The Big 12 expansion groundswell

[falafel]

Did anyone hear Kirk Bohls with DJ and PK this morning talking about Big 12 expansion?

I was just curious about a recap, as I arrived at work when they were starting the interview.

They didn't say much about expansion. The gist of it was that the B12 is "very happy" with 10 members, but that in the opinion of Bohls, BYU should try to get in a conference.

[Omaha 680]

They didn't say much about expansion. The gist of it was that the B12 is "very happy" with 10 members, but that in the opinion of Bohls, BYU should try to get in a conference.

Quick! Someone tell Tom and the boys.

[Paperback Writer]

It is not a big deal... It is a "huge" deal. It seems that the LHN has reach critical mass and most likely will be around for good now. It will be interesting to see if the Ole Miss games stays on the LHN now. Before there was a good chance of it being moved to ESPN.

If the LHN turned out to be a failure there would be a good chance that UT would just do something crazy like join the SEC and bring OU along, IMO. Now that the LHN (and the B12) is looking a little more long term it is time to think about expansion. Do you really think the B12 will be given a BCS playoff spot long term with only ten teams and no championship game?

It also means that the Longhorns will finally be able to afford that long awaited locker room renovation.

Not long ago, I stated that Texas would never join the SEC. But that was before Texas A&M joined the conference. OU is a much better fit for the SEC but the Sooners hooked their wagon to the Longhorns long ago. I still think the only hope for Big 12 expansion is for a playoff system requiring a CCG and not giving an excemption to Notre Dame. I had always thought that the Irish would join the Big Ten if that happened but now I'm not so sure. Would be fun if Notre Dame, BYU, Baylor, and TCU all ended up in the same division of the Big 12.

On the other hand, if Notre Dame gets an exemption from a CCG, Texas could go indy with their LHN and just abide by the "Notre Dame rules" of getting a playoff berth.

[LiveCoug]

They didn't say much about expansion. The gist of it was that the B12 is "very happy" with 10 members, but that in the opinion of Bohls, BYU should try to get in a conference.

Unfortunately when national media say something like that, they mean BYU should go to the MWC or some similar crap conference.

[Uncle Ted]

It also means that the Longhorns will finally be able to afford that long awaited locker room renovation.

Not long ago, I stated that Texas would never join the SEC. But that was before Texas A&M joined the conference. OU is a much better fit for the SEC but the Sooners hooked their wagon to the Longhorns long ago. I still think the only hope for Big 12 expansion is for a playoff system requiring a CCG and not giving an excemption to Notre Dame. I had always thought that the Irish would join the Big Ten if that happened but now I'm not so sure. Would be fun if Notre Dame, BYU, Baylor, and TCU all ended up in the same division of the Big 12.

On the other hand, if Notre Dame gets an exemption from a CCG, Texas could go indy with their LHN and just abide by the "Notre Dame rules" of getting a playoff berth.

That would create a whole new "holy war".

[lambdacoug]

Quick! Someone tell Tom and the boys.

Can we get someone on a tent watch?

[The_Douger]

Quick! Someone tell Tom and the boys.

Email sent.

[The_Douger]

It is not a big deal... It is a "huge" deal. It seems that the LHN has reach critical mass and most likely will be around for good now. It will be interesting to see if the Ole Miss games stays on the LHN now. Before there was a good chance of it being moved to ESPN.

If the LHN turned out to be a failure there would be a good chance that UT would just do something crazy like join the SEC and bring OU along, IMO. Now that the LHN (and the B12) is looking a little more long term it is time to think about expansion. Do you really think the B12 will be given a BCS playoff spot long term with only ten teams and no championship game?

Well, they have a full round robin and they've kind of just done whatever the hell they wanted, so I just thought the other conferences weren't going to call them on this.

[SoCalCoug]

Can we get someone on a tent watch?

Ewwwwwww.


1017.jpg

[Uncle Ted]

Well, they have a full round robin and they've kind of just done whatever the hell they wanted, so I just thought the other conferences weren't going to call them on this.

I am guessing conferences with less members might have less pull on who will be in the all important "selection committee":

BCS executive director Bill Hancock said the selection committee would consist of between 14-20 members, including at least one individual representing each of the 10 FBS conferences.


Finding more than a dozen individuals interested won't be a problem. But finding individuals that are interested and qualified to be on the committee might be a tougher task.


The committee will resemble the NCAA men's basketball tournament's selection committee, except there will be a great deal more pressure and scrutiny on the football committee determining which four teams can compete for the national title.


ACC commissioner John Swofford was jokingly asked if the committee members might have to be in the witness protection program since college football fans have been known to be fanatical.


"Witness protection program: That's been said," Swofford said, laughing.


"There are a lot of great people out there that love the game, that will be able willing and qualified. We want people that know the game and understand the game, that have wisdom, integrity and respect. We're confident those people are out there."
[...]
In the playoff, the top four ranked teams -- as determined by the selection committee -- will meet in the semifinals. After those four teams are selected, the league champion or top available team from the Pac-12 and Big Ten will play in the Rose Bowl presented by Vizio, SEC and Big 12 teams in the Allstate Sugar Bowl and ACC in the Discover Orange Bowl.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/...-14-20-members

I could see the SEC and the B1G getting another representative on that selection committee given they are both will be at 14 members each.

[lambdacoug]

Ewwwwwww.


[ATTACH=CONFIG]2698[/ATTACH]

Well, that escalated quickly...

[All-American]

Well, that escalated quickly...

SoCal certainly knows how to get a rise out of us.

[Uncle Ted]

Kirk Bohls seems to like the idea of BYU in the Big 12... This article was written before the game:

Bohls: BYU in need of a loving conference home

When Texas ventures out for its first road trip of the football season, the Longhorns will head to the base of the Wasatch Mountains. They might as well be going to an island because that’s where Brigham Young precariously sits in the current college landscape.
And it’s a remote island at that.


Now that Notre Dame has become a quasi-member of the ACC — and New Mexico State, Idaho and Navy will join conferences next year — BYU is left with Army and under-the-radar Old Dominion as the only remaining independents, a status the Utah school chose after leaving the Mountain West after 2010. And that’s not a position of strength.
West Virginia will open Big 12 play Saturday at Oklahoma. TCU will play Southeastern Louisiana. Both are Big 12 members in good standing since joining a year ago, when the Big 12 desperately needed partners to ensure its survival. So what did those schools have that BYU didn’t when the Western football power flirted — if that’s not too salacious a word for the LDS flagship school — with the Big 12 and then the Pac-12, only to be left at the altar.


Easy.


TCU had geography on its side with its Fort Worth home, a rich history shared with its former Southwest Conference and Big Eight friends, a recent Rose Bowl win, Gary Patterson’s growl and upgraded facilities.


West Virginia? Well, it’s hardly in the neighborhood, but it has an East Coast presence amid a huge population, making it a better television market and giving it exposure to more media. The Mountaineers also bring a strong basketball history and a friendlier time zone. “Just more bang for your buck,” one top Big 12 figure said.


“No question the value of West Virginia as a television entity was a factor in their inclusion in the league,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Wednesday.


But those ships have sailed. What’s BYU’s next port?


Bowlsby isn’t offering a life raft, saying, “We like our 10. And we’re there by considered decision, not by default. We’re not in the market for members at the present time.”


So where is BYU, Texas’ opponent Saturday, destined in the future?


Maybe left out. And that’d be a shame.


So why didn’t the Big 12 show BYU big love?


After all, BYU brings a solid football program that includes a national championship in 1984 and more Sammy Baugh trophies and Davey O’Brien awards than any other Big 12 school. It mass-produces quarterbacks like Steve Young and Jim McMahon, but that topic’s not exactly Mack Brown-friendly at the moment.


BYU offers respectable basketball, another sore subject in this area code of late. Hey, Jimmer Fredette, what’s shaking?


Few teams travel as well as BYU, which was supported by more than 10,000 fans last week at Virginia, only 2,000-plus miles from Provo. BYU brings a national following, too, with just under 384,000 living alumni, the school said, and a LDS population topping 6 million within the United States. Oh, but you say that’s a negative.


Well, in the eyes of some, yes. The school is governed by the Mormon church, and athletics is simply a prism through which the church wants the world to see it. It’s so conservative, it makes Ted Cruz appear liberal.


That’s one reason the Pac-12 reached out to Utah — BYU’s biggest rival — although a highly placed Pac-12 source told me Utah’s superior academics, not religion, trumped BYU because the latter is not a research institution. I know that’s where the big bucks are, but is there anything wrong with a teaching college? Bowlsby, who came to the Big 12 from Stanford, said there was no Pac-12 vote taken on BYU and no formal application made.


“Those would be considerations when the time comes,” Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds said, “but I don’t think religion or the two-year missions would be obstacles.”


The Big 12 has two church-affiliated schools in Baylor (Baptist) and TCU (Disciples of Christ), and the league had no problem inviting TCU, probably because the Frogs don’t wear their religion on their sleeves. The Cougars come fully dressed in Mormon cloth from head to toe.


But does that represent that big a conflict when we’re talking about sports? Shouldn’t conferences worry more about television revenue than a private school’s public stance regarding same-sex marriage. Last I checked, Notre Dame had some spiritual leanings, but that didn’t stop the ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten from tripping all over themselves with invitations.


BYU isn’t ever budging on its no-play rule on Sundays, but how big an impediment is that really? Bowlsby said the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee easily worked around that during his five years of service. Half the NCAA field plays a Thursday-Saturday schedule.


Critics harp on the fact the Cougars’ have older players back from two-year missions — 57 football players are on missions this season — but isn’t that more of a disadvantage, being away from the game? Heck, Mack worried about Case McCoy being in Peru for the summer.


BYU athletics director Tom Holmoe declined to be interviewed, but BYU needs a home in a conference. Why? For a less-difficult path to the four-team football playoff. For ease of scheduling because most potential opponents are in league play during the second half of the season. For league revenues, although BYU has an eight-year ESPN deal that some say pays it about $1 million per game.


So could the Big 12 be forced to expand by any factor, including the ever-growing SEC, Big Ten and ACC?


“I can’t think of anything,” Bowlsby said.


Neither could Dodds, but he did say, “I think if (the NCAA gets) into some new configuration, they’ll fit somewhere.”


But where? BYU dreams big and should. BYU wants to play on the biggest stage and strengthen its national brand. Nothing wrong with those motives.


Yes or no to BYU?
The pros and cons tied to adding BYU to your exisiting conference, as Kirk Bohls sees them:


Pros


National-profile school, with its own television network that reaches 53 million homes.
Solid football program that’s been to eight straight bowls and won a national title in 1984.
Successful basketball program that ranks 17th all-time nationally in wins.
Tops University of Utah in television ratings for basketball and football games.
Flagship university of Mormon Church, which has more than 6 million members in the U.S., according to BYU officials.

Cons


Religious affiliation with LDS Church, which stresses a conservative philosophy.
BYU doesn’t permit athletic competition on Sundays.
School’s athletes can be older because many serve two-year missions.
Remote location in Provo, Utah.

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/spor...ce-home/nZn4g/

"So why didn’t the Big 12 show BYU big love?" LOL.

With the big win over Texas I think BYU has gain a lot of respect in the Big 12. Let's put last night's win next to the one over #3 OU in 2009.

[SteelBlue]

Came across this on twitter yesterday. Even though it's painful to bump this thread, I thought some might enjoy this guy's analysis.

http://frankthetank.me/2013/10/30/th...-its-all-over/

Overview: BYU has strong enough of a national brand to garner an independent TV contrac with ESPN, a massive worldwide fan base, its own TV network and a solid football tradition. My criteria for demographics and academics likely undercount the true value of BYU, as its relevant demographics are really related to the world’s Mormon population and it has top tier undergraduate academics. Boise State might have the best record of recent on-the-field achievements out of any non-power conference school, but BYU is the one institution at this level that legitimately looks, feels and acts like a power conference program.

[jay santos]

Came across this on twitter yesterday. Even though it's painful to bump this thread, I thought some might enjoy this guy's analysis.

http://frankthetank.me/2013/10/30/th...-its-all-over/

BYU and Cincy have equal TV value?