You do love college football.
But I think you’re outside the norm. I think once relegation occurs for a number of these college football programs then most people will simply view the lower tier championships/playoffs as just the football equivalent of the NIT.
Maybe you will, but not I. His comparison to Texas HS football playoffs and championships is a great one.
Ah, he’s just shifting blame cause he’s overseen the demise.
I think Dan Beebe gets most of the blame for that.
OU and UT have negotiating this for the better part of a year. The B12 Commish had no clue.
Bowlsby sat on his hands instead of being proactive in trying to expand the Big 12 with another elite program or two. He assumed nobody would try to leave, and it bit him in the ass.
Not that I’m defending Bowlsby, but name one elite program that would leave their current situation to join the Big 12. Sorry, but Houston, Cincinnati, and the like don’t count; they’re not going to move the needle on a TV contract, and that’s really the only metric that counts.
I wasn’t talking about adding them today, as that ship has obviously sailed. Bowlsby has had nine years since A&M left for the SEC to proactively seek good expansion candidates, and his attitude has basically been: “We are good with 10, and I don’t think anyone will try and leave.”
I think my point still stands. Once Nebraska and A&M left, there just wasn’t enough critical mass in this conference to attract anybody of their caliber to shore it back up. Frankly, I’m surprised that Oklahoma didn’t bolt sooner.
Nebraska was no loss. When they lost the ability to admit partial qualifiers, they were toast.
Boise St and BYU would have added a small boost. BYU has a pretty good following and Boise still has a good reputation and especially did at the time. People would have tuned in, in the short term at least, to see how they would do in a major conference. Houston and UCF both have large alumni bases and sit in major TV markets. While not the needle mover that a Texas or Texas A&M, they aren’t nothing and certainly don’t drag down the product like a Kansas St or Kansas football.
There were rumors about Clemson, Florida State, and GA Tech jumping ship a few years ago. Then the ACC locked them down with a new 20-year rights deal. I don’t know if any discussions actually happened with the Big 12 and/or how serious they were, but the ACC got spooked enough to act. That was the last best hope for meaningful expansion of the Big 12 until well after 2025, and my impression of the perception of the Big 12 has been that the conference has been a dead man walking since 2016.
Bowlsby may have tried his best to court other schools and simply failed to polish a turd. The only thing that should be surprising to him is that all the shit is hitting the fan - and he may be out of a job - a bit earlier than expected.
Really this has been coming since 2010, after Colorado and Nebraska left and the BIG 12 nearly died then. A&M and Mizzou leaving a year later confirmed it and since then they have just been hanging on for dear life. Now the end is near but it’s gonna get even more messy.
No doubt, but it was at least on life support. Losing out on Clemson/FSU was the death blow.
I saw a quote somewhere, don’t remember where, from Deloss Dodds supposedly from around 2010, when asked how long does the BIG 12 have left and he said “5, maybe 10 years”
Now this may be internet bull shit but it’s at least plausible Dodds would say something like this
Glad someone else remembers this.
The “…ah, we’re fine” attitude from B12 headquarters was maddening
What I’ve always heard from serious people is that they were a lot closer to the ACC back then than a lot of us realize. Chose to keep the network. Financially, this was a brilliant move.
I always thought the PAC16 was gonna be a thing with Texas, OU, OSU, TTU, KU joining Col and Texas said no at the last minute
Eta - also I read that the Mountain West in 2011 was in talks to add OSU, TTU, KU, KSU, BAY but obviously that didn’t happen
