I don't see ULL ever happening for the Big 12 unless everybody else says no. A 30,000 seat stadium with about 75% capacity would never cut it in any of the Big 5 conferences except maybe the ACC. But teams like Wake or Duke have been longtime members of that conference. Too much money involved now in big time major conference football to allow a school with about a 20,000 person gate come into the league.
I've stopped caring about what Texas thinks or does since Nebraska left the conference. Their response means basically nothing at this point since the damage has already been done. The bottom line is they can't do anything about Texas A&M. And neither can OU. They are going to continue to recruit well because of Sumlin and being in the SEC where HS recruits will gravitate to the excitement of playing teams like Bama, LSU, Florida, SC, Georgia etc. over playing teams like Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech, TCU. For the excitement of the game and TV time, I know who I would rather play. It's why I don't ever see this conference improving anymore than where they are at right now. The Big 12 having a school in the 4 team playoff interests me more than anything. This is a big year for the conference if they want to retain any of their national recognition.
Then they are going to have to poach someone from the Mountain West or AAC or a So Miss. Otherwise they are going to be doomed to becoming a flyover conference and not a destination conference.
With respect to Texas, they are in a bit of trouble. Its amazing how much talent A&M is collecting. Its all young but they are still incredibly talented
The more I read about this the more I'm starting to become convinced the Big 12 will never add another school. Their philosophy is it's all about quality not quantity. The number of schools is absolutely meaningless to them. We could have a 20 school conference and it wouldn't make a a difference. Again, this is their thinking, because it's all about money. One thing I do agree with most everybody on is adding schools like SMU, ULL, UH or Tulsa do nothing for the conference except divide the money payout more. The facts are you just can't add any teams unless the TV networks value that school enough to bring in enough money to hold their own weight. By that I mean if all of the Big 12 schools are going to bring home $30 million next year, you have to add a school that improved the TV network by at least $30 million to break even. If not, then every school would lose about a tenth of their media earnings...In other words, they aren't going to add anybody for a while unless they absolutely have to. Bottom line is in these days and times, conferences don't make moves and lose money. They want a sure thing.
I'm still upset that the Big 12 didn't go after Louisville when they had their chance. We're talking about a school that in the last couple of years has gone to a BCS game, in baseball has gone to two super regionals in a row, and we already know how much of a power they are in basketball. Dodds and his cronies were too slow on the trigger, and it cost the Big 12 dearly. Louisville was really a no brainer. So it appears that 10 teams is the way things are going to stay for the time being, because I really don't see anybody else out there that can hold their weight with the exception of maybe BYU. The only two things that could or will rock the boat and make them start kicking the realignment tires again is if either of the conference powers OU or Texas aren't earning as much money as the rest of the college football elite. Right now they are leading the way in earnings. But the secondary factor will be whether OU or Texas get access to the College Football Playoff out of the Big 12. It seems unlikely they won't since this conference plays one game less than all of the other conferences. You would think either this year or next year things will fall in place where one of them will get into the Final Four. For right now the Big 12 has a good bowl lineup including their annual matchup in the Sugar with the SEC. So until either of those factors change, I don't see anybody making any moves. But if either OU or UT decides to leave for greener pastures, this conference will be DOA. And that's when the really big shakeup in college football will come...
Due to a shit load of injuries last year UF had a lot of players get experience. Here is a good list of players who made starts last year for UF that are returning:
Defense: (reported by Gatorzone.com)
Offense: (reported by Gatorzone.com)
So again, depending on what you call a returning starter: UF has 6 offensive players that started 6 or more games last year, not counting 3 more in Chaz Green, Andre Debose, and Jeff Driskel that have a ton of starts in their career, just not any from LAST season. Also consider that Kelvin Taylor only got 4 starts last year, but most magazines include him as one of UF's "returning starters". Well what about Trenton Brown and Matt Jones? They both had 5 starts, do they count as returning starters too then?
Defense: (reported by Gatorzone.com)
- Dante Fowler: 12 starts, one of only 5 Gators to start every game
- Vernon Hargreaves: 10 starts, played in 12 games
- Michael Taylor: 10 starts, played in 11 games
- Leon Orr: 8 starts, played in 12 games
- Jonathan Bullard: 8 starts, played in 10 games
- Antonio Morrison: 7 starts, played in 8 games
- Neiron Ball: 7 starts, played in 12 games
- Darious Cummings: 6 starts, played in 11 games
- Brian Poole: 6 starts, played in 11 games
- Jabari Gorman: 5 starts, played in 12 games
- Marcus Maye: 2 starts, played in 12 games
- Jarrad Davis: 1 start, played in 12 games
Offense: (reported by Gatorzone.com)
- Quinton Dunbar: 12 starts, one of only 5 gators to start every game
- Max Garcia: 12 starts, one of only 5 gators to start every game
- Clay Burton: 9 starts, played in 12 games
- Hunter Joyer: 7 starts, played in 12 games
- Tyler Moore: 6 starts, played in 7 games
- DJ Humphries: 6 starts, played in 7 games
- Trenton Brown: 5 starts, played in 12 games
- Matt Jones: 5 starts, played in 5 games
- Kelvin Taylor: 4 starts, played in 10 games
- Jeff Driskel: 3 starts, played in 3 games (12 starts in 2012)
- Mack Brown: 2 starts, played in 12 games
- Tevin Westbrook: 2 starts, played in 12 games
- Gideon Ajagbe: 2 starts, played in 12 games
- Chaz Green: 0 starts 2014 (19 career starts, played in 20 games)
- Andre Debose: 0 starts 2014 (8 career starts, played in 31 games)
So again, depending on what you call a returning starter: UF has 6 offensive players that started 6 or more games last year, not counting 3 more in Chaz Green, Andre Debose, and Jeff Driskel that have a ton of starts in their career, just not any from LAST season. Also consider that Kelvin Taylor only got 4 starts last year, but most magazines include him as one of UF's "returning starters". Well what about Trenton Brown and Matt Jones? They both had 5 starts, do they count as returning starters too then?
This OU to the SEC and Pac-12 talk got me thinking about what really went on a few years ago when the Pac-12 came after the Big 12 teams to form a super conference. I know we talked about it to no end here at the RX. But it was mainly guesswork of what was really happening behind the scenes. I didn't find out the full story about what really went on until a couple years later when I heard it from some people who are close to the program, and were right there in the offices when all of this potential conference realignment was going down.
Something I didn't know when this was going on was AD Casiglione, Stoops & Sherri Coale (women's basketball coach) were dead set against OU going to the Pac-12. Boren wasn't against the move because everything is about education with him. And he wanted OU to take a step up in academics. But he was in the minority here. Castiglione's main desire from day one was to have a strong Big 12 and OU protecting their power from within the conference.
But the problem was that Joe sided way too much with UT on these issues to the point that Nebraska finally got fed up with OU and Texas and Beebe. They got an offer from the Big 10 and jumped at it. Texas A&M saw where the Longhorn Network and the conference allowing Texas to get their own way was a joke. Then the icing on the cake was David Boren pissed off Missouri with his stupid power play move that came out in his press conference acting like we were big bad Oklahoma and weren't hitched to Texas and would pursue the Pac-12. One of the stupidest moves I've seen by a college President. It pretty much made me lose all respect for Boren for then on..
Then later when all of the Presidents decided that Boren was the one voice for the conference, the Missouri Chancellor decided it's time pack up and leave. What many may not realize is the SEC was never in play for the Big 12. In fact they turned down two different offers to come join the western division. But Stoops, Castiglione and especially Boren were dead set against it. Everything is academics with Boren. He seems to have a fictional vision of OU someday being the Harvard of the South. At any rate, he's not going to even consider moving to a conference of equal or worse academics than OU. So you can see that OU was also very much at fault in this whole realignment deal. Although the culprit can almost exclusively be tracked back to Texas idiotic idea of the LHN, which caused all of this friction in the first place.
The Big 12 is basically left with few options when it comes to adding new teams. Cincinnati and BYU are about it. There has been talk about trying to get Arkansas back in the conference, since they basically haven't been able to win much of anything since they joined the SEC. Right now the money isn't really an issue since the Big 12 teams are making just as much or more per team because the piece of the pie is split 10 ways instead of 14 ways. But I keep telling everybody that even though it would be a good move for Arkansas for their better chances of winning more games or a conference championship, the problem is down the line when the SEC gets their new Network in August. That's when things will change dramatically with the per team payout. And the Big 12 will be left behind.
Although I think Castiglione has been an excellent AD for OU over the years, I don't feel that him or Boren have the foresight to see what's coming, and that the conference is going to eventually get left behind. The big test, and what will make or break OU and Texas in this conference will be their ability to compete at a high level. They are going to have troubles doing this if they don't start recruiting at a higher level again, or if we lose in the playoffs. We could be in danger of becoming the Big East of college football where behind OU and Texas there won't be any respect for the conference, and they'll have to have a perfect record each year to even make the playoffs. This is what I see coming...
