Conference Realignment: The Pac-12 stands pat...
by Paragon SC on Sep 21, 2011 5:01 AM PDT
in NCAA Conference Realignment
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PrintWell, a lot happened after I feel asleep last night...
After all the posturing, all the back room negotiations and all the public speculation Larry Scott and his his CEO's decided to pass.
The league, with a short news release Tuesday night, put to rest swirling speculation it would soon become a 16-team super conference.
"After careful review we have determined that it is in the best interests of our member institutions, student-athletes and fans to remain a 12-team conference," Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement.
The Pac-12 made the announcement shortly after Scott convened with school presidents and chancellors. Scott did not have any further comment.
So much for a vote coming later this week.
I will admit, I thought this was going to happen. Larry Scott is being very progressive in identifying the landscape. He is pretty visionary.
This development falls right into line with what Jon Wilner said in his piece yesterday, that Scott wouldn't bring the proposal to a vote if he didn't have Texas FULLY on board. Of course, the speculation is that UT wouldn't play ball with regards to the Longhorn Network but I wonder if there is something more?
Just a couple of thoughts in no particular order or relevance...
- - Did the Pac-12 see that once again they were being used as a club by another conference to get the changes that they wanted?
- - Were some of the "lesser" football programs having problems with powerhouses like OU and UT coming in and using them as doormats to pad their records? We don't how the scheduling would have worked out but UT and OU would have free reign to use those games to work in recruiting visits and increase their footprint...the stronger get stronger, etc.
- - Reviewing past history, how much did Colorado object to UT and OU coming in? UT is a big reason as to why Colorado left the Big 12. It is entirely possible that Colorado got on the phone and warned Scott what he was in for.
- - I noted yesterday that UT has a reputation of not being a good partner. They pushed their weight around when UT left the SWC to join the members the Big 8 to form the Big 12 in 1996. The Pac-12 CEO's probably took note of that, coupled with UT's insistence to keep the LHN intact and it was game over.
I don't have a problem with Scott exploring this...Again.
When someone calls you have to pick up the phone. But if Scott couldn't get exactly what he wanted in UT being compliant WRT the LHN then it was best to move on. I will not buy into any argument about academics, that's just posturing to bolster the reason why the Pac-12 passed on expansion. This was mostly about UT and the LHN and a little bit about once again being used as a pawn to seek change in the Big 12 to keep it together.
I was ambivalent on expansion. I trust Larry Scott to do the right thing. He explored it, reviewed it with his membership and ultimately decided to move on.
I am not sure what the future holds. The telling words "for now" are evident here. I don't see Scott picking up the phone the next time UT or OU calls. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
I just don't see any other viable candidates that move the needle or make sense for the Pac-12 to expand in the future.
It was interesting exercise and it was fun to speculate but we turn the page.
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Good read here
http://bleacherreport.com/tb/bbjty
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
-R. Zimmerman
How Do I Phrase This?
TUCK FEXAS! I would have like the Tx schools and Ok schools to have joined and formed 2, 8 schools conferences together making the PAC16. Of course the original PAC 8 being one. But Texas IS NOT the premiere school, they share just like everyone else.
_________________________________________________________________________
"You can't sanction heart, and you can't sanction the will to win" - USC QB, Matt Barkley
by WE ARE SC on Sep 21, 2011 10:01 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
I like that idea, given that the Age of Superconferences seems to be upon us
… and it appears there’s not much that can be done to avoid it, in the end. 16 teams gives the conference strength in numbers, but making the old Pac-8 teams one division unto themselves preserves the sense of history and re-focuses on the traditional rivalries. The newcomer, inland schools can play with each other. I agree that it should depend absolutely on Texas getting over itself, though.
I’m not an ’SC alum, just n longtime ’SC football fan, so my perspective may be quite different from most others here. But the continuity and connection with history and tradition is a big part of why I enjoy college football, and all of the realignment biz disrupts that. As someone who remembers the Pac-8, restoring that in some form is appealing.
"I think you just outed yourself as Dean Lombardi. I knew it all along." — Rudy Kelly
Dude! You want tradition?
"The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." - Joseph Stalin
U feeling Loco?
Tirebiter!
Even I know about him. Of course, Cal has their own legendary dog, Ludwig. In fact, the fountain in upper Sproul plaza is named after him.
Being an Old Blue means never accepting success.
they finally built him a a little statue
a few years back. I think his hat is cool.
Bite On!
http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/dt/V135/N23/02-tail.23c.html
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
-R. Zimmerman
Kind of a mixed bag for me...
On the one hand it would have been great in terms of coverage and exposure, but it feels as though Texas would have wanted to be a focal point in the whole deal. The only problem is that this is not the Big-12 and there are way more recognizable brands than just UT and OU.
At the end of the day I think it was just more posturing by Texas. I don’t think anyone is going to lose sleep considering the PAC-12 TV deal.
by DannyJay01 on Sep 21, 2011 10:18 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
Screw you, we're not Texas
They wanted to write their own deal and rule the conference. I feel a bit sorry for OU, but only a little.
"The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." - Joseph Stalin
U feeling Loco?
Big mistake
We passed on adding one of the top 4 iconic football programs of all-time – OU. Why not just take the OK schools and go to 14? Now, the B12 continues to live, and the B10 and SEC can outflank us with further expansion. What if OU goes to the SEC?
With OU, the Pac12 would have cemented our status as a super conference. Why did we add CU, start the demise of the B12, then back off of OU?!? We risk losing our position of strength and dealing from a position of weakness and being reactionary to the moves of other conferences.
We should never, ever, ever have passed on OU. I don’t understand why in the hell we added Utah and CU, then chickened out of adding the OK schools. Weak sauce.
A Quick Note for the Quitters
No comment from this thread will be deleted. You will have to own them when we get it turned around and beat Southern Cal. You will never ride the bandwagon when we come back. Not on BN. GO BRUINS.
by Nestor on Sep 4, 2010 9:24 PM CDT
Well, if this story is true, then the P12 did not pass, OU was just flirting
http://newsok.com/article/3606281
A Quick Note for the Quitters
No comment from this thread will be deleted. You will have to own them when we get it turned around and beat Southern Cal. You will never ride the bandwagon when we come back. Not on BN. GO BRUINS.
by Nestor on Sep 4, 2010 9:24 PM CDT
Classic jilted spin, even the OU board is saying as much.
It doesn’t makes sense OU would want to pass up on $35M per year to stay at $18, or join a more prestigious academic conference (which was very important to them). However the best proof this is spin, you get the reforms before backing out on the deal. At this point, OU has no leverage, Texas can just them to to F off.
by ev on Sep 21, 2011 1:46 PM PDT up reply actions
Then, why would the P12 pass on the OK schools?
I don’t understand that move, if it happened.
A Quick Note for the Quitters
No comment from this thread will be deleted. You will have to own them when we get it turned around and beat Southern Cal. You will never ride the bandwagon when we come back. Not on BN. GO BRUINS.
by Nestor on Sep 4, 2010 9:24 PM CDT
The Pac was never going to stay at 14 schools
it was either 12 or 16. Once it was fully understood Texas was never going to give up the LHN, there were not another group of four schools that would work. There was no way the presidents were going to approve OU, OSU, KU and KSU. Maybe they go for OU, OSU, KU and MU, but the Tigers want in the Big10 or SEC. Keep in mind earlier in the day it was leaked MU had an offer from the SEC based on the condition the Big12 blew up first.
by ev on Sep 21, 2011 2:51 PM PDT up reply actions
I have the same question...if you could get them, then go get them!
Wilner offers up some interesting thoughts
I don’t want to hear about academics…that’s more noise.
Scott really wanted UT, OU was a throw in and not as attractive without UT.
OU over played their hand as well…they had some leverage but now they have none…where are they going to go now?
CORPSMAN - Usually a young, long haired, bearded, Marine-hatin' Sailor with certain medical skills, who will go through the very gates of Hell to get to a wounded Marine.
Conquest Chronicles
Agree! It's all about the money
The project is only worth it if it raises the stakes for the Pac -12. Why bother if it’s only going to raise profits for the new members?
"The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." - Joseph Stalin
U feeling Loco?
this article has ALOT of backward ass thinking in it....
This was something they should have worked out long before Colorado or Nebraska left. How are you going to try to reform a group of now “10” members after 2 (col &neb) has already left, with A&M already out the door. And to boot if this is how the conference is going to “operate” why would others want to come into the Big 12?? They have showed their hand & will continue to show it through history this conference moves with Tex & OU at the forefront. No oneelse has been allowed ANY imput how the conference should move forward. You may try to say so with Boone Pickens & OSU but reality is the buck stops with Tex & OU but mostly Tex.
Niners,Nets,Reds & USC!!!
The Most Interesting Man In The World---->Mikhail Prokhorov!!!
by Kidd2Petrovic on Sep 21, 2011 1:49 PM PDT up reply actions
Fantasy Pac-16
My own personal preference is that we would’ve added OU, OSU, MU and KU. But the difficulty with that scenario is that it was obvious all along that MU wanted to go north (Big 10) or east (SEC), not west (Pac-12). Even in my mind, I had difficulty substiting KSU for MU — as that would’ve left, football-wise, one giant (OU) and three midgets (OSU, KU and KSU), which wouldn’t be a very appealing deal for the Pac-12. Sigh.
It’s too bad that UT has to be so conceited. They remind me of Cybill Sheperd’s character from 1971’s “The Last Picture Show.” In the film, Shepard plays a gorgeous high school girl who’s always playing mindgames with the top boys in school, stringing them along and feigning interest, and then playing hard-to-get. If we had let them into the Pac-12, UT would’ve been trouble from the start, constantly looking for escape hatches to “greener pastures.”
Wishlist Item: John Wayne's boogieboard from his USC football days. :-P
mumm a Texas referent -- filmed or set in Wichita Falls TX.....
As an ex-Texas resident growing up – that whole attitude / mystique is very typical of Texas.
by trojanarchitect on Sep 21, 2011 6:28 PM PDT up reply actions
Might not be over...just quiet for now
http://cfn.scout.com/2/1108944.html
CORPSMAN - Usually a young, long haired, bearded, Marine-hatin' Sailor with certain medical skills, who will go through the very gates of Hell to get to a wounded Marine.
Conquest Chronicles
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