The Big 12 (10) is alive!

[El Supremo]

Texas, nine other Big 12 schools, commit to staying in the league

The Big 12, thought to be in mortal condition as recently as late Saturday, will remain alive as a 10-team league after Texas signed off on the new arrangement late Monday afternoon, UT officials have told the American-Statesman. Above: The Longhorns celebrate their 2009 victory over Nebraska for the Big 12 Championship at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

http://www.statesman.com/

[madinmaryland]

1. Didn't they win the Big 12 championship at ...

Jerry Jones Memorial Stadium??

:D

[El Supremo]

4. No, at Emperor Jerry's Death Star >>

[thatsrightimirish]

2. got to give it to Texas

They do know how to negotiate.

[JonLP24]

3. So that article posted here

about Oklahoma, Texas, OKST, TTech joining the Pac-10 was completely false?

Anyway good for the Big 12!

[fishwax]

11. Texas A&M scuttled that plan, Jon

That's actually what I was hoping for, personally, and from what I can gather it was very much the likely scenario over the weekend. But for A&M, that was apparently their third choice, and when they began flirting with the SEC (as a second choice to staying with the remaining Big Xii teams), that got Texas to consider anew the conference's proposal.

[charlie and algernon]

5. I wonder if the Big 12 will try to snipe a couple schools to replace CO and NE

afterall, this whole thing started because the Big 10 didn't have enough schools for a conference playoff. Now the Big 12 is in that position where their season will end weeks before everyone else.

[Condem]

6. A better way of putting it would be that the rest of the weak kissed Texas' ass.

What an awful conference. The Longhorns and the little 9.

[fishwax]

8. Seeing as Oklahoma has won half the conference championships

and seven of the last 12 South Division titles, "The Longhorns and the little 9" is not a particularly accurate description.

[Condem]

9. Seeing how Texas will get the lions share of the $$...

..which is the only thing this is about, fish, means it is a very apt description. Texas played you fuckers like a Stradivarius.

[fishwax]

10. no, not really

Texas and Oklahoma will both get a huge chunk of the conference TV revenue, just like they do now. (The Big 12 breaks up revenue based on number of appearances--currently UT gets a few hundred grand more than OU, but it's close to even.)

Where Texas will make more money is in the projected 5 million they'll get from their Longhorn TV network, if and when they get that up and running. Personally, I'm skeptical as to how lucrative and successful that will actually be, but regardless, more power to them. The UT athletic department has always had a financial edge over OU (and just about every other athletic department in the country), so that's nothing new. But the Sooners compete on the field, which is all that really matters to me.

"Texas played you fuckers like a Stradivarius."

That doesn't make any sense at all. Oklahoma is going to be making (if the projections are accurate) double the money that they made before, and without the hassle of playing half their road games more than a thousand miles away. Oklahoma gets to keep their most important and lucrative rivalries (the Nebraska rivalry having faded in importance years ago).

Incidentally, it was really A&M that held the cards in this scenario--their decision to go SEC instead of Pac 10 is what forced Texas to reconsider the Big Xii. Personally, to be honest, I was hoping for the Pac 16, for a variety of reasons. had push come to shove and OU gone to the SEC with A&M, that would have been okay as well. But given how much OU stands to make on this deal, this is going to work out just fine in the short term.

[Condem]

12. Oh, bullshit, fishwax. A&M had no cards.

I've got a question for you. Besides the state of Texas, who in the fuck is going to watch the Big 12?? Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri aren't exactly screaming with TV sets. Just where are these guaranteed $$ coming from??

[fishwax]

14. I'm skeptical of the numbers as well, but

the projections are what they are, and apparently they were convincing enough for David Boren and Joe Castiglione, who have a history of brilliance when it comes to the business of the University of Oklahoma and its athletic department. In terms of TV sets, we lost a big market with Colorado going and a small market with Nebraska. But we also break up the revenue 10 ways now, instead of 12.

So, again, in the short term this certainly suits Oklahoma's interests just fine. Long-term, though, I have a hard time seeing the conference surviving.

[Condem]

15. That's why I called it a band-aid, fish.

It was a stop-gap measure. Nothing more. I give it a couple of years.

[fishwax]

16. Yeah, I don't disagree with you there

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Scurrilous]

7. The Big 12 and the Big 10 need to switch names. n/t

[depakid]

17. That's a relief for this PAC 10 fan

The LAST thing we needed was to have the Texas schools in the league.

[Condem]

18. I'm happy for you, depa.

Nobody needs motherfucking Texans in anything. Except shutting down oil leaks. They're good at that.

[depakid]

19. Well, if we get Utah the Pac 10 still gets stronger- without the undue moneyed influence

that surrounds the Texas schools.

Colorado is an excellent school academically- with a very good law school and medical school. Plus, the TV market expands --Denver is a huge TV market for the PAC 10. If we get Utah, then we add Salt Lake City. With 12 teams, the PAC 10 would be able to create two divisions under NCAA rules and have a PAC 10 championship game.

Plus, the TV revenues would be great. The Big 12 has been mortally wounded. With 10 teams, it cannot have a championship game under NCAA rules. The PAC 10 is stronger, not weaker. Additionally, it will be poised to add additional teams in the future. The three big super conferences will be the Big 10, SEC and PAC 10- and the SEC and PAC 10 are the strongest by far. Texas was too conservative and did not want to have to play hard teams week after week. And- I think Stoops had a lot to say about it too.

The PAC 10 pulled a coup by forcing things with Colorado and Nebraska and cannibalizing the Big 12- which now really only has 2 good teams and 2 mediocre teams and 6 awful teams and no chance for a championship game for Texas or Oklahoma.

[KamaAina]

22. 16-team conferences don't work

the WAC tried that. Result: the top tier bolted to form the Mountain West, leaving a rump conference that stretches from Ruston, La. to Honolulu.

Even in basketball, the Big East is overpopulated, with teams in opposite divisions playing only once instead of a home-and-home, and a tournament format so intricate its opening round has been banished to ESPN U. (Not to mention that it no longer has that much to do with the East.)

[thatsrightimirish]

20. One thing is clear after all of this

The University of Texas owns the entire Big 12. I don't understand how schools like A&M can look at themselves in the mirror after this one. Grow a pair and get into the SEC.

[Capt. America]

21. +1, A&M its time to get out of the shadow of big brother, join the SEC