The Big 12 expansion groundswell

[SoCalCoug]

Somebody help me out, here. What is western football?

It's a little bigger - silicone-enhanced.

[TripletDaddy]

Football played in stadiums (stadia?) located in the West, full of fans from the West. Don't you have some footnotes to check?

:rockon1:

[Babs]

Football played in stadiums (stadia?) located in the West, full of fans from the West. Don't you have some footnotes to check?

Advanced Legal Research: Texas Law.

It's a pass-fail class, so I'm not bothering to check cite form.

[Omaha 680]

Mark Cuban's thoughts on superconferences

[SeattleUte]

Why can't Utah become as good as Oklahoma? Because Oklahoma is so populous and Oklahoma and Norman are so charming?

[Uncle Ted]

Hmm... is OrangeBloods putting out disinformation?

With the inner workings of Texas politics in the background, there is always a chance that Texas’ plans could be forced to change. The Web site Orangebloods.com reported Sunday night that the university was being told to slow things down by local lawmakers.

But State Senator Judith Zaffirini, the chairwoman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, said in a telephone interview Sunday that the Senate had no plans to get involved in conference expansion. A hearing before the Texas legislature’s House Committee on Higher Education about Texas A&M’s potential move to the SEC was canceled. Zaffirini said she saw no potential political roadblocks for a Texas move to the Pac-12.

“I don’t see that happening at all at this point,” she said. “I have absolutely no intent of calling a hearing at this time.”

Also, the Big East is saying we are here if you need us...

A high-ranking college official did say Sunday that the Big East had reached out to multiple Big 12 universities and indicated, much as it did during the Texas-Pac-12 expansion talks last year, that the league would be interested in taking the universities if the Big 12 fell apart. The official said the Big East was not rooting for the demise of the Big 12, but opened up lines of communication in case it dissolved.

[TripletDaddy]

This thread has jumped the shark.

[SeattleUte]

I'm the only person capable of making you look good on this board. That's sad.

I'll tell you what, big guy. If BYU winds up in a Pac 16 I'll confess judgment to being the windbag and the troll and you being the smart one. If it doesn't happen, then it's the other way around. Deal? Wager?

[Babs]

This thread has jumped the shark.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Mark Cuban's thoughts on superconferences

I think he is right on. 16-team conferences seem like a really bad idea to me.

[LA Ute]

I think he is right on. 16-team conferences seem like a really bad idea to me.

Yep!!

[SeattleUte]

Yikes what a terrible photo shop job. You should stick to law school exam taking.

[OrangeUte]

I agree. 12 is the largest number a conference should have.

[Omaha 680]

I think he is right on. 16-team conferences seem like a really bad idea to me.

This has been my opinion from the beginning. Remember the Super-WAC? It was awful. It was geographically cumbersome and threatened to weaken regional rivalries that helped the fans connect to the conference. Granted, the current debate is about programs with fan support and budgets that are greater than the old WAC by orders of magnitude. But I think the principles still apply.

I may be in the extreme minority, but I miss the days when winning the Rose Bowl was more important to the Big 10 than winning a national championship. I miss when Thanksgiving meant it was time to play the Sooners for a trip to the Orange Bowl. Regional rivalries and tradition are what built college football and made it special and something different (and better in my mind) than the NFL. The interregional rivalries in nonconference games and especially bowl games added to the enjoyment.

I realize times have changed and you can't put the tradition genie entirely back in the bottle in an era of multibillion dollar television contracts. But I think throwing everything out the window in pursuit of those contracts is a mistake.

[SeattleUte]

I agree. 12 is the largest number a conference should have.

I don't want anyone foomr the Big 12, and not because I'm scared of any of them. I like the Pac culture, the venues, etc. I think each conference should adhere to a culture and a coherant geographic footprint.