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

[surly]

Boren wants to be commissioner and college president. He's a former senator after all, running his mouth is routine behavior, and without consequences no less.

He can talk all he wants because he's in a position of strength, more even than UT because aTm won't let Texas in the SEC, but they'd take OU. And he's not shackled by the Longhorn Network, either, which is a huge exit barrier for Texas.

The have-not's, that would be you and me, best hold on to our britches while others determine our destiny. We may be playing UCONN and BYU not the Sooners and Horns in the near future. And that would be disappointing to put it mildly.

 

[Althetuna]

Tramel says Boren wants LHN gone and a Big 12 network. Texas vs OU, time for everyone to pick sides I guess.

http://newsok.com/article/5472488

 

[Judoka]

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.

You're cherry picking good schedules for those schools and bad ones for Oklahoma though. Iowa's home schedule is pretty good next year. But it has been **** recently and is crappy many more years than not. Arkansas has by far the best home schedule in the SEC next year. Let's look at the schedules of Big XII refugees in each conference.

Missouri? They get Georgia, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas at home next year.

Nebraska? They get Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota, and Maryland.

Colorado? They get Oregon State, Arizona State, UCLA, and Washington State.

Texas A&M? They get Tennessee, Ole Miss, and LSU (plus a neutral site with Arkansas).

None of those schedules are a huge upgrade from what Oklahoma gets every year.

 

[Judoka]

Tramel says Boren wants LHN gone and a Big 12 network. Texas vs OU, time for everyone to pick sides I guess.

http://newsok.com/article/5472488

From the article

While other conferences, particularly the SEC and the Big Ten, have flourished with conference networks, the Big 12 has been a European caste system with The Longhorn Network. Texas is flush with money, most of the rest of the schools have garnered little from the broadcast rights available to market on their own. And a Big 12 Network is not possible as long as Texas has Bevo TV.

The SEC and Big Ten have successful networks. The Pac-12 network has totally failed to take off and the ACC network might never exist.

 

[NetflixAndClone]

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

The only big problem I had with the article is the adding Boise State. They haven't been packing their stadium like they use to, and I bet in 3-5 years they won't be as strong and well known. Their late season games when it drops in temp and the broncos pick up a few Ls they fill like 60% of their stadium. They won't ever drop to being a terrible team, but they may turn into a Marshall where they get around 8 wins a season with some 10 win seasons from time to time. I see their stock falling and no one really talks about them being in P5 anymore.

 

[CySanka3]

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

It's becoming all about internet streaming and watching what you want a la cart. Smart TV's, Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, Netflix, hulu, amazon prime, watch espn, fox sports go...times are changing so the Big12 needs to get ahead of the trend for once and figure out a means for the future of viewership.

 

[isu81]

You're cherry picking good schedules for those schools and bad ones for Oklahoma though. Iowa's home schedule is pretty good next year. But it has been **** recently and is crappy many more years than not. Arkansas has by far the best home schedule in the SEC next year. Let's look at the schedules of Big XII refugees in each conference.

Missouri? They get Georgia, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas at home next year.

Nebraska? They get Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota, and Maryland.

Colorado? They get Oregon State, Arizona State, UCLA, and Washington State.

Texas A&M? They get Tennessee, Ole Miss, and LSU (plus a neutral site with Arkansas).

None of those schedules are a huge upgrade from what Oklahoma gets every year.

I did not cherry pick. Simply picked the closest school to Oklahoma in the conferences you mentioned as a way of doing it without bias. Then added Iowa because others pointed out their schedule. I'm sure I could fine plenty more examples. You said this:

"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."

So I took on your challenge and looked at three schedules. That's all it took to disprove your statement. There will be examples that go both ways, but unless you build your super conference with complete crap schools, there is no reason schedules would become less "sexy". I think Rutgers was a reach for the B10, but other than that, the other teams they added to get from 10 to 14 were Penn State, Nebraska and Maryland. Plenty "sexy". SEC added Missouri and Texas A&M. No dilution in sexiness there. Pac 12 added Colorado and Utah. Not bad, although Colorado has been weak in recent years.

 

[88clone]

I'm kind of amped up about this.

http://cyclonefanatic.com/football/news/williams-big-12-with-another-pr-botch-what-league-should-do/

Did not really understand the rant about Kansas, though. It's like you're trying to argue that "we're second worst" instead of "tied for worst". Does it really matter?

 

[kingcy]

If OU isn't happy with the way things are why didn't the just leave last go around? Or when things were going down work to make the Conference better? Instead all they are doing is ******** about the outcome

 

[jbhtexas]

The SEC and Big Ten have successful networks. The Pac-12 network has totally failed to take off and the ACC network might never exist.

Exactly. Not to mention that OU's third tier rights deal is worth $7 million/yr. But I guess in the OU culture, that would be "garnering little". The article was written by Berry Tramel, who is nothing but an OU mouthpiece, so one would expect it to be devoid of any logical conclusions or propositions.

Conference networks are the way to proceed

Berry, you might want to ask FSU how that is working out for them...

 

[Cycsk]

Did not really understand the rant about Kansas, though. It's like you're trying to argue that "we're second worst" instead of "tied for worst". Does it really matter?

It is BB season. Of course we want to be better than Kansas!

 

[jcyclonee]

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.

I think kNU's biggest issues are more fan-related:

1. The fans have these long road trips for away games now. They used to love the short trips to Ames, Lawrence and Manhatten. Now they don't travel as often.

2. The fans liked the fans from Big 12 (or at least Big 8, Colorado excepted) schools. The only schools in the Big 10 West that care about football are Wisconsin and Iowa and Nebraska fans really don't care for either teams fans, especially Wisconsin's.

Nebraska left because of the perceived instability and because they felt that Texas was telling everybody what to do. This is kind of ironic since kNU used to do that in the Big 8, only to a lesser degree. I do feel that when kNU left, Texas was humbled a bit and became a bit more agreeable.

 

[chuckd4735]

Tramel says Boren wants LHN gone and a Big 12 network. Texas vs OU, time for everyone to pick sides I guess.

http://newsok.com/article/5472488

I do wish ESPN would just turn the LHN into a Big 12 network. You can still be heavy on Texas content as they have the audience, but give everyone some time, and then Texas can breakout and do their own digital network.

 

[surly]

Did not really understand the rant about Kansas, though. It's like you're trying to argue that "we're second worst" instead of "tied for worst". Does it really matter?

They are not "Kansas" - there's no such school. It's a state. It's like calling Wichita a state, when it's actually a city in Kansas, more appropriately called, like CCNY, Wichita City University. So, call them what they are here as well, Ku. It makes the message clear. And I believe they prefer it anyway. A double winner.

 

[CycloneErik]

They are not "Kansas" - there's no such school. It's a state. It's like calling Wichita a State, when it's actually a city in Kansas, more appropriately called, like NYU, Wichita City University. Call them what they are here as well, Ku. It makes the message clear. And I believe they prefer it. A double winner.

I would be shocked if there was a single person or bot here that didn't understand what the term "Kansas" meant there.

 

[Cycsk]

CW, maybe you should be nicer to Boren if OU ends up being the next UT of the Big 12. Prepare to bow for Baron Boren!

 

[surly]

I would be shocked if there was a single person or bot here that didn't understand what the term "Kansas" meant there.

I'm not saying they didn't understand. I'm saying what the name should be to be clear and correct.

 

[Judoka]

I did not cherry pick. Simply picked the closest school to Oklahoma in the conferences you mentioned as a way of doing it without bias. Then added Iowa because others pointed out their schedule. I'm sure I could fine plenty more examples. You said this:

"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."

So I took on your challenge and looked at three schedules. That's all it took to disprove your statement. There will be examples that go both ways, but unless you build your super conference with complete crap schools, there is no reason schedules would become less "sexy". I think Rutgers was a reach for the B10, but other than that, the other teams they added to get from 10 to 14 were Penn State, Nebraska and Maryland. Plenty "sexy". SEC added Missouri and Texas A&M. No dilution in sexiness there. Pac 12 added Colorado and Utah. Not bad, although Colorado has been weak in recent years.

Illinois State
Pitt
North Texas
Illinois
Maryland
Minnesota
Purdue

I probably wouldn't have bought season tickets either.

 

[Shawker]

From the article



The SEC and Big Ten have successful networks. The Pac-12 network has totally failed to take off and the ACC network might never exist.

The Pac 12 network was pretty much doomed from the start. Their fanbase doesn't have the obsession/delusion of SEC fans, and the Big Ten's footprint dwarfs the Pac 12. Plus the Pac 12 is so far west that they don't resonate on the east coast or in the midwest.

 

[CYCLNST8]

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

The only big problem I had with the article is the adding Boise State. They haven't been packing their stadium like they use to, and I bet in 3-5 years they won't be as strong and well known. Their late season games when it drops in temp and the broncos pick up a few Ls they fill like 60% of their stadium. They won't ever drop to being a terrible team, but they may turn into a Marshall where they get around 8 wins a season with some 10 win seasons from time to time. I see their stock falling and no one really talks about them being in P5 anymore.

Agreed. BYU would be a solid addition for football only. That way we can avoid scheduling headaches with their other sports and keep round robin basketball. The twelfth school should be Cincinnati. It'd make WVU much happier to have a neighbor. They also have an enthusiastic fanbase with exponential growth potential since there's only one other Power 5 school in the state of Ohio. East & West divisions would be ideal so Mountaineers & Bearcats aren't constantly traveling to the Rockies.

WEST
Baylor
BYU
OU
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas Tech

EAST
Cincy
ISU
KU
KSU
TCU
WVU

Keep the nine game conference schedule in football and you're only avoiding two teams every two years instead of three.