Maybe NC State and North Carolina would be perfect for the Big XII

[Plainosooner_rivals54053]

North Carolina legislature voting to require NC State and UNC to leave the ACC
if the conference pulls any additional events out of the state because of the bathroom bill. I think they'd be a perfect fit for the Big XII. It could be an upgrade for football and a huge upgrade for basketball.

West Virginia would have some conference opponents in the same zip code.

President Boren, now is your chance.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...quired-withdraw-acc-conference-boycotts-state

 

[BillyRay_rivals31072]

If those schools leave and the drama creates an unstable ACC, then maybe the Big XII can poach a few more teams out of that conference.

 

[CTOkie]

I miss the days when conference alignments were geographically sane.
These days, all I hear/read about Big 12 expansion involves Florida teams, Boise State, BYU, Tulane and now, NC State and North Carolina.
Whatever happens or doesn't happen is out of my control, so I'm not overly concerned......but I'm not sure if the Big 12 will live long enough to see expansion. It's more likely to me that OU and Texas will migrate east or west.
Once upon a time, the Big 12 included Nebraska, Texas A&M, Missouri and Colorado, which represented a better (and saner) scenario than anything being proposed or speculated about now. That ship has sailed.

 

[roygbell]

I miss the days when conference alignments were geographically sane.
These days, all I hear/read about Big 12 expansion involves Florida teams, Boise State, BYU, Tulane and now, NC State and North Carolina.
Whatever happens or doesn't happen is out of my control, so I'm not overly concerned......but I'm not sure if the Big 12 will live long enough to see expansion. It's more likely to me that OU and Texas will migrate east or west.
Once upon a time, the Big 12 included Nebraska, Texas A&M, Missouri and Colorado, which represented a better (and saner) scenario than anything being proposed or speculated about now. That ship has sailed.

Exactly.

NC and NCState to the Big XII is just insane. It is another indicator of money destroying the sport. The last insult would be for OU and Texas to go separate ways and in the process destroy the RRR. The truth is that the Big XII doesn't have viable options for expansion. We are stuck with what we have and hopefully we can hang in for the long haul.

 

[CTOkie]

Exactly.

NC and NC State to the Big XII is just insane. It is another indicator of money destroying the sport. The last insult would be for OU and Texas to go separate ways and in the process destroy the RRR. The truth is that the Big XII doesn't have viable options for expansion. We are stuck with what we have and hopefully we can hang in for the long haul.

Consider: OU at one time had two of the top 5 rivalries in CFB with Texas and Nebraska....it had a new and intense rivalry with Texas A&M....and with Oklahoma State building its now solid program, that gave OU four top notch rivalries. What other team could claim this ? Maybe Alabama ?
What I can't grasp is how so many OU fans now have a "take-it-or-leave-it" attitude about maintaining the Texas rivalry, thereby showing an utter naivety of OU's history and the importance of the RRR to both OU and Texas. During my 68 years, no other sports event comes remotely close to my interest in the OU-Texas game.

 

[iasooner1]

 

[Plainosooner_rivals54053]

Exactly.

NC and NCState to the Big XII is just insane. It is another indicator of money destroying the sport. The last insult would be for OU and Texas to go separate ways and in the process destroy the RRR. The truth is that the Big XII doesn't have viable options for expansion. We are stuck with what we have and hopefully we can hang in for the long haul.

Money didn't break up the conference. UT selfishness did. Ask those who left. Colorado might have left in a perfect conference. They didn't like being the only conference school on MDT or MST. But Nebish, A&M and Mizzou departed because of UTexas. And LHN.

 

[CTOkie]

Texas' motives were money driven.

 

[Plainosooner_rivals54053]

Texas' motives were money driven.

It wasn't just that. It was Texas getting every break from officials, and Tom Osborne being incensed by UT driven rules changes in recruiting to their competitive advantage. The first feeling that eventually led to four leaving, began with that shortly after the conference was formed over UT driving recruiting rules changes. .

 

[iasooner1]

Imagine that: the 'alt-left' bastion of anti-capitalism in austin thinks it can own our conference. The ones that left were very smart to avoid texus 2nd attempt at marxism...

 

[CTOkie]

Behind the selfishness, gaining recruiting competitive advantage....whatever....money was the seed of it all.
But I completely agree that it was Texas that wrecked what was a very strong conference with great rivalries.

 

[BUCKITRUE]

Money didn't break up the conference. UT selfishness did. Ask those who left. Colorado might have left in a perfect conference. They didn't like being the only conference school on MDT or MST. But Nebish, A&M and Mizzou departed because of UTexas. And LHN.

Well, money sure helped break up the conference because Texas wanted to rule the roost in all aspects of the conference.... Big 12 had a very weak commish that allowed UT to form its own network thus garnering the biggest paycheck...
I would be all for OU and another school not named Texas jump to the B1G..
You would then be able to have the OU-NEB in the West division of conference play the last game along with the greatest of all rivalries in tOSU- and skunkweasel.

 

[Plainosooner_rivals54053]

Well that's sort of true. It wasn't really a weak commissioner. The Big XII schools agreed to allow the LHN, because Texas had some clout and threatened to leave if it didn't happen. The irony is that no conference they might have headed to, would have allowed it. All of the teams in the conference are allowed their own network, but UT is the only one ESPN offered such a deal, and Texas doesn't have to share that money, which is absurd. They played better poker.

The other irony is that in many ways it has hurt Texas athletics. I still believe that long term, it will make them awfully hard to beat in non revenue sports. Lots more exposure. But it takes away from coaching study time, and exposes more of what you're doing in the little details, than can be gleaned otherwise just from watching tape.

They lose more than they used to. Breaks my heart.

There is one other irony. Nebraska won their last division title in the XII, with 18 players on their roster from Texas. Last season, they had less than half that, and one of their Texas players was a place kicker, who is the son of a former Husker kicker, who spent a decade in the NFL. They hurt themselves competitively by leaving. My guess, is that we'd see the same thing with Mizzou's roster. Being in the XII was good for them competitively. But it was worth it, to get away from Longhorn University.

 

[littleton tiger]

Would anyone be in favor of OU and either of the NC schools ( I prefer NCST personally) coming to the SEC?

 

[topdecktiger]

Would anyone be in favor of OU and either of the NC schools ( I prefer NCST personally) coming to the SEC?

In all honesty, you can forget about any of these scenarios coming true. The reality is, the era of expansion is over. The only reason this all happened in the first place is because ESPN and Fox started throwing money at the big conferences. Now with their subscription base (and profit margin) dropping like a rock, the networks don't have the money to pay for this expansion anymore.

 

[Plainosooner_rivals54053]

The worst of the contracts is the LHN nonsense. I believe ESPN thought that they'd have a circular success. But showcasing the SEC and the Longhorns, they'd make them better than the rest, giving ESPN the most profitable entities to televise. OU kind of messed with the. OU won the women's gymnastics in consecutive years, despite being mostly excluded from ESPN intentionally, and won softball with the same paradigm. Both, are much more popular entities nationally than even basketball for multiple reasons.

And while the SEC continues to improve in both, OU is valuable and not associated with ESPN specifically.

And LHN is a financial bloodbath. In women's basketball, ESPN made UConn the home team of the network, but the sport isn't growing like the other two. Most college women's basketball teams couldn't beat good high school men's teams. It's just a watered down version of basketball, played below the rim.

But women's gymnastics events are at least as fun to watch as men's events, partially because they have their own beauty, and uniqueness. No uneven bars in men's gym. No balance beam. And the music and dance component of women's floor, makes it a more enjoyable event to watch than the guys. I don't believe the men's national meet is even televised.

LHN somehow seems to have made Longhorn sports less competitive somehow. Maybe it's the time coaches have to devote to preparing for their tv shows. Maybe it's that all of you opponents get better scouting reports than you can ever hope to have on them. Breaks my heart. Since they debuted almost six years ago, UT football has had their first three year succession of losging seasons in 80 years. They've had Mack Brown admit to excess depression causing him to have a dip in his coaching success, followed by his departure. They've had defensive guru Charlie Strong come in and field a defensive team that got so poor that they lost to a Kansas team whose only win in 23 previous games was against FCS' Rhode Island who was 2-10 against a meager schedule including an 84-7 loss to James Madison.

What other network of any kind on television, can show the same show twice a week for 48 months, and expect more than 10,000 people to watch at any time. Ad rates have to be miserable.

///////////

I wouldn't expect UNC and NCState to move. I think the NC legislature is just shooting a preemptive cannon shot to head off the ACC from withdrawing future events. But if the hint isn't taken, the Big XII would be the best landing place for both schools. And it would be great for the conference.

 

[CTOkie]

ESPN is the "home" network for women's college basketball, so doesn't it figure that UConn, coming off 4 straight championships before losing in the Final Four earlier this month, get the coverage it does, regardless of its proximity to ESPN ? UConn never figured to be a championship contender this past season with its lack of size and depth, yet Auriemma did one of his better coaching jobs in getting the Huskies as close as he did. And losing to Mississippi State was good for women's basketball, at least for the time being.
Plaino, you need to lose the condemnation of the women's game as being a lesser product than boys' high school basketball. The quality of women's basketball does not require comparison to any level of men's (or boys') basketball. That argument is as unfair as it is silly and really reflects poorly on those of us men who share that opinion.
I'll take John Wooden's analogy of women's basket as a more pure form of basketball with it's ball movement and unselfish style. Wooden may know something about this.....maybe even more than you.
You know that if Sherri Coale's team shared even half of the success of Auriemma's team, you would be all over the board with your micro analysis of every game....as you do with the OU women's softball and gymnastics teams....or the OU women's horseshoe tossing team if there were such a thing.

 

[topdecktiger]

Women's gymnastics had no effect on the landscape of college sports. Literally no effect. At all.

The LHN didn't cause Texas to start losing, and it wasn't a scheme by ESPN. They simply didn't realize that cord cutting was going to happen to the extent that it did. It was an unanticipated phenomenon that affected all of ESPN's outlets, LHN included. Regarding ad revenue, it's miserable on all the conferences networks, even the BTN and SECN. These networks were never intended to depend on ad revenue. They were designed to function on subscription fees, which have dropped as a result of cord cutting. That's the fly in the ointment.

Texas is losing because they had a coaching change, which didn't work out. Additionally, their recruiting has been hurt because A&M joining the SEC gave SEC schools more access to Texas recruits. It's no more complicated than that.

The best landing spot for North Carolina or NC State would be the Big Ten or SEC. More of a geographic fit, and more money. That said, no matter what the state legislature does, there is still the problem of the 20 year GOR, which can't be overruled by state law.

 

[Plainosooner_rivals54053]

If the state is going to be ostracized and penalized for the bathroom bill, that won't change by moving the SEC or Big Ten. It the Big XII, both would enhance their chances of winning conference titles in many sports and find a friendlier political environment.

And as was said elsewhere in the thread, the saturation of money already to 14 teams in each conference, isn't likely to be welcome expanding to 16. But the Big XII would welcome both with open arms. The proximity to the XII is better than the Big Ten.

 

[topdecktiger]

That sort of doesn't make sense. If the state is going to be ostracized, then moving to the Big 12 won't change that either. I'm not sure of your point here. The political environment in the SEC is conservative, so that region would be supportive of the state's stance on HB2. The Big 12 is not going to be any more supportive than the SEC. You could possibly make that argument vs. the Big Ten, but not the SEC.

Proximity to the Big 12 isn't close to being better than the Big Ten. All the schools in the Big Ten East are around 400-700 miles away from North Carolina. Aside from West Virginia, all the Big 12 schools are at least 1,000 miles away.

 

[virgie76712]

Long time rumor in Central Texas is Mack Brown's disenchantment with LHN. He couldn't sit down in his office to call home without the presence of ESPN cameras, cameramen and sports reporters. When LHN first fired up, some said it should have been called the Mack Brown Network. Some believe Coach Brown was limited in doing his job.

I, of course, have no idea. Mack Brown and his national championship coaching staff just might have simply all became stupid.

 

[Plainosooner_rivals54053]

Long time rumor in Central Texas is Mack Brown's disenchantment with LHN. He couldn't sit down in his office to call home without the presence of ESPN cameras, cameramen and sports reporters. When LHN first fired up, some said it should have been called the Mack Brown Network. Some believe Coach Brown was limited in doing his job.

I, of course, have no idea. Mack Brown and his national championship coaching staff just might have simply all became stupid.

Yep..

 

[BillyRay_rivals31072]

I, of course, have no idea. Mack Brown and his national championship coaching staff just might have simply all became stupid.

No doubt the coaching staff was responsible for the complete meltdown the football program experienced after their 2009 Natty Title game.

 

[CTOkie]

Through all of the turmoil around the Texas program since 2009, it remains a mystery to me how a school and a program like Texas has lost its relevancy in football since then.....and it bothers me that OU has manage to lose twice in the past three years with better talent and a hall of fame coach.