VectorVictor

Can't say that I disagree. We will see. But ineffective is because of the crazy. Had crazy not been around and "real" Republicans been in those seats, you would have seen a $4 trillion deficit reduction, the closing of tax loopholes, a debt ceiling increase, and a certain end to the Bush Tax cuts (which in of itself will reduce the deficit by trillions). Obama would have gotten the Democrats to fall in line behind it, and both Obama and the Republican (non-derp) Congress come out as adults that can fix problems. Ma and Pa Kettle (that hasn't been tainted by derp) realize this, and the polls show this realization as well. Unless the Republicans drop the Tea Party like a bad habit, "regular" Republicans will be dragged down in 2012 by their extremist party interlopers.

Bachmann won the Iowa poll because she spent a ton of money. http://www.unelected.org/how-michele-bachmann-bought-the-ames-straw-poll And I don't consider bigotry and ignorance to be "culture", if that's what you're implying. It's bigotry and ignorance. You know who did consider bigotry and ignorance to be "culture"...? Just sayin'.

And remember, Florida is a reddish state--these words tend to exacerbate things in such locations. --- Also, people keep bringing up the USC debacle, but how many players were ever implicated in that mess, and for how many years? I thought it was only (only!) twenty or so players over Pete's reign. If I'm remembering correctly, USC's infractions would be small potatoes compared to what Yahoo Sports dug up on Miami. Plus, let's look at it this way--would giving the death penalty to Miami kill the ACC in either the short or long term? Probably not, especially with expansion on the horizon. USC getting the death penalty...that's more of a linchpin program for the Pac-12, and it's temporary removal would likely cause the Pac-12 to collapse in on itself. Ohio State, same thing. Even though it shouldn't be, I'm sure the program's importance to the conference is being taken into account here...and Miami really isn't all that special to the ACC, and Miami has willingly played the villain since the 80s. This alone makes them the perfect program to make an example of.

I think there's a perception among the press that the Big 10 is indeed weaker overall than the Big XII, but they don't care to mention it as the Big 10 butters their bread. Gary D. from the BTN seemed to imply that Nebraska, on defense alone, is stacked enough to run the table and considered us an 'elite' team, and he had high praise for our RBs. I think just on defense and running game alone, 10-2 for our first year in the Big 10 is a reasonable assertion. Possible loss to Wisconsin, and perhaps Michigan or Penn State down the road (when we've historically had our lapses).

Um, no. Not even a little bit. I may be wrong, but I thought in ESPN 30 for 30 about SMU there were major discussions about how the NCAA would do everything they could to stay away from the 'Death Penalty'. The repercussions of nuking SMU went far past the football field. True, but you had a culture at SMU of disrespecting authority and willful defiance of the NCAA that spanned years. This Miami issue spans decades. The NCAA *has* to nuke them from orbit, or you're going to further embolden the SEC and their cheating ways. And Fro--this may not be as bad as SMU (which is debatable), but it is a blatant, brazen disregard for repeated multiple NCAA regulations that has lasted for decades at this school. That alone, even if there were no payments handed out, is worth a death penalty.

If Yahoo! Sports would just give the NCAA their investigative materials there wouldn't be any need for a full-blown investigation, just corroboration. Yahoo! did a fantastic job: I mean... wow. That's a hell of a story. And people say that old-school journalism is dead. This, folks, is how you do a story. Kudos to Wertzel and Yahoo Sports.

Big XII and Dan Beebe mouthpiece, Chuck Carlton, brings you this article in the Dallas Morning News. Gotta love how now T. Boones Pickens is now getting in on this. Looks like someone's scared that Okie Lite will be deservedly sent to the kiddie table of FBS.

If it's lucky.

Switch Missouri around with Kansas, but drop the KSU combo bit. If no one but CUSA or the Mountain West comes asking for K-State, they're not going to sacrifice what Kansas has built in basketball just to get a school like KSU into a BCS conference. Plus, remember this is motivated by TV, and the Big 10 already considers St. Louis, MO as part of it's footprint, so we're only talking about the acquisition of Kansas City for a media market--big whoop. Kansas can bring in Kansas City as well, and you get a much better basketball program *and* a school that's actually been to a BCS football game. Otherwise, I do believe you're on target. Kudos.

Ah, IRAFreak--you beat me to the punch. Yup, someone had brought this up in another thread. I don't honestly see Texas A&M willfully swallowing two years of jobbing at the hands of the Big XII, especially in Football. That means either the ACC school yet-to-be-named goes against the constraints of their contract's exit clause (unlikely), or the SEC taps Missouri who can easily be on the same timetable to move as A&M.

Ahhhhh...this would explain why Beebe was recently hot to trot to get new penalties and deadlines in place before the Big XII meetings. My understanding is that it didn't happen (why close your escape hatch if you intend to use it?), so the deadlines and penalties would be the same as they were for us... But if that's the case with the ACC, then that pretty much would confirm that Missouri is their moving buddy--no way in hell A&M sticks around for two years, as they got a first-hand glimpse into what their football program will run into when they leave.

Audio link to Yahoo Sports Radio. Gabe DeArmond of PowerMizzou.com pretty much breaks it down, says it's pretty much likely that Missouri is talking to the SEC and to not take any comments to the contrary at face value. Plus, Gabe says he only thinks Missouri gets in if the SEC goes to 16, and that they'll take Florida State if they go to 14. The big question is if the SEC will break down and go to 16, or if they'll just do 14. Also, the conventional wisdom of Texas and Oklahoma is that if they lose A&M, the conference will survive. If they lose Missouri, the conference is dead because of media markets (or a lack thereof). Don't know if I agree with this, but Gabe DeArmond indicates that Oklahoma is trying to get in front of this and is talking with the Pac-12 (per his colleagues at the OK paper). Oh, and Gabe DeArmond brings up an unsolicited comment about Nebraska and the Big XII. Glad to know we're still stuck in their craw.

Agreed, IRAfreak. Plus, the Big 10 met last December regarding expansion plans--the public output of that was that expansion was going to be placed on hold, but I'm sure they had an idea the Big XII wasn't going to last. They know what schools they want that are left and what they can realistically obtain. Missouri probably knows this as well, which is why they were going hot and heavy for a SEC invite behind the scenes. The Big 10 will likely go with Maryland or Rutgers for media markets, Kansas (if they can separate from K-State), and wait on the other two spots to see if the Big East collapses and they can make an opportune offer to Notre Dame again to join.

This means nothing, other than the SEC doesn't want to be accused of poaching teams from the Big XII. If aTm applies, the SEC will readily accept. And doesn't it strike anyone as odd that Missouri, whose government and campus leaders were so outspoken during the last conference expansion tumble, hasn't said jack or **** this time around? Something's up in Columbia, and it's not the number of meth labs. Could it be that they just don't want to embarrass themselves again after last year's Big Ten debacle? So you're selling to me that Missouri has gone from "let's get the **** out of the Big XII at any cost so we can get away from Texas" to "let's be happy in the Big XII being under Texas' thumb" in less than a year? Unless someone spiked the meth in Columbia, the lack of comments either way on this suggest that the reports of Missouri burning up the SEC phone lines (per TexAgs) probably have some truth to them. Plus, there are other schools (OU, Kansas) that either are or were working known deals that have remained just as silent as Missouri. Missouri to the SEC isn't a certainty--not by a long shot. But it's the horse that I'd be willing to put money on to place, as it were, to Texas A&M's forthcoming win.

Exactly, Malth--good choice. Pearl Jam FTMFW!

This means nothing, other than the SEC doesn't want to be accused of poaching teams from the Big XII. If aTm applies, the SEC will readily accept. And doesn't it strike anyone as odd that Missouri, whose government and campus leaders were so outspoken during the last conference expansion tumble, hasn't said jack or **** this time around? Something's up in Columbia, and it's not the number of meth labs.

Ahhh...but don't forget that $ Bill Byrne and their school President went on the offensive with that and said aTm never agreed to or signed anything regarding a 10-team Big XII. That was two or three months ago in the DMN paper--I'll see if I can find it. If there's even a shred of truth to this statement, then the Big XII will be forced to settle with aTm for exit fees, not unlike what Nebraska did with the Big XII when the league was confident they were getting $20-30 million from us, and ultimately got approx. $9 million instead. So I wouldn't worry too much about that 10 year contract, especially since it's supposedly null and void once the conference dips below 10 teams.

The act of adding them would be a knee-jerk reaction, but it would be prudent for the Big 10 to get a short list ready of possible candidates, as it's very plausible that there may be more moves or chain reactions (e.g. ACC raiding the Big East to go to 14) that they should plan for. Now is a good time for the Big 10 to sit down and review their notes from the last go-around, if anything.

Um, no. But I think the other 80 posts on this have illustrated why this is a false assumption. Plus, between the ESPN/Big XII contract issues and the possibility of Missouri being the other school, the SEC probably wants to make it doubly clear they're not courting anyone from the Big XII *wink wink nudge nudge*. Hadn't heard about the Big XII/ESPN contract stipulations until now, but if they're legit, it makes sense why there's a little bit of brake pumpin' going on.

Yes. 3/4th majority, IIRC. Would they? Probably not--the loss of Texas removes part of the Texas market, and it could trigger a scaling back of their existing TV contracts (which aren't all that great to begin with). But to answer the original question, ***k no. The last standard bearer of the true Big 8/12 was Nebraska. Everyone else can go pound sand.

Good find Zoogies. Wasn't aware of this. Thanks.

That's not correct. Ratings and footprint, in that order, drive these decisions. It's a one-two punch--you get national brands that everyone wants to see, but then you get a large local base to show it in, as that's the money that keeps the lights on in your conference. Plus, there's no cap to your ad rates--the better your conference gets, the higher the rates go, and the more money you make. And you can soak your footprint areas (sometimes 5x) more than you do non-footprint areas for ad rates. With the Big 10, they got a ratings-grabber in Nebraska. One of the next two Big 10 expansion targets will need to significantly expand the local footprint (e.g. Rutgers and NY/NJ, Maryland and DC/Baltimore), and the other can be another 'national brand' (e.g. Kansas, Notre Dame) With the SEC and Florida State, you have a different set of circumstances: Florida likely doesn't want to compete against FSU any more than they are, and Florida State doesn't expand the footprint--the SEC is already in the whole of Florida. From a media market standpoint, that's why Missouri makes sense--they're net new markets that would go along great with the Houston and 1/2 of the San Antonio market they'll get. Forget that Missouri plays substandard sports--they still get TV sets in major metropolitan areas. I'd wager the only way we'll see FSU (or Clemson/Ga. Tech) getting a SEC invite is if they break down and go to 16 teams. With the exception of Maryland, they will have expanded into all of the contiguous markets available and added two marquee names.

I'm kinda shocked no one brought up this intentional rip on Beebe:

another Texas troll! Why do you keep joining? and LMAO as the A&M Board of Regents meeting the day before Texas' HOR I'm on a Nebraska board as a Horn. I don't expect you to be nice. Here is more info from the DMN. From the Dallas Morning News - "The A&M announcement came a few hours after the Texas House Committee on Higher Education, which controls state university funding, announced hearings regarding “college athletics,” specifically A&M’s possible move to the SEC." Very important - "controls state university funding" What remains to be seen is how Aggie funding will be impacted. What kind of money is going to be discussed. As I've been saying, Aggie doesn't get to pick up an move and neither does UT. Texas politics are going to play a huge role. TT and Baylor will also have something to say. First, the DMN is as credible and reliable as that piece of human excrement you have trolling the whole industry of journalism on your Orangebloods.com site. All they are is Beebe's and Dodd's mouthpiece in this and nothing more. Two, unless Texas is willing to give up state money to A&M equal to what ESPN is giving them for athletics, A&M won't be blocked, nor will they lose funding. Too much has been said by ESPN, including publicly commenting that they knowingly overpaid for Texas media rights in crafting this network--that means that even if aTm had equal access to make their own network, they'll never get the funding or money the 'Whorns did. That's a competitive disadvantage that would need to be made up by the legislature, or things will get ugly for Texas in a heartbeat. Three, yes, you are trolling. Go back to ShaggyBevo and drown in that cesspool instead of subjecting us to your pointy-uterus spawned derp. Nebraska fans should be classy and nice, but there comes a point where some schools, their fans, and their corrupt cartels deserve a bitch slap instead of a field-leaving clap--Texas has now reached that point with many of us, and it's (amazingly enough) for post-2009 title game antics.