Watering the Big12 down even further: Has it begun?

[Tear Down This Wall]

As suspected, talks with Cincinnati: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-...160133203.html

Awful.

Okay. Cincy and who else? My guesses have been Houston, BYU, and Boise State. All are terrible adds. But, it looks as though the conference "leadership" is headed in that direction.

Imagine the years we lose to these schools, "Yeah, but they lost to Houston." Terrible.

Please, Boren and Castiglione, please jump! Pay whatever penalty to get out of this sinking conference. Pac-12 will certainly have us over a barrel; but, give them what they want and give the Big 12 what they want. But, whatever the price, get out now!

[badger]

BYU and Notre Dame. Make it happen. No dropoff in per-team revenue because they're national with their religious affiliations. And they love their sports.

Cincy is doing a lot of renovation and expansion so they'd be ok i guess. Houston just fired their football coach and has Kelvin in charge of basketball

Boise NO NO NO NO a thousand times

If New Mexico, Nevada, or even Memphis/East Carolina didn't suck they'd be good regional adds

[BoulderSooner79]

BYU and ND would be serviceable. All other names I've seen are a joke.

[Eielson]

Cincy would be alright, but they're all the way out there in Ohio. Ohio has some good football players, so it might help a tad with recruiting. I'd much prefer that over adding Houston.

I'd rather do nothing right now, though.

[Soonerjeepman]

BYU and ND would be serviceable. All other names I've seen are a joke.

yup

[Eielson]

Actually, I still want UCF or USF, so that we can expand to Florida.

[EatLeadCommie]

Better to do nothing at this point. BYU is the only serviceable option, and they're too far west. Cinci and Memphis add nothing and make us worse as a football conference. Cinci makes sense due to WVU, but no. We missed on Louisville. Time to accept that.

[achiro]

The ONLY way to make the big-12 a top conference again would be to go hard after some schools that have left and a few that are in other big conferences. Neb, CO, Arkansas, maybe KY, Iowa, ND. Don't have any idea what the big 12 could offer to any of them to get close to them even thinking about switching but anything less hurts more than it helps.

[EatLeadCommie]

None of those schools are leaving their conferences.

[nanimonai]

The ONLY way to make the big-12 a top conference again would be to go hard after some schools that have left and a few that are in other big conferences. Neb, CO, Arkansas, maybe KY, Iowa, ND. Don't have any idea what the big 12 could offer to any of them to get close to them even thinking about switching but anything less hurts more than it helps.

They could grab a couple of ACC schools to go along with West Virginia on the east coast. Virginia Tech, Georgia Teach, Clemson, maybe even Florida St.

[Tear Down This Wall]

Dallas Morning News also reported discussions with Memphis. I can't believe this. If we go Cincy plus Houston or Memphis, we have lost our minds.

We will have gone from the Big 8 years of only flagship state schools and largest state ag schools to commuter/city schools.

[BoulderSooner79]

Seems the conference is in over reaction/panic mode. This will not end well. Not having a CCG was just one factor in the equation and adding school without a national following will not address the other factors.

A flukey thing that happened was the 61-58 (non OT!) shootout between the 2 co-champs. There was plenty of media talk about whether either team could be CFB worthy giving up that many points. I think that was a factor and there is nothing to be done to try to fix that. It happened and it's highly unlikely to happen again - move on.

[jkjsooner]

Why in the world would OU or Texas (not to mention any of the other Texas schools) even consider adding Houston? Is the goal to weaken recruiting as much as possible?

We already screwed ourselves by adding TCU.

[Tear Down This Wall]

Why in the world would OU or Texas (not to mention any of the other Texas schools) even consider adding Houston? Is the goal to weaken recruiting as much as possible?

We already screwed ourselves by adding TCU.

Again, it looks like the Big 12 leadership are busy trying the rebuild it as Big East II. Cincinnati? Memphis? Puke.

[EatLeadCommie]

Why in the world would OU or Texas (not to mention any of the other Texas schools) even consider adding Houston? Is the goal to weaken recruiting as much as possible?

We already screwed ourselves by adding TCU.

I can't imagine that either OU or Texas is on board with the move and both will bolt or make a power play to deep six the new commish for serious multiple failings in a span of a couple weeks.

[Tear Down This Wall]

Texas is sneaky and conniving. It would shock me 0% if it surfaced that they are talking to the ACC or Pac-12 after the bowl season.

As much as I hate to keep saying this, I think Boren and Castiglione made a huge mistake in tying our fortunes to Texas in 2011. It was clear from the Pac-10 snub that Texas would have been let in without us had the Longhorn Network issue been worked out between them and the Pac-10.

As it stands, Texas could go ACC or Pac-10 without us, and do so pretty easily. Then, we'd be even more stuck. Whatever Texas has lacked on the field of late, they still have a brand that sells...and that fat television contract.

ACC with Notre Dame and Texas? It could happen as easily as them throwing us a rope to approach the Pac-12 together.

[badger]

ACC with Notre Dame and Texas? It could happen as easily as them throwing us a rope to approach the Pac-12 together.

Texas is bad at keeping secrets. I think it's because they have so many mouths to feed so to speak --- big money donors to keep happy and in the loop.

For example, Boone Pickens has donated more than $100 million to whorn. Therefore they keep him in the loop all things UT. If something was in the works that would hurt his beloved Aggy, he would be yapping to any media that would hear him (and that would be all media but of course).

[FaninAma]

As suspected, talks with Cincinnati: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-...160133203.html

Awful.

Okay. Cincy and who else? My guesses have been Houston, BYU, and Boise State. All are terrible adds. But, it looks as though the conference "leadership" is headed in that direction.

Imagine the years we lose to these schools, "Yeah, but they lost to Houston." Terrible.

Please, Boren and Castiglione, please jump! Pay whatever penalty to get out of this sinking conference. Pac-12 will certainly have us over a barrel; but, give them what they want and give the Big 12 what they want. But, whatever the price, get out now!

I agree. These teams do nothing for the Big 12 brand. Nothing. It's like the eyesore house in your neighborhood where the owners keep making ghastly additions or "improvements" to the house which only serve to make it even more ugly.

[EatLeadCommie]

The other thing is that Cinci and Memphis water down the academic reputation (or what is left of it) of the conference even more. I can't imagine that college presidents would be on board for that. I think this would be the death knell for the Big XII. OU and OSU bolt for the SEC. KU and KSU go to the Big 10. WVU goes to the ACC. TX and somebody else (maybe Baylor) to the Pac 12. Everybody else is left out in the cold.

[beached_sooner]

I seriously doubt N.D. would ever join the Big 12. Their natural affiliation is with the Big 10.

Maybe make a run at the Arizona schools? But surely they get a better revenue sharing package in the Pac 12 than what they could get in the Big 12. Shame we lost A&M, Nebraska and Mizzou. Arkansas would be a natural fit.

Why did the Pac 12 find Utah and Colorado more appealing than OU and OSU? Doesn't CU pretty much suck at all athletic programs? Sure their academics are good, but who cares about that.