By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com PublisherFollow Chris on Twitter @ChrisMWilliams
Over the last month, I’ve read hundreds (maybe thousands) of blogs on conference realignment.
I may or may not have suffered serious eye damage from all of the time I’ve spent on this computer. I’m still trying to decide if this left eye twitch is due to the screen or the three pots of coffee I’ve been sucking down per day.
I know for a fact that I’ve put a serious strain on my marriage (my wife hates realignment like I hate the Green Bay Packers). My dog Paisley has taken the worst brunt of this. We haven’t played our daily game of football fetch in two weeks.
While doing my daily morning prep today, I thought of a few things that just don’t add up. At the end of the day, all of this conference chatter is like a bully urinating in the little guy’s big bowl of Frosted Flakes. Consider the following…
— Back in the day, it was Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Nebraska that voted against equal revenue sharing within the league. Nebraska left the league last year because of a lot of things, one being that Texas was making all of the money…
— As mentioned above, like Nebraska, the Sooners voted against equal revenue sharing. In coming back to the Big 12 for round three, the Sooners are down with sharing first tier revenue equally, despite the fact that they’ll likely lose money out of the new agreement. Are the Sooners being generous, or do they know that they’ll make an addition 10 million (just an estimate) in third tier rights (that they get to keep for themselves) in the coming years?
— One of the schools that has pushed the hardest for equal revenue sharing, Missouri, is now on the verge of getting their wish. That’s a good thing right? Yep. Even so, the Tigers are reportedly still interested in bolting for the SEC and refused to commit to the Big 12 in a Thursday night press conference…
— Speaking of the Tigers, Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton is reportedly the man who was largely responsible for saving the Big 12 during this round of realignment. But while working for the Big 12, reports continued (and still do) to surface about Missouri joining the SEC. Conflict of interests anyone? Hmm….
— Every school in the Big 12 sat down last year and voted to leave third tier television rights to each individual school. Now, some are irritated by Texas doing exactly what the rest of the league allowed the Longhorns to do in the first place…
— When he became the league’s commissioner in 2007, Dan Beebe pushed for equal revenue sharing within the league. Beebe got canned yesterday, partly because (there were more reasons than only this) of the unequal revenue sharing within the league…
— The haves (Texas & Oklahoma) have made the majority of the headlines over the last month of realignment hysteria. Yet, if the Big 12 splits tier one revenue equally going forward, the have nots (or as I like to refer to them, the haven’t yets) stand to gain the most…
Meanwhile, the Cyclone football team is currently 3-0.
Preach the good word Alanis Morissette.
"Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think? A little too ironic? Yeah, I really do think…"
This conference realignment saga really is like rain on little ole’ Iowa State’s wedding day. It’s a free ride and the Cyclones have already paid. It’s good advice, that we just can’t take.
Who would have thought?
It figures.
Is anybody else tired of literally everybody talking in circles?
