The Big 12 expansion groundswell

[Paperback Writer]

I'm slowly starting to accept our situation after Panic/Anger/Depression/Disappointment/and Fear... it's kind of like the Christmas before my mission, when all I got was ties and a shaver. Worst Christmas ever... but accepted what I got and liked it about a year later when my first whisker showed up.

Oh the memories! My last Christmas before my mission was almost the same, a razor and....new scriptures. The new scriptures were my main gift to be opened last and I couldn't disguise my disappointment. Here my younger brothers were with a new bike, cool games, and the free weight set I had been asking for years and never received. And all I get is new scriptures. My father took the opportunity to lecture me that these were not just ordinary scriptures, these were the new indexed and cross-referenced scriptures. How he wished he had such a missionary tool when he served – like that helped my attitude.

But wait…all hope is not lost. My older sister, a BYU coed, forgot about her gift to me. It was still unwrapped in her luggage. She rushes to retrieve it and gives it to me. It’s in a BYU bookstore bag and she apologies for not wrapping it. But I already know what it is. It’s the Jim McMahon BYU football jersey I’d been asking my folks for. What great parents! They generously gave my sister some money (because it was too much for her student budget) so she could buy the jersey and give it to me as I was her favorite brother. How illustrious and grand!

But I need to wait my turn because my younger brothers still have more presents to open. Finally, it’s my turn. I’m like Ralphie in A Christmas Story after he is presented with his Red Rider BB gun after all the presents have been opened. I just hope she got the right size. I reach into the BYU Bookstore bag to pull out my Jim McMahon BYU football jersey and save Christmas! But wait, it’s not a jersey….it’s…a tote for my scriptures! I’m devastated! Again!

But it get’s even better! My sister later explains that she had bought the Jim McMahon football jersey with extra money my folks had given her. But then they called her and insisted she return it and buy the scripture tote instead. They were sure I would treasure my scripture tote that matched my new scriptures more than a football jersey and the extra money could be used to buy my younger brothers matching BYU T-shirts.
My non-LDS high school friends still joke with me about the time I received “a Bible” for Christmas.

[Marvelous]

Oh the memories! My last Christmas before my mission was almost the same, a razor and....new scriptures. The new scriptures were my main gift to be opened last and I couldn't disguise my disappointment. Here my younger brothers were with a new bike, cool games, and the free weight set I had been asking for years and never received. And all I get is new scriptures. My father took the opportunity to lecture me that these were not just ordinary scriptures, these were the new indexed and cross-referenced scriptures. How he wished he had such a missionary tool when he served – like that helped my attitude.

But wait…all hope is not lost. My older sister, a BYU coed, forgot about her gift to me. It was still unwrapped in her luggage. She rushes to retrieve it and gives it to me. It’s in a BYU bookstore bag and she apologies for not wrapping it. But I already know what it is. It’s the Jim McMahon BYU football jersey I’d been asking my folks for. What great parents! They generously gave my sister some money (because it was too much for her student budget) so she could buy the jersey and give it to me as I was her favorite brother. How illustrious and grand!

But I need to wait my turn because my younger brothers still have more presents to open. Finally, it’s my turn. I’m like Ralphie in A Christmas Story after he is presented with his Red Rider BB gun after all the presents have been opened. I just hope she got the right size. I reach into the BYU Bookstore bag to pull out my Jim McMahon BYU football jersey and save Christmas! But wait, it’s not a jersey….it’s…a tote for my scriptures! I’m devastated! Again!

But it get’s even better! My sister later explains that she had bought the Jim McMahon football jersey with extra money my folks had given her. But then they called her and insisted she return it and buy the scripture tote instead. They were sure I would treasure my scripture tote that matched my new scriptures more than a football jersey and the extra money could be used to buy my younger brothers matching BYU T-shirts.
My non-LDS high school friends still joke with me about the time I received “a Bible” for Christmas.

This had me laughing so many times. Best. Christmas. Ever!

[Uncle Ted]

Pitt and Syracuse are gone but now maybe also Connecticut and Rutgers...

West Virginia and Louisville have been on the radar of the Big 12, although that league announced today it will stay at 10 teams for next season.

But if Missouri opts for the SEC, the Big 12 will be in the market of either one or three more schools.

Connecticut, meanwhile, has been holding out hope for the ACC, while Rutgers has its sights on either the Big Ten or ACC.

Rutgers’ Board of Governors is expected to give athletic director Tim Pernetti the authority to pursue conference options during a regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday.

Even with the defections of Pittsburgh and Syracuse, the Big East will have those schools through the 2013 football season under the terms of the conference’s 27-month exit penalty.

I wonder what ND is thinking.

[Hot Lunch]

Pitt and Syracuse are gone but now maybe also Connecticut and Rutgers...



I wonder what ND is thinking.

Probably the same thing that Rutgers is thinking.

[lambdacoug]

Looks like BYUDeepthrowt got his twitter account removed, or he removed it himself. I lend the guy zero creedence, but it was fun checking in to see his tweets anyway...it fed the addiction for more info, any info, on this debacle.

[Omaha 680]

http://www.foxsportsmidwest.com/10/1...48&feedID=8745

One Big 12 administrator insisted that the conference, which now has 10 members with the addition of TCU, is a cinch to expand back to 12.

"That's the right number," he said. "It gives you two divisions, so you have the revenue back from a football playoff game – plus it adds some depth, in case a school decides to leave later on.

"I think Louisville would be an automatic choice. It's an excellent school academically with a healthy athletic budget ($74 million annually) that would be among the largest in the Big 12 -- and the Louisville TV market is the 16th-largest in the country, which is a big plus for us.

"Where's the downside to Louisville? It has the prestige and athletic success in all sports to match Missouri or (Texas) A&M.

"It's not like Louisville would say no, either. You think they want to stay in a collapsing Big East?"

The one surprise in all this speculation might involve Brigham Young, which has been a perennial national player in both football and basketball.

BYU has huge facilities -- LaVell Edwards Stadium holds 66,000 for football while the Marriott Center can seat 23,000 for basketball -- and presumably became a football independent because it had outgrown the Mountain West Conference.

"Everyone just assumed BYU would jump at the chance to join the Big 12," said a source close to the school. "Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think it's going to happen that way.

"The Big 12 has had all kinds of problems with Texas starting up its own network with ESPN, and BYU has something similar in place with its replaying of all football games on a university-owned station.

"BYU is comfortable as an independent, and wants to see how well it will work. Maybe there will be reasons to look for a prestigous conference eventually if things don't work out.

"But for now, I don't hear anyone talking about giving up all the benefits of going it alone in football, more or less using the same reasoning as Notre Dame."

[Marvelous]

http://www.foxsportsmidwest.com/10/1...48&feedID=8745

If BYU had shown the ability to put together a high quality schedule (that included high quality opponents coming to Provo) similar to what ND can do then I would be fine with independence. However, that has not shown to be the case so far, so I really wish BYU would have jumped at the Big 12.

[Goatnapper'96]

http://www.foxsportsmidwest.com/10/1...48&feedID=8745

Well that appears to be the closest to official explanation.

[dabrockster]

http://www.foxsportsmidwest.com/10/1...48&feedID=8745

If that statement is true then it leads in the direction that BYU decline to stay Independent..


:swear::swear:Sonbitches!!!! What happened to all the freaking out when things were going to go to Superconferences and BYU looked to be left out in the cold...


If BYU chose Indy over a BCS conference, then in fact they truly are stupid and do not understand the current situation of football and the elite conference. As an Indy we are still out....

[SoonerCoug]

Let's face it. If BYU were to join the BIG 12, they would get creamed. I would cite what is happening to Utah right now.

I think BYU has simply decided that BCS money doesn't really matter to them.

They think that with independence they have achieved a balance between income, exposure, and a schedule where they actually have a chance to go undefeated in a good year.

[TripletDaddy]

Well that appears to be the closest to official explanation.

No. Let's wait until we have credible evidence.

[EuropeanFootballMale]

http://www.foxsportsmidwest.com/10/1...48&feedID=8745

Flaming turd-nozzle ass-clown inbred moron butt-sucking slug-brained spazmo booger-licking independence-humping idiots

[Goatnapper'96]

No. Let's wait until we have credible evidence.

Waiting? My predictions are crystal clear. I even put dates!

I just commented that quoting an unnamed staff member from an unknown Big 12 school, likely not Mizzou or TCU so that limits it to the other 8, is as close to official as we have.

The best golfer in Afghanastan might not break 100 but he is as close to a professional as they have in the country!

[Goatnapper'96]

Let's face it. If BYU were to join the BIG 12, they would get creamed. I would cite what is happening to Utah right now.

I think BYU has simply decided that BCS money doesn't really matter to them.

They think that with independence they have achieved a balance between income, exposure, and a schedule where they actually have a chance to go undefeated in a good year.

I think the Utah example is a bit flawed. However, it might not be a good indicator that BYU will have lost by 44 points to a program that might accomplish something never done in Pac history - to have winless conference season in both hoops and football in the same year!

Oh Ye Mountain's High!

[TripletDaddy]

Waiting? My predictions are crystal clear. I even put dates!

I just commented that quoting an unnamed staff member from an unknown Big 12 school, likely not Mizzou or TCU so that limits it to the other 8, is as close to official as we have.

The best golfer in Afghanastan might not break 100 but he is as close to a professional as they have in the country!

There is a break in the quotation between the B12 expansion and the BYU portion. I read "a source close to the school" to be a reference to a different person than the B12 source referenced at the beginning of the blurb. IOW, a source close to BYU.

Other than that, I agree with you.