(1) In a shock to no-one, Arkansas turned down the Little 9's invite to join the league. Quickly.
(2) The heartland will be left without a conference, writes KC Star's Sam Mellinger. If you read nothing else, read this one. Money quote: "In a sort of Whac-A-Mole game gone wild, no logical theory goes unchallenged for more than a few hours, no rumor is safe for more than a day, and even credible sources contradict one another." In other words, hold on tight until the ink dries on all of the contracts.
(3) Someone wants Mizzou to go to the SEC. The benefit of this unproductive site is that is maps out possible SEC Divisions. More on that below.
(4) Here's a free mailbag from PowerMizzou.com. It outlines the site's thoughts on the different leagues.
In summary, what we have is a high stakes game of chicken. Whether OU leaves or not, the Little 9 is pretty much dead. The SEC has been quotes as saying OU isn't worth the price of having to take OK State. There is also bad blood there from last summer when the SEC wanted OU and were rebuffed. With that option off the table and in desperate need of at least one more team the SEC could stop Big 10 expansion dead in its tracks by taking Mizzou.
The Big 10 is in a hard spot in that its feeling good with the army its got and its know if it takes Mizzou it will end up having to take at least one other team it doesn't. I'm scared to put this in print, but I don't see how kU is all that bad. Ideally the Big 10 will step up, take both Mizzou and kU and we can put this whole ugly episode behind us. I just don't think that is going happen. Out of all of the conferences, the Big 10 has been the slowest to react. If Mizzou gets an offer from another conference and doesn't have one from the Big 10, its got to take the other offer.
Worst case, we stay buddies with kU and join the Big East, who has a real commissioner. While the football match-ups don't look appealing, with a 10 team league my guess is (1) a new TV deal will happen, and (2) new bowl game agreements will be reached. DC folks will also get a great chance to see, in person or on TV, a good deal of games. In basketball we're upgraded, which is a problem because we don't presently have a coach, but I'm sure once this conference thing gets sorted out, Alden will turn his attention there next. Right?
That's a bad worst case, but not the absolute end of the world. We'd win football conference championships for at least the next 5-10 years. I guess the actual worst case is the Little 9 stay intact, but lets not even think about that right now.
Most likely I think we'll end up in the SEC if we don't end up in the Big East. Entering the best football conference in the nation brings some excitement, but also brings some acid reflux when you start looking at the scheduling.
I think the most logical thing to do would be to divide the SEC into East and West Divisions. I agree with one of the dividing lines on the website above that puts Mizzou, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Miss State, LSU, Bama and A&M in the West and FL, UK, TN, Vandy, SC, GA and Auburn in the East. Each side has two terrible teams (West: Ole Miss, M State; East: UK, Vandy) and two powerhouses (East: FL, Auburn/GA; West: Bama, LSU). The problem with this arrangement is the Iron Bowl between Bama and Auburn but that could be worked out where they play each other every year as one of their out-of-division game.
The other alignment proposed has Mizzou, Vandy, TN, UK, UGA, SC and FL in the NE Division and Arkansas, A&M, LSU, Ole Miss, M State, Bama, and Auburn in the SW Division. I guess this assumes that SC stays good, FL adapts to its new coach, UGA gets over the hump, and TN finds its way back to glory. If not, the SW Division with LSU, Bama, and Auburn appears to be much stronger. I also don't think we'd be doing back flips about playing A&M (and in our TX recruiting grounds) only once every several years rather than every year. I think East and West alignment is most likely.
Based on that premise let's look at our schedule this year versus a possible SEC West schedule:
Little 9 (my predictions for each game)
Miami OH -- Win
Arizona St -- Win (more on this below)
Western IL -- Win
Oklahoma -- Loss
K-State -- Win
Iowa State -- Win
OK State -- Win (more on this below)
A&M -- Loss
Baylor -- Win (more on this below)
Texas -- Win (finally)
Texas Tech -- Win
Kansas -- Win
Total Record: 10-2
SEC West
Miami OH -- Win
Arizona St -- Win
Western IL -- Win
Arkansas -- Win (?)
Ole Miss -- Win
Miss State -- Win
LSU -- Loss
Bama -- Loss
A&M -- Loss (road)
SEC East -- Win (one of the bad ones)
SEC East -- Loss (one of the good ones on the road)
SEC East -- Win (?)
Total Record: 7.5-4.5
As you can see, life gets more difficult. We'll have to rise to the occasion. In terms of Big East or SEC...today with an unclear mind I'm siding SEC as much as that hurts to type.
Speaking of rising to the occasion, that brings us to last week's performance and this Friday's game...
Friday we'll be without six starters, including our starting tailback who has a broken leg. Not good. Last Saturday our offense wasn't very good either, with lots of breakdowns in lots of different places, says GP. The good news? WE WON. The even better news? Franklin gave himself a "D" grade for the game and was able to break down what went wrong and why it went wrong.
After loss its good to hear from frank assessment from team and coaching staff. As I said in the preview to the game, this is a team that is going to have to get better each week. What shocked and scared me, though, is the position we're starting from. The offense looked so out of synch that I just don't know if we can recover in a short week and beat ASU on the road. Alum Pat Forde says we can't, and takes ASU 21-17. I picked the Tigers to win, but I'm not feeling great about that and my OK State & Baylor predictions. I'll keep the faith, though, and take Mizzou 14-10 (not a misprint) over ASU in an ugly game. Our best hope: one of those two TDs are on defense and one of our running backs steps up and doesn't turn the ball over. It will be ugly, but a win is a win. Here is hoping for one more this week.
LATE BREAKING NEWS: Iowa State joins the Baylor lawsuit and reports have kU and Kansas State jumping on board as well. Note the fact that we aren't and also note that it all means this won't get resolved this week, next week, or anytime soon.
Oh great show-metheinfo writer, I would appreciate your insight into this quote from the president of the not-nearly-as-good-as-they-think-they-are school in Texas on being upset that other Big 12 schools may be so audacious as to ask that everyone live up to contracts previously agreed to:
ReplyDeletehttp://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/6939017/texas-aggies-accepted-sec-legal-threat-delays-move
"We are being held hostage right now," Loftin said of being forced to stay in the Big 12. "Essentially, we're being told that you must stay here against your will and we think that really flies in the face of what makes us Americans for example and makes us free people."