COLUMN: Big 12 w/ another PR botch, what the league should do

[CyBobby]

Hitting the bottle early today?

I love your response re hitting the bottle...since I have not had one sip of alcohol for 15 years.....but in my younger days I just mite be hitting the bottle at this time of day...lol

 

[Wesley]

The saddest part is that this has been going on so long that A) we're forced to accept that constant realignment is the new "normal", and B) there is an entire generation coming up that knows nothing of the way things used to be.

It's sad irony that the very thing that once made college sports so appealing (intense rivalries in conferences whose membership remained steady for a half-century or more) has been destroyed by schools' attempts to become even more appealing by getting richer. If it were up to me, I'd send back the video boards, the indoor practice facilities, the south end zones, and the multi-million dollar coaching payrolls if it just meant we could have a crack at teams we've been rivals with since before my grandfather was in college.

Sad for you that those days have forever passed since we do not have a hi qual airport.

 

[Wesley]

What OU wants the Big 12 cannot deliver which is a consistently sexy home schedule. Presumably they want into the Pac 12 south or the SEC.

We can talk about how secure the Big 12 is but what other conferences have presidents b*tching about the conference they're in? OU is quickly becoming a CU/MU scale b*tch Pac/SEC wannabe and that turned out badly for the Big 12.

My ***** with OU is they botch the post season so much.

 

[Tornado man]

My ***** with OU is they botch the post season so much.

We still eagerly cash the check for our share of their bowl pot...

 

[CysRage]

Agree 100% Chris. Very well written. Just like several years ago, it was Mizzou, Texas A&M, and Nebbie opening their mouths that made the Big 12 very unstable. Who knows what was said behind closed doors at the Big 12 meetings lately but nothing confirms conference instability than a university president (or AD) opening his mouth how woe is them. Every team that left the Big 12 is feeling at least some regret. Colorado wanted a league that they could compete it..nope. kNU was supposed to run the Big Ten and be an immediate power house..lol. Missouri just had the ego they were better than the Big 12. They may be competing in football but look where their basketball team is now. Who knows how good Mizzou football will be now that Pinkel is gone and they had to settle with hiring a coordinator as coach. Texas A&M is doing the best of the bunch but they aren't exactly having a jolly walk lately either. Sometimes (actually most of the time) the grass isn't greener on the other side. OU would be making a huge mistake if they decided to up and leave.

 

[roundball]

We still eagerly cash the check for our share of their bowl pot...

Well yeah, we helped them get there

 

[Tornado man]

Agree 100% Chris. Very well written. Just like several years ago, it was Mizzou, Texas A&M, and Nebbie opening their mouths that made the Big 12 very unstable. Who knows what was said behind closed doors at the Big 12 meetings lately but nothing confirms conference instability than a university president (or AD) opening his mouth how woe is them. Every team that left the Big 12 is feeling at least some regret. Colorado wanted a league that they could compete it..nope. kNU was supposed to run the Big Ten and be an immediate power house..lol. Missouri just had the ego they were better than the Big 12. They may be competing in football but look where their basketball team is now. Who knows how good Mizzou football will be now that Pinkel is gone and they had to settle with hiring a coordinator as coach. Texas A&M is doing the best of the bunch but they aren't exactly having a jolly walk lately either. Sometimes (actually most of the time) the grass isn't greener on the other side. OU would be making a huge mistake if they decided to up and leave.

This is totally made up. Please support this statement. If the Big Ten invited ISU right now, we'd accept before noon.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Expanding to capture TV sets/TV markets is just stupid at this point.

 

[jbhtexas]

Re: WILLIAMS: Big 12 with another PR botch, what league should do

There will not be a BIG 12 network while the Longhorn Network exists. I am glad that OU wants a conference network and agree with what Boren is saying, but criticizing your conference in public does nothing except maybe pad his ego, make it look like he is an active AD to his Board and to OU fans, or weaken the conference and attract invitations from other conferences passively.

If he truly wants a 12 team conference and a BIG12 Network he needs to be on the phone with UT, not spouting off in the press.

Boren wants OU to be in the SEC, hence his path of action.

Back in 2013, when the ACC GOR was signed, the ACC schools were promised a conference network that would bring them lots of money. That network was supposed to launch, and then was delayed to 2017, and now ESPN wants to delay it even further. Why do you think that is?

http://www.syracuse.com/acc/index.s...ject_delayed_by_espn_according_to_report.html

Peterson reportedly told the Georgia Tech board that ESPN wanted the delay to ensure the channel would be immediately profitable and have appropriate distribution from the moment it debuted. Peterson said some of the previous stand-alone channels, which include the SEC Network, Pac-12 Network and the Big Ten Network, have lost money during their first few years.

Translation: ESPN can't develop a network configuration that will deliver the money promised back in 2013, which will inevitably cause a poopstorm amongst certain schools that signed that GOR based on the promise of future revenue (i.e. FSU).

Sorry Mr. Boren...the conference network ship has sailed. The money isn't there anymore.

 

[Die4Cy]

The fact that Boren is ******** on the VERY DAY that the conference wins this concession from the NCAA is very telling. Especially in a year when they were in the CFP.

They gone, it's only a matter of time. I expect OU to try and go the NU route and petition for B1G access. Big advantage to them to being the closest to the state of Texas and playing in a conference with ample media attention.

The scary part from a Big 12 standpoint is what happens after that. Texas does not want to be in a conference with Cincy and UConn. They will go indy or SEC before that.

 

[Judoka]

Re: WILLIAMS: Big 12 with another PR botch, what league should do

I don't want a conference network because I've cut the cord and a conference network wouldn't make me get cable again, it would just cut down on the amount of ISU content I can watch via Cyclones.TV. Fans of Big Ten schools can't watch BigTen2Go unless they have the Big Ten Network through their cable provider.

 

[cydsho]

Boren is a politician and I don't think what he is saying is what he thinks is necessarily good for Oklahoma but good for him. He has consistently undercut most decision/votes/whatever that appear good for the B12 administration with his own agenda, which I think is to possession himself as the next commissioner.

 

[isu81]

If that's the case they need to check out the home schedule of just about every school in a super conference. Super conferences are death to sexy home schedules.

Why would this impact home schedules? I can see where you may get clunker years like Iowa had this year, but as long as you're still playing 4 or 5 conference home games, not sure why they would be any more or less "sexy"?

For comparison, I pulled up a couple examples, using Oklahoma's schedule, as well as Arizona (PAC South), Arkansas (SEC) and Iowa (B10) for 2016 home conference games. Arizona, Iowa and Arkansas all play in "super conferences" as you refer to:

Oklahoma: Texas, Kansas State, Kansas, Baylor (+ 5 road conference games)
Arkansas: Alabama, Ole Miss, Florida, LSU (+ 4 road conference games)
Arizona: Washington, USC, Stanford, Colorado, Arizona State (+ 4 road conference games)
Iowa: Northwestern, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska (+ 5 road conference games)

Not really seeing the difference in "sexiness" between Oklahoma and the others.

 

[BenEClone]

OU wants to negotiate everything at once - great idea - if you give something to get something. Otherwise you end up at risk of giving three times. I suspect the 12 team issue is less of a concern. The $$ of the championship game is closely linked to the $$ of a network. The Longhorn network would be part of the negotiation. As a standalone issue, UT will never budge on that.

 

[roundball]

Expanding to capture TV sets/TV markets is just stupid at this point.

The Big 12 doesn't care about media markets; its TV model doesn't depend on having its network bundled into as many cable subscriptions as possible, like the Big Ten. The Big Ten gets revenue by forcing cable customers in major metros to pay for the Big Ten network whether they watch it or not; the Big 12 gets revenue by negotiating large contracts with existing TV networks on the promise that the high-quality matchups entice people to watch and increase ratings, generating higher advertising rates.

 

[State43]

Re: WILLIAMS: Big 12 with another PR botch, what league should do

Boren sucks and so does the drum he bangs all the time. Add 2 - 4 teams and be done with it. B10 showed that adding bad teams doesn't hurt your shot at the CFP and helps teams have better records.
It's crazy to me the trigger isn't be pulled. They wait till it's too late over and over again and complain afterwards.

 

[roundball]

Re: WILLIAMS: Big 12 with another PR botch, what league should do

http://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=213358

 

[nfrine]

The fact that Boren is ******** on the VERY DAY that the conference wins this concession from the NCAA is very telling. Especially in a year when they were in the CFP.


The scary part from a Big 12 standpoint is what happens after that. Texas does not want to be in a conference with Cincy and UConn. They will go indy or SEC before that.

Texas does not have a good enough football product to go independent right now. A&M is killing them on the big time Texas recruits as it is. Going to the B1G or Pac-12 will probably not help them (or OU). The SEC is the only real route they have.

OU has to come up with a deal that lets Okie State tag along (according to the Oklahoma Legislature)

I think it would be in Texas and OU's best interest to figure out a way to make the Big 12 work....

 

[Cycsk]

What are the pros and cons of Texas going independent? What does it mean for them? And for the Big 12?

 

[UNIGuy4Cy]

This conference is an absolute mess. And no one can say it isnt, you have a president openly voicing his issues to whoever wants to listen.