The Big 12 expansion groundswell

[myboynoah]

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[Uncle Ted]

Kirk Bohls on why the "Hateful Eight" should vote for expansion...

Big 12 Expansion: Fateful decisions for Texas, OU and Hateful Eight

Expansion for the Big 12 is dead.


Or so it seems.


Some might say the same for the Big 12; that its demise will be linked to its instability and indecision and lack of out-of-the-box thinking. All of that will come to a head Monday when the Big 12’s presidents and chancellors deliberate and probably announce they’re standing pat.


“I’m not expecting expansion,” said one school administrator with a vested interest in the process. “I don’t see that it’s going to happen. I think on Monday everybody’s feeling it’s all coming to a screeching halt.”
[...]

Then, there’s the other point of view.


The Big 12 makes the Kardashians look mature. It can’t get out of its own way. It can’t decide if it wants to expand or not. It will be swallowed up by the Big Ten and SEC.


The pool of viable candidates is desperate to get in a Power 5 conference. The money’s too great. Most of the candidates make about $3 million a year off television. Big 12 schools each cashed checks of more than $30 million in June. One source at a Big 12 school told me Friday that an expansion candidate offered to pay the Big 12 a whopping $50 million for an invitation. That’s big-time.

But I think doing nothing is the wrong choice. One Big 12 power broker called the whole operation “a clown show.” Just without the oversized shoes and red nose.


The Big 12 should expand because any and all decisions should be based on one primary criterion: survival.

We all know Texas and Oklahoma will not only survive, but thrive. We know that because they are the kingpins of the Big 12. They are the brand names. Probably the only brand names, which again speaks to the need for growth.


Many of us think Texas and OU will ultimately leave in eight years after the grant of rights expires. Probably for the Big Ten, the SEC or the ACC.


That’s not a healthy environment for what I will call the other eight schools — the Hateful Eight, if you will. Oh, they may not hate it now. Many of their predecessors did, which is why Texas A&M, Nebraska, Missouri and Colorado call other conferences home. They left because they had options.


The Hateful Eight has only one option. Two, if you count prayer.

We all know Texas and Oklahoma will not only survive, but thrive. We know that because they are the kingpins of the Big 12. They are the brand names. Probably the only brand names, which again speaks to the need for growth.


Many of us think Texas and OU will ultimately leave in eight years after the grant of rights expires. Probably for the Big Ten, the SEC or the ACC.


That’s not a healthy environment for what I will call the other eight schools — the Hateful Eight, if you will. Oh, they may not hate it now. Many of their predecessors did, which is why Texas A&M, Nebraska, Missouri and Colorado call other conferences home. They left because they had options.


The Hateful Eight has only one option. Two, if you count prayer.

It takes eight votes to expand, and they hold eight votes. That, my friends, is real clout.

They should scoop up Houston and Cincinnati, maybe even BYU and South Florida or Central Florida or any school near the state of Florida. May not have sizzle but four new teams would help bolster their chances of survival. If Texas and OU bolt for greener pastures — that’s greener as in Benjamins — the Hateful Eight stand a better chance if they still have as many as 12 teams to market. Otherwise, they’ll be in the next reincarnation of the American Athletic Conference.


Watch Texas and OU leave, and then try to sell an 8-team league made up of Iowa State and Kansas State and Oklahoma State and the rest to ESPN or Fox or Amazon or Netflix or Apple or whoever is showing games in eight years. That gets to be a little dicey.


There’s been precious little public discourse on the matter. None of the presidents I reached out to this week chose to respond because it’s such a sensitive matter. Can’t say I blame them because this decision affects a whole lot of people.


“It’s stone cold quiet,” one administrator told me.


“The president won’t have any comment,” another at a Big 12 school said.


None really has outside of OU’s David Boren. But come Monday night, a lot of people may have a lot to say. By then, it may be too late for the Hateful Eight.

http://www.hookem.com/columns/big-12...hateful-eight/

[falafel]

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Meeting over already?

[myboynoah]

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Meeting over already?

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And so we wait.

[taekwondave]

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Meeting over already?

Time to make the phone calls? I actually like that it ended 2 hours early. It suggests they went into the meeting with a pretty good idea of what was going to happen, and it happened. Now they need time to get ducks in a row before presser. Here's hoping

[falafel]

Christopher Lambert @theDudeofWV  · 9m9 minutes ago

A very bad sign for expansion that the meetings are over. No discussion means no vote.

Christopher Lambert @theDudeofWV  · 5m5 minutes ago

@4Toblerone They talked at length last night about it.

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[All-American]

...

Don't those two tweets contradict one another exactly? It doesn't take more than a minute to have ten people say "aye" or "nay."

[myboynoah]

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[SCcoug]

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Missing the circle R.

[All-American]

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Looks too small to me.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Smoke?

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[Uncle Ted]

More smoke?

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[myboynoah]

Influential Mormons push for church-owned BYU in Big 12

[imanihonjin]

More smoke?

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That isn't the real Greg Wrubell.

[All-American]

More smoke?

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Dang you.