So Texas has decided to stay put, and the Big 12, oops, Big 10, lives another day.
Good for it, I guess.
Let’s just say that it’s been an interesting couple of weeks that, despite what others think, is far from over. But let’s take a look at the Winners and Losers as things stand this morning.
WINNERS:
1. Baylor: gets to remain a irrelevant program in a barely relevant conference. If Texas had actually pushed the destruct button, Baylor would have been lucky to get an invite from the Sunbelt Conference.
2. Kansas: one of college basketball’s all-time great powers gets to
remain in a conference where it will be taken seriously.
3. Nebraska: Tom Osborne has made it clear in the past that he doesn’t
like the fact that UT gets to make all of the rules in the Big 12, so
he’s going to a conference that has its own big-time TV network, and he
doesn’t have to split the cash with Texas.
4. Texas: so, let me see if I’ve got this straight. Texas no longer
has to play in a championship game, which means that’s one less decent
team they have to worry about every year. They also get to start their
own TV network, and keep all of the money from that, while, with the
departure of Nebraska and Colorado, they’ve destroyed the TV revenue for the rest
of the conference because now there’s no more mega-dollars coming in
from the conference championship game.
5. Utah. The Pac 10 is one school away from getting a championship
game, and all of the TV money that comes from such a game. Utah is the
obvious school to join now, and Pac 10 officials have been spotted
negotiating with the school.
6. The Big East and ACC. Rumor was that if the Pac 10 really went to
16, then the Big 10, now 12 and SEC were going to go on a feeding frenzy
and raid those conferences for schools. Now these two weak football
conferences will get to keep their BCS bowl status, despite a continued
inability to field a team that could legitimately compete in Conference
USA.
7. Orangebloods.com and Chip Brown: suck it, ESPN. These guys have
owned this story and have made everybody else reporting on it look like
fools.
8. Vince Young: Mr. Young got into a vicious fight inside a Dallas strip club on Saturday night, but this story has been
lost in all of the hoopla over conference realignment.
9. Richard Justice: now he has an excuse to ignore the Vince Young
story, because, as we all know, according to Justice, the world revolves
around Young and Young can do no wrong.
10. Mike Sherman: Now he can just be a mediocre football coach in a
mediocre conference instead of being an awful coach in a fantastic
football conference.
LOSERS:
1. The Mountain West Conference: With the addition of Boise State last
week, this conference was poised to leap into the abyss caused by the
implosion of the Big 12 and take over major conference status, including
the automatic BCS bid. But the Big 12 lives, and now the Mountain West
has to worry about its schools being snapped up by the Pac 10.
2. Boise State and TCU: they were poised to be the kingpins of a major
conference with a BCS bid. Now they’re in the same conference and have
to keep watching non-deserving teams in the Big East and ACC take their
BCS bowl slots.
3. Pac 10: Sure it got Colorado. But in a flash it went from being
the big boy on the block and able to dictate any terms to anybody, to
finding out what the Aggies feel like every Thanksgiving after Texas has
screwed them over.
 |
| Sure and I’m not irrelevant |
4. Missouri: they were going to be the Big 10 before Nebraska was
going to the Big 10. Then they were going with Nebraska. Now they’re
stuck in the so-called Big 12 with Texas still dictating all of the
terms.
5. SEC: this means no Texas A&M, and this means that Kentucky,
Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt won’t be able to add this easy victory to
their schedule.
6. Houston: sorry Cougar fans. Conference USA it is, and will always
be. But at least you still have an excuse for not selling out the games
of one of the most exciting teams in football.
7. Conference USA: Memphis is doing everything possible to get the
hell out,
which would make C-USA even more irrelevant than it already is.
8. Texas Tech recruits: they went from the chance of getting to visit
California every year to getting stuck going to Iowa.
9. Oklahoma: still stuck having to kiss UT’s ass.
10. Notre Dame: sorry, the Big 10 doesn’t need you anymore. Good luck
as you fade away into irrelevance.
This article appears in Jun 10-16, 2010.
