Some pre-Big 12 meetings thoughts from Dr. Tom

[Nexus]

I'm just going to post both LJS and OWH articles here. You get a sense that T.O. is prepared for whatever.

 

Big 12: Testy meetings or tedious? Osborne not sure

LINCOLN — Are this week's Big 12 meetings the most important since the league formed 14 years ago, in light of concern about schools leaving for other conferences?

 

Or, at the Kansas City InterContinental Hotel, will this be four routine days of paper-shuffling that CEOs, athletic directors and others will never get back?

 

"I don't know,'' Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne said. "I don't think anyone really does.''

 

Still, in reviewing the week's work ahead, he wryly suggested that it may pay to "tape your ankles.''

 

"It could be that a lot of people will lay their cards on the table,'' Osborne said. "Or it could be a lot of them will keep them right close to their vest.''

 

Nebraska and Missouri are rumored expansion targets of the Big Ten. Colorado has been tied to Pacific-10 expansion speculation. Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe has countered with talk of cooperating with the Pac-10 in a scheduling and television alliance.

 

"There will be people at those meetings,'' Osborne said, "who, even if they wanted to be totally transparent, couldn't really tell you what is going to happen.

 

"You can't really legislate or force people to say what they are going to do. It seems like so many things are in a state of flux.''

 

Beebe said in a recent radio interview that "we need to have a very frank discussion about where we're going and who's going to be on the plane when we take off. I will be very direct.''

 

So do Osborne and NU Chancellor Harvey Perlman expect a face-to-face challenge from Beebe?

 

"I don't know what he'll do,'' Osborne said. "I can't predict that until we come to it. I'm sure in Dan Beebe's position that you want to try to determine the landscape the best you can.''

 

Any final decisions on changing conferences or changing conference bylaws come from the chancellors and presidents. Even then, Osborne said, you don't know if final really means final.

 

"There may be situations in the Big 12 where there are Boards of Regents, Boards of Governors, political figures and others who enter into it, too,'' he said. "So even though you raise your hand and say, 'This is what we're going to do,' in the long run, it may not end up being that way.''

 

Something Osborne said NU officials do want to hear this week is the plan for future television agreements in the Big 12.

 

"That's of interest to everyone,'' he said. "Everybody is going to go with an open mind.

 

"I have nothing against the Big 12. I've seen some good things about it. I was a little more comfortable with the Big Eight because I spent so long in the Big Eight.''

 

Before all the conference expansion talk, the top news item expected to come from this week's meetings was awarding championship sites in football, basketball and baseball for three seasons starting with the 2011-12 school year.

 

Osborne said it's unclear where those deals stand after the possible conference realignment turmoil.

 

Nebraska has particular interest in the site of the Big 12 football championship game. The new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, hosted the event last December and will again this season under prior contracts.

 

Big 12 athletic directors voted overwhelmingly earlier this year in support of keeping the game in Arlington, Osborne said.

 

But the final vote rests with the league's presidents and chancellors, and their track record has been to staunchly avoid anchoring a football or basketball championship.

 

The last time championship site contracts were awarded, in 2007, Nebraska's Perlman told The World-Herald:

 

"There was significant concern about the concept of anchoring. One of the interesting things in this bid cycle is we did not find any significant financial advantage to an anchoring proposal.''

 

The "wow'' factor of the $1.15 billion Cowboys Stadium, with its jetliner-sized scoreboard and 4,000 televisions, admittedly has turned heads.

 

"People were kind of caught by the glamour of the new stadium and intrigued by it,'' Osborne said. "It's very nice. There's no question about that.

 

"In the interest of equity, you'd like to see the game played occasionally in the North Division because it is the single most important sporting event in the Big 12 in terms of dollars and media attention.''

 

Osborne said he feels he has "said his piece'' on the issue.

 

"If it's the will of the group to play in Arlington the next three years, we'll go down there and play as hard as we can,'' he said. "It isn't like we're going to pout.

 

"The major concern was for the fans. For most Nebraskans, it's about a 10-hour drive, and for some more like 11 or 12 hours. And it is pretty expensive down there. So we'll see.''

 

 

LINK

 

 

 

 

Steven M. Sipple: Big 12 meetings could yield big drama

 

Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne says he doesn't really know what to expect at this week's Big 12 meetings in Kansas City, Mo.

 

He'll listen intently to league commissioner Dan Beebe.

 

"I'm sure he'll have some things to say," Osborne said. "We'll probably get an officiating report on football and basketball. I imagine we may have some discussion as to how you start or stop the clock on an incomplete pass."

 

Ouch. The meetings begin in earnest Tuesday and run through Friday at the InterContinental Hotel in the city's Plaza district. It ought to be wicked fun, considering the potential for significant change in college athletics within the next year, and the Big 12's prominent place in the discussion.

 

"I suppose at some point someone will address the issue of conference realignment," Osborne said. "I don't know how close to the vest people are going to keep their cards. I really don't know how it'll evolve. It could be fairly routine and insignificant. On the other hand, it could end up being a fairly dramatic discussion."

 

Yes, drama is a distinct possibility. Beebe set the tone with his recent statement: "We need to talk about where we're going (as a conference) and who's on the plane when it takes off." Without naming names, he obviously was referring to Nebraska and Missouri, because they've expressed a willingness to at least listen to the Big Ten if it calls with expansion plans.

 

Will Beebe hit Nebraska and Missouri with ultimatums? Colorado? Texas? It's difficult to blame Beebe if he's becoming a tad impatient. After all, he's preparing for a round of TV negotiations next spring. There are bowl contracts to finalize. He wants to push the league forward. As it stands, the Big 12 is like a teenager in its awkward formative years, looking for greater stability in a period of anxiety.

 

"I want there to be a time — on our time schedule, not any other conference or entity's schedule — where we say, 'OK, here's who's committed to this conference, and we're going forward and we're going to prepare for our negotiations with television next spring, which looks like it's going to be a highly profitable situation for us, whether we collaborate with the Pac-10 or do it on our own," Beebe told The Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune last week.

 

For the Big 12 to remain formidable into the future, "We can't be sitting there being perceived as being unstable or having members who might have there eyes on other places."

 

Beebe reportedly will push for a deadline — perhaps before the start of the 2010-11 school year — for Big 12 schools to affirm their commitment to the league, strengthening his hard line with stiffer monetary penalties for schools that bolt. The Big 12 board of directors would have to approve.

 

So, there could be ample drama.

 

In that regard, I asked Osborne about Beebe's on-the-plane-or-off comment.

 

"Well, I guess that's his right," Osborne said. "I can understand him wanting to do that. That's really the only reaction I have."

 

Is there an agenda Osborne will take to Kansas City?

 

"I doubt if I would put whatever message I have in the paper," he said. "I really don't have a particular agenda. I'll certainly be interested in what people have to say. I'll listen very carefully. I'm probably going to listen more than I'm going to do a great deal of speaking."

 

Osborne probably should prepare to be disappointed about the site of the Big 12 football championship game. According to Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman, a member of the Big 12 board of directors, the board has authorized Beebe to begin negotiations with Cowboys Stadium on a three-year extension that would keep the game in Arlington, Texas, through 2013.

 

Osborne has made it clear he wants the game rotated annually, "but I don't think many people are listening to my thoughts on it," he said.

 

Meanwhile, Perlman expresses mixed emotions about the championship site. I share the chancellor's sentiment. Cowboys Stadium is extremely impressive and should be used on a regular basis. That said, given the league's divisional structure, it would be unfair to permanently anchor the title game in the South, as Osborne fears will become the case.

 

At any rate, Kansas City here we (the Big 12 media) come. We'll keep our eyes and ears open for news. We won't relent, not for a second. We all saw the importance of a mere second in last season's league title game.

 

By the way, "I think that's all been discussed with the appropriate people," Osborne said. "We've received our answers, and nothing's going to change."

 

Granted, that particular result won't change. As for the college landscape as we know it, well, we'll see about that.

 

LINK

[shyndy]

oz dropping the sly comments, I like. It really, really, sounds like he is upset with the big 12

[huskertim]

God I love Oz, he is essentially giving Beebe the verbal middle finger and being a perfect gentleman about it. Thing is, Beebe has virually no authority over the member schools and thus comes off as impotent so TO can just remain tight lipped and let him make an ass of himself.

[Apathy]

I love this quote by Tom and I literally did one of these ------>

 

"I'm sure he'll have some things to say," Osborne said. "We'll probably get an officiating report on football and basketball. I imagine we may have some discussion as to how you start or stop the clock on an incomplete pass."

[huskerscott]

I love this quote by Tom and I literally did one of these ------>

 

"I'm sure he'll have some things to say," Osborne said. "We'll probably get an officiating report on football and basketball. I imagine we may have some discussion as to how you start or stop the clock on an incomplete pass."

 

I would love to be in the room when the conversation comes up.

 

Tom: "What is the CORRECT ruling on an incomplete pass for clock stoppage."

 

Mr. Beebe: "Well..... Uhhhhhh.... Ummmmmm..... "

 

Tom: Staring at Beebe....

 

Mr. Beebe: "hey look its lunch time!!!!"

[huskalova]

I like this one too. Go TO. He is so good at being totally and probably brutally honest, in the nicest possible way.

 

 

 

 

Still, in reviewing the week's work ahead, he wryly suggested that it may pay to "tape your ankles.''

 

I can't figure out how to do that quote thingy just usin' a portion of the post. I am poster illiterate...