RSSTime To Disband The Big XII?
Jul 27
The Goodman File Big XII, Texas No Comments
I never thought I would say this, but…
The Big XII media days are a bit entertaining this year.
Most of the head coaches questioned on the topic of the recently formed “Longhorn Network” an exclusive deal between ESPN and the University of Texas, were hush hush on the topic. But not Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel.
“It’s a lack of common sense there to think that the network, the university network, can have high school games,” Pinkel said.
A major up-roar has caused some dissention in the ranks of the “New” Big XII Conference. The Longhorn Network has announced plans to cover high school games. Most everyone still left in the Big XII Conference, outside of the University of Texas thinks this is a complete and utter unfair recruiting advantage for the University in comparison to the remaining members of the conference.
Pinkel echoed sentiments expressed last week by Texas A&M Athletic Director, Bill Byrne (who coincidentally prior to this job was the Athletic Director at the University of Nebraska)
Last week Byrne released a statement expressing concern about the network carrying high school content as well as broadcasting a Texas game against a conference opponent, said Big 12 athletic directors will hold a meeting to discuss the issues within the next two weeks. Yesterday Byrne, who just returned from a fishing trip to Alaska, declined to expound upon his Longhorn Network thoughts with the following statement.
“I caught about 36 salmon, and I learned that if they keep their mouths shut, they won’t get hooked,” Byrne said.
Texas coach Mack Brown disputed the notion high school content on the network will give the Longhorns a recruiting edge.
“It would have nothing to do with the University of Texas,” Brown said. “Those games would be games that might be on ESPN anyway. … We’re going to sign 20 to 25 players a year, and those players will probably be committed to us before June in their junior year. So I don’t think that part will have any effect on recruiting at all.”
Yeah….whatever Mack…..
But before you start throwing stones at glass houses….
Texas A&M and Oklahoma are both more than happy with the new agreements in the Big XII Conference. Last summer when A&M almost bolted to the SEC, and as part of the deal to stay home, A&M, Texas and Oklahoma each get $20 million a year from TV revenue while the remaining sisters of the poor in the conference would get more in the 14-15 million realm.
Also these three schools got the majority of the “blood money” that was paid out by Colorado and Nebraska in order to be allowed to leave the league. Matter of fact some of the smaller schools even gave their share to these three as a means of appeasement.
HA HA …Nebraska and Colorado….Allowed to leave the league. It is looking like a better decision all of the time.
It appears that the rich (mainly Texas) is trying to get even richer. One of these days the rest of the teams will realize what Nebraska realized after they finally woke up and smelled the coffee.
Texas only cares about Texas. At the end of the day it is football, not academics, which rules the conversation of conference alignments…because after all it is all about the money.
It is time for this sham of a conference ran by an inept administration to simply disband. I am hoping that some of the other football powers in the remaining Texas…errrr….Big XII conference decide to take their ball and go home the way that Nebraska and Colorado did.
Until next time…stay classy in the Republic!