The Big 12 expansion groundswell

[Flystripper]

The Sunday play issue, which isnt really an issue in mens basketball. There are very few games played on Sunday in the b12 and the conference tournament is over on a Saturday.

The main sport where it is a problem is baseball. Does anyone care what conference our baseball team plays in?

[BlueK]

The main sport where it is a problem is baseball. Does anyone care what conference our baseball team plays in?

Baseball would have the most games affected by it, but it's really about the value of Fox Sports Net's inventory. They'd much rather run the fishing shows and infomercials on Thursday afternoons when everyone is at work instead of Sundays when everyone is home. In the WCC for example, BYU plays every baseball series Thurs-Saturday. Sure, other schools could still play on Sunday, but that doesn't work for the conference golf tournament, track and field championship, baseball tournament, softball tournament, swimming and diving championship, etc. Most of that stuff ends up on the Fox regional channels. And while it's not like there is a huge audience for it in general, again, it's more viewers than most other crap they could put there instead would get. The bottom line is that if Fox can't maximize Sunday time slots then they're not making as much money as they think they should be able to.

The secondary reason is to appease W. Virginia's travel concerns. It's one thing if they only have to make the trip to Provo once every 2-3 years. It's another if most of their sports (and every other eastern school they invite) have to travel to Provo on a regular basis.

[TripletDaddy]

Baseball would have the most games affected by it, but it's really about the value of Fox Sports Net's inventory. They'd much rather run the fishing shows and infomercials on Thursday afternoons when everyone is at work instead of Sundays when everyone is home. In the WCC for example, BYU plays every baseball series Thurs-Saturday. Sure, other schools could still play on Sunday, but that doesn't work for the conference golf tournament, track and field championship, baseball tournament, softball tournament, swimming and diving championship, etc. Most of that stuff ends up on the Fox regional channels. And while it's not like there is a huge audience for it in general, again, it's more viewers than most other crap they could put there instead. The bottom line is that if Fox can't maximize Sunday time slots then they're not making as much money as they think they should be able to.

The secondary reason is to appease W. Virginia's travel concerns. It's one thing if they only have to make the trip to Provo once every 2-3 years. It's another if most of their sports (and every other eastern school they invite) have to travel to Provo on a regular basis.

The Big 12 is doing nothing to "appease" West Virginia, a team that has won 11 conference games since it joined up.

[wapiti]

Who is this guy? From looking him up, the best I can tell is maybe he's a businessman who thinks he knows more than the average fan based perhaps on his business connections? Hard to tell. He tweets things and gets cited on college sports message boards a lot. The other commentators/columnists and those who claim to be insiders mostly seem to be disagreeing with him about UH, while they're all at least saying BYU is a credible candidate. But who knows. Nothing the Big 12 does should surprise anyone.

Will the AD at UH hit the bars with the AD at UT? If so, that might get them in.

[Clark Addison]

Let's join as Football/Basketball only. I am fine with being in the WCC in all other sports.

[BlueK]

The Big 12 is doing nothing to "appease" West Virginia, a team that has won 11 conference games since it joined up.

That doesn't really matter. To some extent they have to appease almost everyone because they need 70% of the schools to vote yes to expansion. The only way to get 70% from this dysfunctional bunch may be to put some kind of package deal together that has something in it for everybody, yes, including WVU who wants more eastern teams. So give them a couple of those, and then add BYU to the mix so OU and the Texas schools who have probably very little interest in Cincinnati or whoever WVU wants will also vote yes.

[BlueK]

Will the AD at UH hit the bars with the AD at UT? If so, that might get them in.

Don't forget that TCU joined as a response to A&M leaving. With A&M gone, suddenly another Texas school made more sense. It's a different situation today. But yeah, I wouldn't put any stupid decision past the Big 12.

[BlueK]

Let's join as Football/Basketball only. I am fine with being in the WCC in all other sports.

The WCC has no reason to keep us if we take basketball away, so I assume you're saying you'd be fine with having those sports in the Big Sky. Either way, it's not going to happen. The only way we join the Big 12 is either with the full package of sports or football only.

[Clark Addison]

The WCC has no reason to keep us if we take basketball away, so I assume you're saying you'd be fine with having those sports in the Big Sky. Either way, it's not going to happen. The only way we join the Big 12 is either with the full package of sports or football only.

Correct.

[TripletDaddy]

Gordon Gee, who has worked almost everywhere and is best known for his "little sisters of the poor" blast while at Ohio State, is now the President of WVU. he thinks we should all talk about expansion:

http://www.sbnation.com/college-foot...on-jim-tressel

SB Nation: Speaking of Big 12 expansion, University of Oklahoma president David Boren recently made headlines when he said that he felt the Big 12 was "psychologically disadvantaged" by only having ten teams. Do you personally agree with those comments?

Dr. Gee: President Boren is one of the real leaders in higher education and certainly one of the leaders in our conference. I certainly don't feel [the conference] is psychologically disadvantaged. I do think that having the name Big 12 with ten teams is, of course -- I was in the Big Ten when we had 11 teams -- and there is something to be said about that. I do think that the issue of conference expansion should be one that we talk about.

[YOhio]

Gordon Gee, who has worked almost everywhere and is best known for his "little sisters of the poor" blast while at Ohio State, is now the President of WVU. he thinks we should all talk about expansion:

http://www.sbnation.com/college-foot...on-jim-tressel

He's also from Vernal and is a Uintah Ute so f*** Gordon Gee.

[The_Douger]

The WCC has no reason to keep us if we take basketball away, so I assume you're saying you'd be fine with having those sports in the Big Sky. Either way, it's not going to happen. The only way we join the Big 12 is either with the full package of sports or football only.

I don't care where the rest of our sports play if football and basketball are in the Big 12.

[BlueK]

I don't care where the rest of our sports play if football and basketball are in the Big 12.

Doesn't matter anyway because it won't happen.

[BlueK]

Gordon Gee, who has worked almost everywhere and is best known for his "little sisters of the poor" blast while at Ohio State, is now the President of WVU. he thinks we should all talk about expansion:

http://www.sbnation.com/college-foot...on-jim-tressel

From Wikipedia:

n December 2012 Gee made offensive anti-Catholic statements. Gee said that the University of Notre Dame should not be added to the Big Ten:

I negotiated with them during my first term and the fathers are holy on Sunday and they’re holy hell on the rest of the week. You just can’t trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or Friday.[23]

So that's why ND can't be added to a conference. They're too hard to work with.

[BlueK]

From Wikipedia:

n December 2012 Gee made offensive anti-Catholic statements. Gee said that the University of Notre Dame should not be added to the Big Ten:

I negotiated with them during my first term and the fathers are holy on Sunday and they’re holy hell on the rest of the week. You just can’t trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or Friday.[23]

So that's why ND can't be added to a conference. They're too hard to work with.

Also this about when he was at Ohio State:

Controversy arose over Gee's alleged usage of public money to live an extravagant lifestyle. The Dayton Daily News of Dayton, Ohio, reported that "Ohio State has spent more than $64,000 on bow ties, bow tie cookies and O-H and bow tie pins for Gee and others to distribute."[19]

And this about when he was at Vanderbilt:

A September 2006 Wall Street Journal article detailed that some of Gee's problems at Vanderbilt—including his wife's actions (such as smoking marijuana in the chancellor's official residence), criticism of the high cost of renovating his home, and the couple's lavish spending—had come back to haunt him.

I've read enough to tell me he's a little bit of a nutcase.