Big 12 football: A plan to save the conference
Posted by berrytramel
on September 2, 2011M at 3:00 pm
The Big 12 floats around, waiting for some kind of plan that could save the conference. Add a Brigham Young? Maybe. Add a TCU? Perhaps. Add SMU and Houston? You’ve got to be kidding.
The truth is, there are no easy fixes for the fractured league, which has lost Nebraska, Colorado and (soon) Texas A&M in the last 15 months. Even a BYU/TCU combination might not be enough to stabilize the league. I think the Big 12 has to dream big. In this jungle of conference realignment, the Big 12 has to do unto others what was done to it. Poach on inferior leagues.
That means the Big East. I think the Big 12 has to look east.
My suggestion: Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia. That would restore the Big 12 to 12.
My better suggestion: Don’t stop at 12. Go ahead and add BYU and TCU, then look East for five additions and become the first 16-team Super Conference. Louisville, Pitt and West Virginia are the obvious. Then just keep going to the Eastern seaboard. How about Rutgers and Maryland?
I know Maryland is in the ACC, so it’s in a better conference than the Big East schools, but maybe Maryland is ready for a change. The Terrapins can’t be crazy about the Tobacco Road dominance of ACC basketball.
Anyway, how about that? The current nine members of the Big 12, plus BYU, TCU, four Big East schools and Maryland. I know it’s a long way to the Atlantic Ocean, but we’re talking about another option for OU and OSU of going to the Pac-16, which has eight schools along the Pacific. So what’s the difference?
It even makes a semblance of sense geographically. Kentucky and Missouri are border states (barely). Kentucky and West Virginia are border states. West Virginia and Pennsylvania are border states and both border Maryland. Pennsylvania borders New Jersey.
If you think the conference is too far-flung, you could drop BYU and add another Eastern school. Syracuse, perhaps, if the Orange could be convinced to leave their basketball roots. Or UConn. Then you could put Kansas State and Kansas to the Big 12 South, along with TCU, and call it the West Division. Iowa State and Missouri could join the Eastern teams.
I ran it past a Big 12 power-broker, and he liked it. I really trotted out just the three schools — West Virginia, Pitt and Louisville. He really liked West Virginia and Pitt and said Louisville might grow on him. Then he mentioned Rutgers and Syracuse. So this idea is a collaboration.
It’s got all kinds of hurdles. TV network deals. Talking Eastern basketball powers into leaving their beloved conferences, which are mighty in contemporary stature and tradition. Talking any school into coming to the Big 12, with its instability and its Longhorn Network dilemmas.
But clear enough hurdles, and it might work. It most definitely would be a better plan for promoting Big 12 stability than just adding a school or two to come in and get mad at Texas.
It’s a longshot. Probably wouldn’t fly. But the Big 12 is better of dying while trying, better off aiming high, than sitting around waiting to be picked off one by one.
Big 12 football: A plan to save the conference | Berry Tramel's Blog
