of the SEC. It is the premier athletic conference in the country with unprecedented revenue upside. Continuing to play devil's advocate in this thread just makes you look clueless and devalues your opinion.

I think a lot of the things you've said make more sense than many of my fellow Mizzou fans do, but this is a nonsensical argument.

Please refrain from posting in this thread. You have violated the "basketball" rule one too many times, plus you are so far away from reality you add nothing to the conversation.

No offense, but MU demanding anything is laughable. I'd like them to stay in the conference but their demands should only be met if reasonable.

Agree, but what is a reasonable demand? I'm not sure. I think Mizzou wants major concessions on LHN and I don't see that happening, so I think the rest of this is just fluff. Mizzou is going to have to show its hand soon.

Mizzou is probably going "Hey, let's ask for *insert outrageous concession*, if they go for it - we'll stay. If they don't, we'll be able to say Texas didn't meet our demands and we can leave with a clear conscience."

My money is on: Missouri asked for a *reach concession* and if it is rejected they'll stay anyway as long as a a little movement in the direction of the concession is achieved to allow Missouri to save face.

Whatever demands they're making are most likely demands K-State would like to be making if only they had the leverage to do so. Mizzou doesn't have a ton of leverage, but they have some. Mizzou's retention is attractive to Texas for the same reasons Mizzou's acquisition would be to the SEC.

MWC revenue vs SEC revenue?

MU has to go to the SEC

Must suck to have no leverage huh?