The Big 12 expansion groundswell

[Uncle Ted]

Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News is reporting...

Big 12 school source said reports today that Baylor has agreed not to sue SEC are inaccurate. "Completely false," the source said.

[Uncle Ted]

It's a nightmare for aTm's lawyers. Imagine having to negotiate 8 separate releases from parties who hate your client and what your client wants to do.

I'd love to see a 60 Minutes-style interview with the brain trust at aTm that came up with this harebrained idea.

EDIT: People have strong opinions either way about Ken Starr, but he's one of the brightest legal minds in the country. Get ready for a great chess game.

The aggie brain trust...

[Surfah]

Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News is reporting...

Well like Beebe said, the Sept 2nd letter was only in regards to the Big 12 conference suing and not member institutions.

[Jeff Lebowski]

As much as I would love to see the aggies squirm, I would hate to see a precedent set where lawyers get to dictate what conference a school is allowed to join.

Let 'em go.

[Surfah]

It's a nightmare for aTm's lawyers. Imagine having to negotiate 8 separate releases from parties who hate your client and what your client wants to do.

I'd love to see a 60 Minutes-style interview with the brain trust at aTm that came up with this harebrained idea.

EDIT: People have strong opinions either way about Ken Starr, but he's one of the brightest legal minds in the country. Get ready for a great chess game.

I am looking forward to the 30 on 30 regarding realignment.

[creekster]

As much as I would love to see the aggies squirm, I would hate to see a precedent set where lawyers get to dictate what conference a school is allowed to join. Let 'em go.

LAwyers already dictate it. who do you think drafted the agreements and negotiated the deals? iTS ALL LAWYERS, BABY, ALL THE TIME.

[Uncle Ted]

As much as I would love to see the aggies squirm, I would hate to see a precedent set where lawyers get to dictate what conference a school is allowed to join.

Let 'em go.

Yes, but make the take Baylor.

[LA Ute]

LAwyers already dictate it. who do you think drafted the agreements and negotiated the deals? iTS ALL LAWYERS, BABY, ALL THE TIME.

[Goatnapper'96]

The aggie brain trust...

I have always found those willing to pay $$ to attend a military style/academy college to be weird as hell. Perhaps aTm Corps, the Citadel or VMI are prestigious in their own regional areas, but I just could not work out paying to be miserable. It reminds me of my favorite spirit sign when Army played VMI: "Hey VMI, your parents pay for our school too!"

[Coach McGuirk]

According to an aTm insider, they received a letter from Baylor this morning giving their blessing to move and waiving litigation.

[shoganai]

Latest from Jon Wilner

I’ve talked to two sources in the past 36 hours who have a keen understanding of the realignment puzzle in general and the University of Texas culture in particular … and neither believes UT will join the Pac-12. Ever.

...UT would have to fold The Longhorn Network (four years of work) into the Pac-12′s regional network structure, allowing plenty of Texas Tech programming on the airwaves.

None of that seems desirable for the Longhorns.

Another suggested UT’s future conference affiliation is more about state political aims than football revenue. And the Lone Star State’s true power-brokers have always looked east — to the halls of Washington in particular.

This is the state that produced LBJ and the Bushes … and now has another presidential candidate, Gov. Rick Perry.

The university, which has one of the nation’s finest law schools, considers itself the academic equal of the Ivies, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins.

(Not that Stanford and Cal aren’t academic powerhouses. It’s just that they aren’t east coast academic powerhouses.)

One source believes UT will do whatever it takes to keep the Big 12 breathing, even if that means making fiscal and Longhorn Network concessions to Oklahoma.

And in the event of departures by Texas A&M and Missouri and the Oklahoma schools?

The Longhorns — with the aid of ESPN, which wants the Big 12 to survive — would attempt to reconstitute the conference with Texas Tech, Baylor, Kansas and Kansas State, Iowa State and a handful of newcomers (Houston? SMU? Pittsburgh? Louisville?) before throwing in the towel.

And then? Then they’d pack up their bags and head down the road to football independence, perhaps placing their Olympic sports in the ACC, and maneuver to gain the same Bowl Championship Series access as Notre Dame.

I firmly believe Texas is going to be independent when all of this dust settles. And, I don't think they will be the last major power to strike out on their own.

For once, I'm going to risk the wrath of all truth and light and agree with SeattleUte.

BYU belongs right where it is. Texas belongs with them. If you build the road to independence, the necessary partnerships and allies will come...

Full Article

[LA Ute]

Wilner has an interesting and fairly persuasive take on Texas' plans:

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/college...#comment-75724

EDIT: Shoganai beat me by a minute!

[Jeff Lebowski]

Latest from Jon Wilner









I firmly believe Texas is going to be independent when all of this dust settles. And, I don't think they will be the last major power to strike out on their own.

For once, I'm going to risk the wrath of all truth and light and agree with SeattleUte.

BYU belongs right where it is. Texas belongs with them. If you build the road to independence, the necessary partnerships and allies will come...

Full Article

I am starting to think that might not be such a bad option for Texas.

[Maximus]

Latest from Jon Wilner









I firmly believe Texas is going to be independent when all of this dust settles. And, I don't think they will be the last major power to strike out on their own.

For once, I'm going to risk the wrath of all truth and light and agree with SeattleUte.

BYU belongs right where it is. Texas belongs with them. If you build the road to independence, the necessary partnerships and allies will come...

Full Article

Texas going independent does not solve the scheduling, bowl, BCS access problems that BYU has. In fact, it probably makes it harder for BYU in terms of BCS/Bowl access.

[shoganai]

Texas going independent does not solve the scheduling, bowl, BCS access problems that BYU has. In fact, it probably makes it harder for BYU in terms of BCS/Bowl access.

-BCS access issues are irrelevant as soon as the Plus-one format comes into play.

-The scheduling discontent is so overblown right now, I could right an entire epistle on it. In fact, I have.

-Of course Texas helps alleviate those issues. It's one more great game we can schedule in October/November as often as we want, and it will only encourage more teams to think about independence. The more independent schools there are, the better for BYU.