BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

I was joking about OU looking at the SEC yesterday, but I really think it would be a good play for all involved. It brings a huge fan base. It ties the SEC to Texas more and undercuts Texas' appeal in the state more (especially if the SEC also takes a second Texas school or OSU. If Mizzouri has screwed the pooch, then the SEC can get two Okies and another Texas school to go with A&M and really make Texas an SEC state while isolating Texas on its own network.

I'm thinking on paper here, sort of stream of consciousness. I imagine there must be dozens of reasons this won't work too. Go ahead and start listing them.

 

That's a separate issue, and I have never believed Tech is packaged with Texas to appease regents or legislators or anything. But Texas brings a ton more to the Big 12 than it would bring to another conference, is my point. That's why there's no way for the others to jack up Texas like that. Even the demands OU is supposedly making don't have a lot to do with the revenue model.

 

True, but Texas is a bigger TV draw than Oklahoma.

Texas did play for the title a few years ago, even if it should have been Oklahoma.

 

When was the last time we had a prominent basketball independent? Just because UT-Pan American and Longwood can't do it doesn't mean Texas can't. Texas is going to get a bunch of early season and holiday season pushovers, will always be invited to a preseason NIT or Maui Invitational and will maintain most of their regional rivalries. They'd still have to work to fill those last dates, but Texas is one of the few schools I could see doing it.

Some of the non-rev sports are event based, like golf and track, so they're no need to worry about home dates except for events they host themselves. Baseball and softball can be scheduled because of the way the start of the season is staggered.

I'm not saying it's ideal or should even be a secondary option. But if they had to, I think they could make a reasonable go of it.

 

OU won't be able to go anywhere without OSU.

 

For basketball they would be lucky to find 10 games between January 1 and mid-March, when everyone else is busy with the conference schedule, and they'd never find anyone to go and play them in Austin.

 

It's because Texas high school football is the breast that feeds the Oklahomas and to a certain point, the Mizzous and the Kansans.

 

I agree -- Texas is the CFB version of the St. Louis Cardinals.

 

That's why I'm saying if Mizzou screwed the pooch, then you go get Okie and Okie State. You still give Arkansas a state line rival, you solidify interest west of the Sabine. Hell, I'd consider getting TCU as a second Texas school. They aren't in the Big 12 but they give you DFW while A&M gives you Houston. They've put themselves on a national stage, they're good in baseball, have had their moments in hoops. They would be a more solid play, I think, then Tech or Baylor.

You do this, now you have Dallas, Houston and OKC solidly in the SEC footprint. Texas would be in danger of doing a Notre Dame in becoming so exclusive that it excludes itself. The downside for everybody involved would be that an SEC West with OU, OSU, TCU, A&M, LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss and State would be brutally, brutally tough. Bama and Auburn would go east, of course, and now you'd have Bama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky and Vandy in another tough, tough division.

Again, this is all crazy talk. But somebody asked about why expand to 16? I think this gives you GREAT reasons to do it (Dallas, Houston, OKC).

 

Boy, I have to disagree vehemently with this. First off, "last 20 years" involves the John Mackovic Era, and anything that happened in that era should be dismissed immediately.

In the Big 12 era, they've won the South seven times out of 15, they've played in the BCS championship game twice (and easily could have played in a third if the computers had worked out for them), and they spent the better part of a decade pretty much perennially in the top five.

They aren't good right now, and it looks like the Mack era is winding down. But with the right next coach, they have enough built-in advantages that they can again be the most fearsome program in the country.

 

If you get OU and OSU, you settle the west tilt. Any more, like TCU (a good idea) would push the imbalance. West: OU, OSU, LSU, Texas A&M, Arkansas, TCU, Miss and Ole Miss. East: Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tenn., Ga., Fla, SC, Auburn, Alabama.

I like the mix but I don't think Bama, Fla and Auburn will appreciate being together.

 

TCU isn't getting into the SEC with its minimal fan support and lack of presence outside the Metroplex. Merely having good football teams isn't enough to get you in. If they were desperate for a Texas presence and A&M was staying put, maybe. Clearly that's not the case.