Texas A&M announced today that it's going to apply to another conference and if accepted, plans to leave the Big 12 in June of next year. Notice they didn't say they were going to LEAVE the Big 12, and hope to get ACCEPTED into another conference before June of next year. It's a threat right now, not a promise. So don't hold your breath, BYU. You're not going any where just yet. As a matter of fact, for the foreseeable future you will continue to go nowhere, fast.
Texas A&M is pitching the same fit that BYU did last year when Utah was invited to the new PAC 12 and they were left off the invitation list. But A&M is smart enough to not burn the bridge they MIGHT cross, before everything is said and done.
A&M is fed up with Texas. And so is the rest of the Big 12. Those bastards wouldn't commit to a Big 12 network, they started their OWN network. The Longhorn Network. So they can show high school football games of guys they want to recruit, and they don't have to share ANY of the money with the rest of the Big 12. Pretty smart. But they might have shot themselves in the foot, too.
Lets face it. The only teams with a national following from the Big 12 are Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma. And I can't figure out why ANY of them are of any interest to anyone outside of Oklahoma and Baja Oklahoma (Texas). But at least with the Texas schools, they have a big, built in TV audience. Oklahoma? Who cares?
I mean, they play Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Missouri.
If Missouri didn't have the St. Louis TV market, no one would watch them. They are always rated in the top 20 to start the season then lose to Troy State in the second or third week, and end up in a car parts bowl no one will watch.
And Oklahoma State? They can't draw a crowd in their own state, let alone nationally. T. Boone Pickens cares about Oklahoma State. And he's rich. Or no one else would care about Oklahoma State. Here in a state that plays in the PAC 12, OSU means Oregon State. Not Oklahoma State.
Kansas and Iowa don't matter. Never have, never will. They are the definition of, "fly over state". No one on either coast is marking the UK/K State game on their calender. And short of their political primaries that seem to weed out the only SANE Republicans, nothing, nothing at all, that happens in Iowa matters. Now. Or ever.
There has been some speculation today that if A&M actually is silly enough to leave for, "some other conference" about who might get into the Big 12. Well, if the SEC sticks to it's guns and tells A&M that now is just not the time, "other conferences" are not going to be clamouring to take them. But, I'm pretty sure the guys in the Big East who voted to take TCU are now saying, "SHIT! If we'd have waited ONE more year!"
The speculation is that the Big 12 to stay viable should invite Notre Dame and Arkansas. Not happening. Arkansas is already in what everyone but me thinks is the best football conference in the country. And they know better than to leave.
Notre Dame is Notre Dame. They think they are, well, Notre Dame! They can write their own ticket. They are the most popular football college in the country and have been for ever! Well, now? Not so much.
They still think that, but it's wrong. They were told earlier this year, even if they had fingers in their ears and were saying, "Nah, nah, nah, nah..." when told it, that they shouldn't expect all their games to be on Network TV every Saturday starting this year. They will find themselves shuffled off to Verses, just like the Mountain West Conference. Imagine that.
The reasons for this are many, including the fact that for the last ten years or so, they suck. And that other conferences have cut better, more lucrative deals than they have, and networks might be more interested in, dare I say it, a Utah vs. Oregon game if it's to decide who goes to the Rose Bowl or the BCS Championship Game?
And I have no figures to back this up, so I'm just going out on a limb here as a guy with a Sociology Degree (if you vote for Republicans, Sociology is the study of groups) and using what I've observed traveling around the country. I'm guessing that more than half of the practicing Catholics in this country now, are Latino, and that they WAY outnumber people who trace their Catholisism to Europe. And they don't really care about American Football, because they are much more recent immigrants than the ones from Ireland. They like what we call, soccer.
If ND and UA don't want in, the, "experts" on ESPN think that the Big 12 might take TCU and BYU, but that's not going to happen. TCU is committed to the Big East, and the Texas schools don't want to compete in recruiting with them. Plus, if you're TCU, and you have a footprint in the Northeast now, wouldn't it be easier to recruit a kid from upstate New York to warm, Texas in the winter than one from down the street to a place that's not as cool as Texas? I think so.
BYU makes sense. But they face other hurdles to getting in. And we'll talk about that in a minute.
The next two teams the, "experts" at ESPN think the Big 12 should go after are Louisville and Pitt. WTF? Pitt fans will make a beeline to Texas Tech for road games? But with TV coverage, the question is would they even care to WATCH a game against Texas Tech?
I think not. But, I would have bet the ranch that Colorado fans wouldn't let their team go to a conference with USC and UCLA and leave their, "Prairie" rivals. So what do I know?
Yeah, Louisville and Pitt would expand their, "TV footprint". But so would West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Central Florida, Central MICHIGAN, and Buffalo! Would Pitt and Louisville leave an already BCS qualifier for an unknown market just to recruit in Texas? I don't think so.
Because the Big East is the weakest link in the BCS. So easy to win that who ever comes out of it couldn't compete in the Mountain West week after week.
And wouldn't be picked to win the New Mexico Bowl.
But there is something the, "experts" at ESPN are NOT taking into account. And it's politics. It's ALMOST an election year. And the problem here is not the Democrats. That ticket is set. They can ignore issues like this, and a college football playoff, It's the Republicans. And the folks running in the THAT primary, have to be crazier than the others to insure getting the nomination.
You think that doesn't matter? I'm going to tell you why it does. BYU fans? Pay attention here.
When the South West Conference dissolved, what? 14 years ago? Before the BCS. The big schools that formed the Big 12 left out, Southern METHODIST University, Texas CHRISTIAN University and tried to leave out, Baylor. A Baptist school.
None of them have the best academic reputation, but Rice does and they left them out too. Rice has a student body of less than 5000. So what's the common factor here? Religion.
Anne Rice was the Governor of Texas at the time. Arguably the highest office in the land short of President of The United States. And she was a Baylor Alumni. And she made it known that if the new, Big 12 DIDN'T take Baylor? It wasn't going to happen. They backed off and took Baylor even though they wouldn't let their teams play on Sundays, and didn't have a great academic reputation.
Switch to today. Rick Perry, the evolution, and science denying, dumb ass Governor of Texas is running for President! Like the last evolution denying, dumb ass Governor of Texas that ran for President wasn't ENOUGH of a disaster for this country? Can we, as a people be dumb enough to elect ANOTHER ONE? I hope not.
BUT, that being said, this guy, who wields enormous power, has to play to his evolution, science denying, dumb ass, teabagger constituency who is mostly Baptist. And those folks HATE Mormons! They think they are not Christians. And we know that Mitt Romney can't win the south, Jon Huntsman isn't even a factor in this election and Michelle Bachman, as dumb as she is, is a contender in the religious south, Perry is going to have to make an anti-Mormon statement at some point.
And just might make it by denying BYU a shot at any conference that would let BYU recruit and play in Texas.
He can't come out AGAINST Notre Dame (like they would go there, anyway). Too many Catholics. But he CAN come out against Mormons. So BYU might be shot down from joining the Big 12 just like SMU and TCU were years ago.
Just sayin...
It's something most college football analysts won't take into consideration. Especially, Trevor from, ESPN.
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