E-mailed 8/12/11
n case you thought the Big 12 minus 2 story was just going to go away, its not and is, in fact, gaining steam. One might think it would have ended yesterday, after the NCAA voted to ban high school games on conference and/or individual school networks, but it didn't. The date for a vote by A&M has been set: August 22nd. SEC Officials are meeting Saturday and are expected to decide to formally offer a spot to A&M. Bob Davie, former ND coach, said having a network contract doesn't help recruiting. Well, it might not if you are Bob Davie, but when M. Brown of TX says he's having trouble "balancing coaching with my Longhorn Network obligations" then one would assume Texas has found a way to make it work. All this info (sans the Brown quote which was from yesterday) came from this article <http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/08/11/3285640/commentary-am-should-think-twice.html>. The money quote: "If A&M wants to green-light a move to the SEC, where the Aggies wouldn't have to deal with the ramifications of Texas' 20-year, $300 million network in conjunction with ESPN, that seems like the fastest opportunity to reach closure. And that sounds like the plan."
The Sporting News agrees with this time line <http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2011-08-11/source-report-of-texas-am-accepting-sec-invitation-just-not-true> and refutes Rivals.com who said yesterday that A&M and the SEC had already agreed on a deal. In the Sporting News article it says the SEC would add one more school with A&M but not three more. The two schools it names are Virginia Tech and your Missouri Tigers. At this point people are just throwing out names of possible schools. My take after reading them all it looks like the pecking order will go something like this:
(1) Oklahoma -- Who will say no and try its luck with Texas.
(2) Florida State -- Who is already lobbying to be the other school.
(3) Virginia Tech
(4) Missouri
If you read nothing else, read this brilliant article <http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/justice/7694204.html> from CBS Sportsline. Not only does the article call DeLoss Dodds (Texas Athletic Director) the Commissioner of the Big 12 minus 2, the author takes some specific shots later in the article at Beebe: "When Beebe — OK, he really is the Big 12 commissioner — was asked about the crisis Wednesday, he said he hadn't spoken to anyone from A&M. Really? Didn't have the time, Dan? Didn't have your iPhone handy? Did you have something more important than allowing your conference to vaporize?"
And that is basically what is going on: the conference is vaporizing and a buffoon is watching it happen. The thesis of the article is that A&M has to go to the SEC to save face, they can't continue to make threats and stomp their feet every few months. The sub-thesis: this move is all about anger and ego: "And there's emotion. In College Station, anger appears to be ruling the day. In Austin, they're angry that the Aggies are angry." [snip] "Byrne (A&M Athletic Director) didn't have as much money to spend even before ESPN became a $15-million-a-year Texas booster, but he hasn't needed to. Unless money buys wisdom, Texas A&M has nothing to worry about in the Big 12. Unfortunately, money and wisdom aren't driving the debate here. This is one is all about ego. But the Aggies have to go this time. It's the only way they save face, and they can worry about the consequences down the road."
Ah, consequences. It looks like ours are:
(1) A weaker Big 12 minus 2 (replacing A&M with another lesser team)
(2) The SEC (and getting our clocks cleaned on the field and off in recruiting--at least in football)
(3) The PAC 10
(4) The Big East (who takes anyone interested into their 100 team conference) or the Mountain West
Pick your poison.
No comments:
Post a Comment