BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

This from a fly on the wall in Stillwater:

President: "OK. So what's Oklahoma going to do."

Answer: "Stay put."

President: "T. Boone, can you buy the Pac-12 or SEC."

T. Boone: "Probably not."

President: "Nothing left to discuss."

 

That's probably pretty close to accurate...

 

Except for the part about Pickens not being able to buy a BCS conference.

 

Compared to the AVERAGE major college towns in this country? Yeah, it's that bad.

 

And the president probably calls him "Mr. Pickens" or "sir."

 

OK, so if Texas is playing an independent football schedule and playing in the Big East in everything else, it would be another Notre Dame, which once thought it was bigger than anything it associated with too.

Meanwhile, you could have OU, OSU, Texas A&M and (pick 'em Texas school) playing meaningful SEC games tied to a national championship race. Look, Notre Dame didn't become irrelevant overnight, but it has arguably happened. You can force Texas down that same path unless they sit at the table and want to make an even split.

 

OK, I'll buy that. I measure everything against Starkville and Waco.

 

Notre Dame didn't become less relevant because they were independent. They became less relevant because of poor coaching. Even so, they're still more consistently relevant on a national state than most Big Ten schools, so I wouldn't go putting them in the MAC category yet.

 

Oh, I'm not seeing a future scenario where either Notre Dame or Texas become MAC material. I am CURRENTLY seeing a scenario where Notre Dame is no longer as significant as Ohio State or Michigan or even Penn State. I'd rather be Notre Dame than IU, but unless the NCAA banishes it altogether, I'd rather be Miami than Notre Dame going forward.

Now, is that all because Willingham, Weiss, Davie and Kelly are all incompetent? Or is there something fundamentally flawed in this day and age about a model where you distance yourself from what's now a more well-defined championship process?

Sure if Notre Dame goes 12-0, they'd be in the mix and probably in the big game. And if they're 11-1, they'd probably get the benefit of the doubt, maybe more than they deserve. But now, you have an established history of a championship process where Notre Dame is sort of marginally involved in. And that has an effect on their perception, I think.

 

Don't forget that they get access to the Big East's bowl bids. So they're not really that distanced from the championship process. The only way they'd get shut out entirely as a football independent is if they went to a playoff system, which they aren't going to do. It's fun to make fun of Notre Dame, but they're over the last 25 years still more relevant than any team in the Big Ten outside Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State (replace Penn State with Wisconsin for the last 10). They'll do OK.

 

Chuck Neinas to be named interim Big 12 commissioner. Possibly tomorrow per Dennis Dodd.

http://dennis-dodd.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6270202/32165006

 

I know football (and basketball) is driving this. I truly understand that.

But any talk about schools moving into new geographic venues has to be weighed a little bit with the cost of travel for all those teams that AREN'T football and basketball teams.

Texas A&M's swimming team doesn't show up in Nashville for free. Pitt's softball team doesn't visit Miami for free.