More Rumblings In The Conference Landscape

Yesterday Texas A&M made a decision to leave the Big 12 by July of 2012, more than likely to the SEC. The Big 12 has been in survival mode since last year when Nebraska and Colorado jumped ship to the Big Ten and Pac-12 respectively. The conference nearly imploded and pledged to stay together for the future.

That was until the people in Aggieland got so upset at their blood rivals in Austin and figured they've had enough. Now there's this, right out of the Austin American Statesman. Kirk Bohls wrote a piece titled 'One more move and Big 12 is over'.


If you read this, they're putting the future of the Big 12 squarely on Oklahoma's back. In the process keeping the blood off of their hands. The folks at Texas would love for Oklahoma to make the first move and bolt for the Pac-12 so that they can blame the conference's demise on someone other than themselves. I'm no insider but I bet if I asked anyone down in College Station who blew up the Big 12 and they'd say Texas. To me Texas and Oklahoma are joined at the hip and they aren't going anywhere without each other. On the other hand the Big 12 still has options as long as Oklahoma and Texas are around.

So far the speculation has linked Arkansas, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, BYU, Air Force, Louisville,Houston and SMU. The Big 12 would love to have Arkansas come back home and return to their roots but I'm not sure they are feel ing the same way toward the Big 12. Notre Dame has reaffrimed their independence and axes Pittsburgh as a possible mate. Notre Dame's independence makes me want conference armageddon to come sooner than later. I'm not sold on Louisville as a Big 12 member, but they would be credible in basketball but who cares about that sport anyway. All of this is football driven. I've always thought that Houston should've been included in the original Big 12.

There are stories about BYU and Air Force having contact with Big 12 officials and SMU has been politicking to get back into the big time.  

If there's this much backbiting going on as the article stated, they should've parted ways already.

All Texas All The Time

The University of Texas and ESPN have will join forces on a 24 hour network that will focus on everything Texas, from sports to historical programming.

It'll be all Texas all the time. Maybe we'll get to see old footbal highlights from the Darrell Royal era. Or some hoops highlights from the late 80's-early 90's (remember the Strollin Nolan game vs. Arkansas).

I think it's a bit much for one university to have it's own network. I live in Big Ten country and I really don't care to watch the Big Ten network. Except when I can watch Michigan blow out some non-descript scrub team. I do like UT hoops so maybe I could catch a game or two if they offer national coverage.

Other things the Longhorn network could cover.

1.The John Mackovic era of UT football.

2. What happened to Lance Blanks, Reggie Freeman, Kris Clack and every good Longhorns basketball player that didn't make it to the NBA.

3.The Texas State Fair

4. Bevo's bloodlines.

5.Earl Campbell highlights

Slowly but surely every cash cow university will start to follow suit with their own network. Complete with boring programming. It'll be just another channel among hundreds that hard working people like myself will have to pay for, but really can't afford. 

The BCS is a fraud and Texas got over

This BCS mess is getting out of hand.They got the championship game right,but the rest of the matchups could've been better.Texas vs. Alabama is a college blueblood matchup.These are two traditional titans in the sport and the game could be a classic.Key word there is could.Ohio State vs. Oregon pits the usual Big Ten/Pac-10 teams against one another and I see nothing wrong with that.My problem is I think they could've shuffled the deck and excluded Iowa,but I guess someone has to play in these games.The TCU/Boise State game is something of a cop out.The honchos at BCS headquarters will spin this about two undefeated teams going head up and will pitch it as kind of a second national championship game.WRONG!TCU could whip Boise 100-0 and everyone will say,they didn't play against one of the big boys.Why couldn't TCU or Boise State have gotten the nod to go against the fighting Tebows.If not for the fact that the BCS had to take Iowa  the games could be more interesting.It almost sounds like a conspiracy as much as I hate to say it.
  All that leads me to the Texas Longhorns.As of now it seems the experts are picking the Tide to roll over Texas.That could be proven correct but we won't know until they play the game.All I know is that Texas better play a helluva game.The way they played against Nebraska in the Big 12 title game raises doubts if they should be on the same field as Alabama.Also they were very lucky to escape against the Huskers.That pass Colt McCoy nonchalantly tossed out of bounds came dangerously close to running the clock out.Yes,they won the game fair and square,but think about it,if they were ahead by 20 do you think the refs would've put that 1 second back on the clock.I don't think so.Mack Brown needs to brush up on his time management in case the same scenario plays itself out again.As a fan, I hope for an entertaining and competitive bowl season.