huKSer
All-American
Lubbock paper
Long article. Interesting delusional observations: (Kent Hance is the Tech Chancellor)
Long article. Interesting delusional observations: (Kent Hance is the Tech Chancellor)
This, when coupled with long-brewing discontent from the universities of Nebraska and Missouri, tipped off Hance that major changes could be coming.
"Nebraska was not wild about the Big 12," Hance said, adding the 'Huskers for the last year had expressed interest in leaving the Big 12. The school had grown disenchanted with the conference once it lost its football dominance.
"The last four times we played them, we beat them - and, a couple of times, soundly," Hance noted. "I think their athletic director prefers a different style of football than you saw in the Big 12, so they were looking at other conferences."
Some of his friends out west had told him about the Pac-10's interest in expanding, so it did not come as a surprise when the conference first called him in late April to mention the possibility of Tech moving West.
Hance added he didn't have to convince the other Texas schools to stick with him. It was clear doing so was in their best interest.
The urgent pace of these realignments struck Bailey when he arrived in Kansas City for the meeting. He said it became obvious Nebraska had already packed its bags and was on the brink of leaving.
"I can't say enough good things about Texas and (its president) Bill Powers," Bailey said. "They told us right up front that 'We don't go anywhere where you don't go.' They never say anything that wasn't exactly true. Everything they told us worked out exactly the way they told us it would."
This outcome frustrated some Red Raider fans who saw the new deal as another instance of Tech acting not in its own best interest, but in the interest of its bigger sister schools across the state.
"I know some of our fans get upset on certain things about UT, but they are the 800-pound gorilla whether we like it or not," Hance said, reiterating how closely Tech works with Texas on legislative matters in Austin. "The other thing, we have some things where we help them and others where they help us from time to time. We have to work with them."
They get to decide?Hance and Bailey(Tech President), however, have yet to work out the matter involving penalty money owed by Colorado and Nebraska for leaving the conference early.
They had learned shortly before meeting with the regents the orphan schools up north had offered their share of that multimillion-dollar pot to lure back the schools down south.
Hance and Bailey both said they were not present at those discussions, and both hope Tech - and OSU, in the same position - gets its fair share.
aka Kiss Texas a$$"A lot of people think this new agreement is a Band-aid and that in two to eight years this mega-conference issue is going to come up again," he said. "Now we've got to make sure we win and do everything to increase our attendance and keep our relationships good with our competitors. We can be competitors and still be friends in other ways."