Big 12 Conference will suffer with 10 teams

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

NewsOK.com

 

Big 12 Conference will suffer with 10 teams

 

So the league Colorado wanted to leave and the school the league didn't want negotiated a buyout that leaves us with the stone, cold truth.

 

Big 12 football in 2011 will include just 10 teams.

 

Which I guess is a good thing. An 11-team, lame-duck season would have been a scheduling nightmare. Some teams playing eight conference games, some playing nine.

 

That nonsense was averted with the Colorado compromise. CU will forfeit $6.863 million in conference payouts so that it can jump to the Pac-10.

 

Nebraska (speaking of leaving mad) is gone to the Big Ten, as we knew, for the price of $9.255 million, so that's a tidy $16.118 million for the rest of the league to share.

 

Is that enough money for more bad football?

 

The Big 12 will start playing a nine-game conference schedule; every team will play every team every year.

 

Which sounds good until you put it under a reality light.

 

Here's what it means for OSU and OU and every South Division school. More Big 12 games. Fewer good games.

 

I know, that makes no sense in this age of rumdum nonconference games. But it's true.

 

OU and OSU will play the Texas schools, as always. And OU and OSU will play all four remaining North schools, instead of the current format of three of the six from the North. Except Nebraska's not in the equation.

 

So you've traded in Nebraska half the time for a Kansas and Iowa State all the time. Or a Missouri and Kansas State all the time. Where's the attraction in that?

 

Worse yet, the nine-game schedule is making schools adjust their nonconference schedules.

 

OSU already has stated plans to cut back on strength of schedule. A series with Purdue has been scuttled. More to follow, probably.

 

OU plans to keep its marquee matchups (Florida State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee, LSU, etc.) but dial down the other two games. No more Air Forces or Cincinnatis or Fresno States.

 

Again, tell me how this makes for better football. Tell me how this makes the Big 12 more attractive to the television networks.

 

No Nebraska and Colorado means more Texas-Iowa State games. More Oklahoma-Kansas games. More Kansas State-Baylor games.

 

Ouch. Jot out a possible 2011 Big 12 schedule, and you quickly realize this is a league crying out for an infusion of decent football.

 

Look how top-heavy the Big 12 seems in 2010, with OU, Texas and Nebraska a mighty gulf apart from the rest of the league. And soon it will lose one of those heavyweights.

 

I said it in June, I say it now. I think the Big 12 has to expand to stay relevant. Has to find two good football programs to replace the Huskers and Buffaloes.

 

Some combination of Arkansas (pipe dream), BYU (religious restrictions), Louisville (slumping program), TCU (financially imprudent), someone from the Big East, just anyone that can make you want to watch Big 12 football outside a certain game in the Cotton Bowl.

 

Don't believe it? Put it to the test. Think about these games.

 

Texas at Nebraska. Nebraska at OSU. Missouri at Nebraska. Nebraska at Texas A&M. Nebraska at Kansas State.

 

Five really intriguing games between Oct. 7 and Nov. 20. Next year, those games are gone, replaced by nothing. Replaced by Texas Tech-Kansas State. Texas A&M-Missouri. Iowa State against whomever. Baylor against whomever.

 

It's enough to make you call Nebraska and Colorado and say, don't leave mad. In fact, don't leave at all.

[BeatTexas]

If the Big12 does stick around with only 10 teams (I think the conference will fold in a few short years), their BCS AQ status could rapidly come into question.

[hskrfan4life]

If the Big12 does stick around with only 10 teams (I think the conference will fold in a few short years), their BCS AQ status could rapidly come into question.

 

No question that it will hurt their chances. And I don't think the NCAA will allow Big 12(-2) a conference championship game, if they were to appeal that ruling and get a exception.

[billdozer15]

If the Big12 does stick around with only 10 teams (I think the conference will fold in a few short years), their BCS AQ status could rapidly come into question.

 

No question that it will hurt their chances. And I don't think the NCAA will allow Big 12(-2) a conference championship game, if they were to appeal that ruling and get a exception.

Their AQ status will not come into question. The teams in the B12-2 south are more than enough to keep their AQ status. Sure the conference is weakened but not so much so that it becomes a WAC or MWC. I think it will fold due to more greed by UT, but not because of a lack of AQ status. This league is set up perfectly for UT and OU to rule it. They are basically garaunteed 10-12 wins every single year.

[s.c. husker]

Nebraska leaving any conference would hurt financially, with 11 teams does this mean the big 12 can have a championship game next yr., with 10 they cannot.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Their AQ status will not come into question. The teams in the B12-2 south are more than enough to keep their AQ status. Sure the conference is weakened but not so much so that it becomes a WAC or MWC. I think it will fold due to more greed by UT, but not because of a lack of AQ status. This league is set up perfectly for UT and OU to rule it. They are basically garaunteed 10-12 wins every single year.

Agreed. But...with a weaker Big 12-2 conference, I don't forsee UT and/or OU getting the nod for the MNC if there are more than 2 undefeated teams at the end of the year. Unless the Big 12-2 has another repeat year like they did a couple of years ago when UT, OU, MU, KU and TTU were all ranked pretty high, I don't see how they'll get the automatic nod for the MNC even if they win the Big 12 Championship.

[BeatTexas]

If the Big12 does stick around with only 10 teams (I think the conference will fold in a few short years), their BCS AQ status could rapidly come into question.

 

No question that it will hurt their chances. And I don't think the NCAA will allow Big 12(-2) a conference championship game, if they were to appeal that ruling and get a exception.

Their AQ status will not come into question. The teams in the B12-2 south are more than enough to keep their AQ status. Sure the conference is weakened but not so much so that it becomes a WAC or MWC. I think it will fold due to more greed by UT, but not because of a lack of AQ status. This league is set up perfectly for UT and OU to rule it. They are basically garaunteed 10-12 wins every single year.

 

I don't know...if you take a step back it doesn't look that different than the MWC next year with TCU and Boise at the top.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Nebraska leaving any conference would hurt financially, with 11 teams does this mean the big 12 can have a championship game next yr., with 10 they cannot.

There'll be 10 teams next year. The question remains whether or not they'll have a CCG or not. Most likely the NCAA will say "Ix-nay on the ampionship-chay"

[Street Novelist]

Who will want to watch Kansas, Missouri, Iowa State and Kansas State play nationally televised games? no one (except the local fanbases)

[RazzinGTO]

Who will want to watch Kansas, Missouri, Iowa State and Kansas State play nationally televised games? no one (except the local fanbases)

 

Exactly - and those local fanbases don't travel anywhere! Even to the "fake-a-rivalry" game between ISU and KSU could only muster up 36,500 fans at Arrowhead.

 

The Big 12-2 will only have one key game - UT vs OU, and sooner or later, UT and OU will realize that losing NU and its consistent bowl game appearances (which pull them in money too) will cost them.

 

Out of this whole thing I just can't understand why OU is so pathetic and sitting at the front of the line when it comes to feeding from UT's teet. They are better then that - or I have lost all respect for them.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Out of this whole thing I just can't understand why OU is so pathetic and sitting at the front of the line when it comes to feeding from UT's teet. They are better then that - or I have lost all respect for them.

I think it's because they feel they can remain competitive in the Big 12-2. Geographically, traditionally, style of play, etc, they don't mesh with the Pac-10. The MWC obviously is a weak conference. The only other conference they would match up well with is the SEC and there's no way in hell OU is going to risk being the 3rd or 4th best team in a conference when they can stay in the Big 12-2, have one tough game a year and stand a better chance of winning conference titles and the occassional MNC.

[HuskerinLibertyMO]

Who will want to watch Kansas, Missouri, Iowa State and Kansas State play nationally televised games? no one (except the local fanbases)

 

Exactly - and those local fanbases don't travel anywhere! Even to the "fake-a-rivalry" game between ISU and KSU could only muster up 36,500 fans at Arrowhead.

 

 

To further illustrate how bad this is. Two Division II teams play at Arrowhead every year in front of about 24,000. (The lowest was about 20,000 the highest a little more than 27,000)

[HuskerinLibertyMO]

If memory serves isn't this about the first article from an area surrounding the teams that are remaining under the Big Tex conference to really admit to this?

 

I know in KC the talking heads keep saying how great this is for the remaining teams, how they will all get more money, how they are going to go get Arkansas and Notre Dame to join them how the new TV contract will be so huge, blah, blah, blah. I predict a total meltdown within the media in KC when the Big Tex conference folds in the next few years.

[typ3kal]

The Big12 should add the large universities from the MWC and WAC.

 

Nevada, (31,000)

San Diego State ( 34,500)

Colorado State (26,000)

BYU (34,000)

Boise State(19,00)

Fresno State (19,000)

UNLV (29,000)

TCU (9,000)

 

Might not be huge name programs, but they at least have the $ and enrollment numbers to support facilities, stadiums, etc.

 

That would add 3 solid football programs and a bunch of middle of the road programs, but more importantly, large and expansive regional coverage so the longwhorns can sell their TV package.

[gratefullred]

Im not going to get on board with the demise of the Big 12. I just dont see the Big 10 or SEC going to 16 teams. I think everyone is under estimating the programs at Tech, OK Lite, and A&M. The downfall of the conference would be probation at OU or UT. The Big 12 will take some steps backwards, but not fall off the map.

 

I am interested to see what the Big 12 bowl lineup looks like in 5 years. They could get dumped by the Holiday Bowl.