I Give Up

I give up.  We don't have a league and 6 hours later we do and six hours after that we don't again.  Here is what went down:

(1) The Pac-12 decided it wanted to stay the Pac 12 at around 11 pm eastern time last night.  In that instant that the press release went out, our brothers and sisters at OU knew what we all felt like a year ago with the Big 10.  Welcome to the club.  The club sucks.

(2) What happened to the OU-Pac 12 deal? No one knows, but here is a pretty good FAQ.  Basically, the Pac-12 Presidents balked at OK State, OU, and TX Tech's academic record.  Seriously?  They pick now to start talking academics?  At any rate the FAQ also says Mizzou ain't going to the SEC yet and OU has a list of demands...

(3) ...as covered yesterday, one of those is getting rid of Dan "Mr. Longhorn" Beebe.  Great article in KC Star about this very topic.  

(4) SI says that the Pac-12 balked because it wasn't going to create special rules for Texas.  Mr. Longhorn is probably drawing up another set of even more special rules to keep them in the Big 12, doubling down on his double down of his Keep-TX-Happy strategy.  For those of you scoring at home, that strategy has cost us three schools and has led to four others wanting out.

(5) Some are pulling for the Big 12 to stay together, as are some loyal readers of this blog.  The Big 12 has to replace some schools and indications are OU wants to head back to 12 schools and not stay at 10.  Under the scenario, here is what our football schedule could look like: (1) Non-Conference, (2) Non-Conference, (3) Non-Conference, (4) ISU, (5) K-State, (6) kU, (7) Airforce, (8) Louisville, (9) SMU, (10) OK State, (11) Baylor, (12) Texas Tech.  How is ESPN GameDay going to choose which ones of these exciting match-ups to cover?!?!?!  Keeping the Big 12 together sounds nice, but the Big 12 isn't the Big 12 anymore.  Nebraska was a national powerhouse, A&M had a rich history and appears on the rise, and for all the shit we talk about Colorado, they won a National Championship in our lifetimes.  The dream is dead, and now we are just caught up in the long nightmare. 

(6) Calmer heads prevailed in realignment says Pre-Snap Read.  I can tell you who prevailed: the ACC, Big 10, and Pac-12.  I long for the day when my school belongs to real conference.

(7) People are still saying we have an SEC offer.  It should make for an interesting Curators meeting on Thursday.

(8) T Boone Pickets: still an asshole.  This guy thinks he single-handedly controls college football.  I will he would try controlling his mouth.

Summary
I don't see how we bolt the SEC seeing as how Deaton is the Big 12 President this year.  I also don't see the league breaking up because without the Pac-12 taking some of the teams, there just aren't enough places for the rest to go.  So it leaves 'Ole Mizzou in one of three places:

(1) Living life in a loveless marriage where your partner(s) are cheating on you and always looking to upgrade in the future.
(2) Praying ND joins the Big 10 and we get an invite.
(3) Risking lawsuit by joining the SEC with A&M. 

I've listed them in the order likelihood.  This will go on for a while...enjoy the ride?