The PAC 10 expansion groundswell

[Jeff Lebowski]

Texas and its idiot cousins should just go to the SEC. That's the natural fit. I don't understand why that doesn't give Texas everything, including maintaining the cultural aspect of league affiliation.

No can do, amigo.

There is also reason to believe Oklahoma could be enamored with joining the SEC. But that does not appear to be an option Texas officials would be willing to consider. There is a sense among UT officials the academics in the SEC are not on par with Texas.
If A&M and Oklahoma were to splinter off and join the SEC, the Pac-10 would obviously have to revise its invite list.

http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1090747

Surely you can empathize with such a situation.

[LA Ute]

Wilner weighs in.

Pac-10 expansion: Thoughts on the timing and the rumors

I think Wilner has been the most reasonable on this issue over the past months, sourcing all his reporting back to Scott. Given the events of the last 24 hours, I think we can put that "Utah to the PAC 10 is a done deal" rumor to bed. Utah may well still end up there, but it's fairly obvious that there are a lot of other schools that will need to turn down the invitation before it is even considered. And even then, some interesting math will need to be done to make it worth it.

Alas, we of the MWC are mere pawns in a huge chess game being played by others.

[beefytee]

Ouch. That really hurts, especially coming from a BYU fan, what with the Y's stellar record against Kentucky - not to mention the Cougars' many deep runs into the NCAA tournament where they too have been disappointed by teams like Kentucky in national championship games.

No, wait ....

I hate it when LA gets mean.

[cougjunkie]

This is going to be unreal. So come 2012 for example we will have:

Pac-16
North division:
USC
UCLA
Washington
Washington State
Oregon
Oregon State
Cal
Stanford

South Division
Arizona
Arizona State
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Colorado

The BIG 10
Michigan
Ohio State
Michigan State
Iowa
Penn State
Minnesota
Purdue
Northwestern
Illinois
Indiana
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Missourri

The new Big 12
Kansas
Kansas State
Baylor
Iowa State
BYU
TCU
Utah
Boise State
San Diego State
UNLV
Colorado State
Air Force


Looks good to me.

[Surfah]

No can do, amigo.



http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1090747

Surely you can empathize with such a situation.

One Texas fan's opinion:

http://www.burntorangenation.com/201...icles-texas-to

(1) The academic gap isn't as great as SEC detractors claim. Let's address the elephant in the room head-on. Yes, the SEC, from top to bottom, would not be as strong academically as the Big 10 or the Pac 10, even with the addition of Texas (and, presumably, Texas A&M as well).

But you know what? The Big XII today, with Texas and Texas A&M, is not at the same level academically as those two conferences. And I've never seen anyone, even those of us who have dismissed the SEC on purely academic grounds, argue that Texas is too good academically for the Big XII.

The gap narrows if one concentrates on the schools at the academic top of each conference. This is important because, if we moved to the Big 10, we'd be comparing ourselves to Michigan, not Michigan State. And in the SEC, we'd be comparing ourselves to Vandy and Georgia and Florida, not Mississippi State and Kentucky.

Using the admittedly flawed US News rankings as a very rough guideline for comparison of the academic reputations of the top tier schools of the Big 10, Pac 10 and an SEC with Texas and Texas A&M, all three conferences would have one private school (Northwestern/Stanford/Vanderbilt) ranked in the Top 20 and four or five additional schools ranked between 21 and 61 (using 61 as that is the ranking at which the SEC would pick up its fifth school [A&M]).

As of today, even with Texas and A&M, no other Big XII school cracks the Top 75, and the fifth Big XII school isn't ranked until Iowa State at 88. (Author's note: would you have guessed that the three highest ranked Big XII schools after Texas and A&M would have been Colorado, Baylor and Iowa State? Me neither.) So it's arguable that a move to any of the three realistic conferences would be an academic upgrade for Texas.

Moving beyond the US News rankings and looking at research dollars (link for 2006 dollars here -- note that the link opens an .xls file), there is a greater discrepancy between the Big 10/Pac 10 and the SEC with the Texas schools. Ignoring some of the apples/oranges problems with the data (a lot of the Big 10 schools report as "all campuses," while UT-Austin, which lacks a medical school, is broken off independently from other UT campus), the SEC would still land four schools in the Top 35 in terms of overall research dollars. (And, again, the Big XII of today lags far behind what the SEC with Texas and A&M would be in this metric as well.)

The SEC also has started to take steps to booster the overall academic profiles of its member schools. In 2006, the conference created the Southeastern Conference Academic Consortium, which could be considered similar in nature to the Big 10's CIC.

In sum, is the SEC as strong as the Big 10 or the Pac 10, even if just focusing on the top academic tier of schools? No, of course not. But is the gap so wide or so insurmountable that the academics of the SEC should be an automatic disqualifier if all of the other pieces fit, given UT's tolerance of the similarly weaker academics of the Big XII? No.

[WashingtonCoug]

The new Big 12
Kansas
Kansas State
Baylor
Iowa State
BYU
TCU
Utah
Boise State
San Diego State
UNLV
Colorado State
Air Force


Looks good to me.

I like it too. Football would be good and basketball would be a huge upgrade.

[cougjunkie]

Love the meltdown on utefans.net now that they are not being invited to the party.

Of course the rumors are not true and this blogger nobody has ever heard of. .

Also no way would Texas do this when they get the lions share of the revenue in the Big 12.

This has been awesome to watch unfold.

[Surfah]

Love the meltdown on utefans.net now that they are not being invited to the party.

Of course the rumors are not true and this blogger nobody has ever heard of. .

Also no way would Texas do this when they get the lions share of the revenue in the Big 12.

This has been awesome to watch unfold.

This why they want to preserve the Big 12.

[LA Ute]

Love the meltdown on utefans.net now that they are not being invited to the party.

It's just as fascinating to watch the dread here over Utah possibly leaving turn into giddy relief that you all won't be left behind. I must admit, the thought of Utah going to the PAC-10 and heads exploding all over Utah County and in Cougar Club meetings did give me pause. But it looks like you will all be saved from that.

[Coach McGuirk]

It's just as fascinating to watch the dread here over Utah possibly leaving turn into giddy relief that you all won't be left behind. I must admit, the thought of Utah going to the PAC-10 and heads exploding all over Utah County and in Cougar Club meetings did give me pause. But it looks like you will all be saved from that.

The only person I remember dreading this was live coug. And he can't figure out roundabouts, so take that for what its worth.

[LA Ute]

The only person I remember dreading this was live coug. And he can't figure out roundabouts, so take that for what its worth.

There sure seemed to be a lot of nervousness. LiveCoug was simply honest about it. I'll admit I would have been very nervous had the two programs' positions been reversed.

[falafel]

There sure seemed to be a lot of nervousness. LiveCoug was simply honest about it. I'll admit I would have been very nervous had the two programs' positions been reversed.

Nervousness, sure. But Livecoug was the only one rending his clothes.

[LA Ute]

Nervousness, sure. But Livecoug was the only one rending his clothes.

I'm still going to be rending a pizza at The Pie. Probably today, though - I am in Salt Lake now, not on June 11. Fooled you all again!!!

[Coach McGuirk]

There sure seemed to be a lot of nervousness. LiveCoug was simply honest about it. I'll admit I would have been very nervous had the two programs' positions been reversed.

No you wouldn't have. BYU, given it wholesomeness and higher standards, would never leave it's little brother lying face down in the mud.

[Hot Lunch]

I hope the new conference for BYU and Utah plays out with the following teams.

Kansas
K-St
Baylor
Iowa St.
Utah
BYU
TCU
Houston
New Mexico
Boise St.
UNLV
SDSU

For a 12 team conference. No need to go 16 if you don't have quality teams. If they do want to go 14 then add Air Force and Tulsa. I don't think there are a total of 16 quality schools available for this new conference. I know that SDSU, UNLV and New Mexico could probably be considered "not quality" but you need SDSU and UNLV for their markets and New Mexico brings a really good basketball team to picture.