Did Texas play the Pac-10?

[Nexus]

When Nebraska and the Big Ten Conference revealed their new alliance Friday, wise old Tom Osborne, the former football coach turned athletic director, weighed in with an observation about the Huskers' former colleagues of the Big 12.
"Sometimes," he said, "the reason these things don't work out very well is, we smash cultures together."

Then he went on to say that Nebraskans appear to share a lot of values with the Big Ten. He used the terms "integrity" and "keeping your word."

Given a touchy relationship between Nebraska and Texas, the Big 12 behemoth, you don't have to connect too many dots to infer that Osborne was at least in part launching a final zinger in the direction of the Longhorns.

Around the Pac-10 offices today, they can probably relate. Perhaps it's doctoring spin, but there's a feeling that the reason for the collapse of the mega-expansion of the league has a lot to do with Texas changing ground rules as the clock neared midnight.

The Denver Post quoted a source close to the negotiations as saying, "In the eleventh hour, after months of telling us they understand the TV rights, they're trying to pull a fast one. ... They want a better revenue-sharing deal and their own network. Those were points of principle. (The Pac-10) wants to treat everyone fairly. It's been that way for months of discussions."

So, the Pac-10: Played by Texas, or deceived by Texas? Was this good old country hardball or a sleazy, burnt-orange end run?

At the very least, it was Texas doing what it always does, getting its way. No doubt had Scott closed the deal and consummated a Pac-16, he would have been turning cartwheels from Abilene to Petaluma. But Osborne would tell him that if he's without the Texas cash, he'll also be minus a migraine or two.

Here's how Texas runs the Big 12: Its conference commissioner, Dan Beebe, acknowledged on a Tuesday conference call that the have-not members of the conference had offered to tilt the $18 million to $20 million in exit-fee revenue from Colorado and Nebraska toward Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Not TV revenue, but the penalty for leaving the league.

In other words, would it be OK if I drove over in my Pinto to polish the rims on your Jaguar?

You can debate forever whether Scott's push for unprecedented expansion was nefarious or inevitable. But it's a given that getting along with Texas would have presented some challenges.

For his part, Beebe has clung to an old-school view of college sports.

"I firmly believe that when we get too far outside the geographic region and you've got your team competing against teams of people you don't even know, that's going to diminish the value and the experience in intercollegiate athletics," he said.

"We're not professional teams moving multimillionaires from city to city, with only their jobs to worry about."

Meanwhile, Scott was lying low Tuesday, presumably in pursuit of Utah as the Pac-10's 12th team. Even with the Texas rebuff, there's talk within the Pac-10 that when it negotiates new contracts next year, sets up a TV network and implements a championship football game, members can realize perhaps $17 million to $18 million annually, or about double what they're seeing now from TV.

Nationwide, the expansion notion may not just go away, and one defection can ignite a chain of events. The Big Ten has talked about doing its version in "stages" and will still pursue Notre Dame.

Missouri remains uneasy about the Big 12; its governor, Jay Nixon, took a recent potshot at the academic profiles of Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. There's talk about increasing the exit penalties for the remaining 10 in that league, which is either an affirmation of strength or a sign of weakness.

"As we move forward and heal bruises," insisted Beebe, "I think we're going to have a level of commitment that hasn't been there in the past, and of what these institutions mean to each other."

It's just that they mean a lot more when their address is Austin.

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[HuskerTrucker]

And this is the thinking that will doom the Big 12 (Little 10). They are idiots if they think they can keep pushing their weight around and giving Texas deference like this. Eventually someone with some pride left will bolt...and it will happen within the next 2 years. I will bet on it. I can't believe that Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, or even Missouri is putting up with it now. Missouri has been castrated, through their bone headed moves, but where is the pride in Oklahoma? Have they stuck their tails between their legs? They are acting like girls.

 

[HUSKER 37]

You almost have to wonder...

If Texas with the help of Mizery pulled a fast one on US and got us to leave what they portrayed as a sinking ship.

It was getting more than apparent that we were taking over the North and one of UT's best teams could only beat Bo's second year team by a point at Jerry World.

The average margin of victory through the whole series during the big-12 was a fieldgoal..and most of them were against Callahan.

Brilliant!

 

[Ponderosa]

You almost have to wonder...

If Texas with the help of Mizery pulled a fast one on US and got us to leave what they portrayed as a sinking ship.

It was getting more than apparent that we were taking over the North and one of UT's best teams could only beat Bo's second year team by a point at Jerry World.

The average margin of victory through the whole series during the big-12 was a fieldgoal..and most of them were against Callahan.

Brilliant!

That's what I have been wondering - makes me feel paranoid. But if you give UT credit for a certain level of competence...

They Make that - everybody, knew about CU. Who loses is CU leaves? The UT ski team?

What if the whole play was to extract $$ from the networks? Once the Big XII gets a new contract. The Big Ten gets one, etc.

But there had to be a credible threat. CU, MU leave? Yawn.

But if Nebraska leaves wihich was an acceptable loss.

No more 11-1 votes (in theory). One huge way to lose control is to start losing games.

Don't throw NU in the briar bush. Oh noes.

The theory I keep pushin' is that the Big XII is a new version of the SWC with OU and OSU added to the mix. Houston and TCU (in time) will be added.

Texas is getting the band back together.

 

[EbylHusker]

Did they play the Pac-10? Probably in a way. But I don't buy into the conspiracy sh#t that UT never wanted to move to the Pac-10 and it was just an attempt to get us to leave, etc. No wonder some other fanbases think our fans are arrogant, good lord.

We still really don't know what went on behind "closed doors". Perhaps Texas was planning all along to try and force the revenue sharing (or not sharing) on the Pac-10 in the final hour. Get the deal pretty much sealed up, then try and force the issue on them hoping they'd back down. That type of thing happens in business all the time. Or perhaps something had come in from the Big XII and Texas decided at the last moment to use it in an attempt to leverage the Pac-10 into a better deal for themselves.

Or maybe the aliens had something to do with it. You can probably protect yourselves by wearing tinfoil hats. Get on it!

 

[sd'sker]

Did they play the Pac-10? Probably in a way. But I don't buy into the conspiracy sh#t that UT never wanted to move to the Pac-10 and it was just an attempt to get us to leave, etc. No wonder some other fanbases think our fans are arrogant, good lord.

We still really don't know what went on behind "closed doors". Perhaps Texas was planning all along to try and force the revenue sharing (or not sharing) on the Pac-10 in the final hour. Get the deal pretty much sealed up, then try and force the issue on them hoping they'd back down. That type of thing happens in business all the time. Or perhaps something had come in from the Big XII and Texas decided at the last moment to use it in an attempt to leverage the Pac-10 into a better deal for themselves.

Or maybe the aliens had something to do with it. You can probably protect yourselves by wearing tinfoil hats. Get on it!

i agree, but what about the conspiracy that TU threatened to leave to get more leverage in the Big 12 and with tv contracts? i mean, they could have used the expansion talk to give their threats credibility, but never intended to leave...

 

[EbylHusker]

It's possible, and we may never know the truth. For me, I'm guessing Texas was willing to leave as long as they could get the deal they wanted. When it became apparent they couldn't, and the Big XII would still be a viable option while getting them what they wanted, they stayed.

 

[HUSKER 37]

Did they play the Pac-10? Probably in a way. But I don't buy into the conspiracy sh#t that UT never wanted to move to the Pac-10 and it was just an attempt to get us to leave, etc. No wonder some other fanbases think our fans are arrogant, good lord.

...

You heard it HERE first.

Actually..I've been hearing from several whorns claiming we are leaving because THEY have dominated us (8-1)

Now I know anyone with an ounce of competitive spirit would hate leaving behind a battle like we've had and my "conspiracy theory" was mainly to illustrate how stupid they sounded.

Still..You wonder if the business majors that probably make up the higherups at these colleges might have never learned from participating in sports as youths and may tend to run away from what they perceive as a threat.