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The Failure of the Big 12


Burt
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5 Power Conferences, 4 playoff spots. Whoops!

 

TCU and Baylor being snubbed indicate a clear failure of the Big 12, imho. This landslide was started by Nebraska, and aTm, Missouri, and Colorado were smart to leave when they did.

 

There is really no one for the Big 12 to add to be, you know, a 12 team conference. WVU is albatross, and they really latched onto a sinking ship. In my mind, the Big 12 might be better off adding ColoradoState, BYU, andBoiseState instead of trying to keep WVU happy. The good eastern teams are all taken and happy, the only schools to raid are out west.

 

Or should the Big 12 be blown up entirely and absorbed into the other 4 conferences? What do you think?

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Well this also shows the flaw in a 4 playoff system.

 

I have said from the beginning of this whole mess why not the top 8 teams? Sure it is another game,but just cancel the out of conference cupcake games.

 

Furthermore there is not reason for the big 12 not to have a championship game. How much you want to bet there will be one next year?

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Laugh out loud. Nothing will make these people happy.

 

Even now in the NFL there's weirdness in the playoff picture.

 

PS. TCU got robbed but it is a Christian College. They should just forgive and forget. My cousin and her husband are Horned Frog graduates and there has been much weeping and gnashing of teeth on my FB feed about this.

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I don't but the lack of championship game as a valid argument for leaving a Big 12 team out. I think there are other very legitimate arguments for neither TCU or Baylor getting in this year, though. I also won't say the Big 12 leadership isn't lacking, though it seems to me that it has taken steps forward since the previous administrative group let the conference fall apart.

 

However, the Big 12 is the only conference with a true round robin schedule, which makes a conference championship game completely superfluous. If they had one on top of their schedule, it would be just as ridiculous as what happened with LSU and Alabama a few years back. LSU's victory over Alabama in the regular season was rendered completely worthless by Alabama getting into the championship anyway, where they then beat LSU. I miss the days of all of the conferences having round robin schedules (in both football and basketball). The whole reason for having a championship game in large conferences is to make up for not being able to play every other team each year. There is no valid reason for trying to force those on conferences other than for TV revenue and if this committee is doing so, I imagine it is because they are so closely tied in with ESPN.

 

With that said, though, TCU and Baylor both had deficiencies in their resumes. Baylor had a complete joke of a nonconference schedule in that not only were their opponents weak, but you would have expected their opponents to be weak (unlike when you schedule a traditionally decent or good team, only for them to have a horrible year). TCU collapsed against Baylor when they played. If they hadn't, I think they would have been the clear favorite for the 4th spot. Even still, though, if Ohio State hadn't demolished Wisconsin, I think one of those two teams would have been in.

 

It stinks for TCU to have dropped 3 spots in the rankings after an easy victory, but the committee had no business whatsoever in ranking them 3rd the previous week. I really view it as TCU and Baylor were neck and neck heading into the last week with Ohio State surging ahead of them based upon their victory.

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I can't believe they haven't added a championship game. What's the holdup? Isn't that just a money maker anyway? (Since we know that's all that drives the conferences anymore.)

 

Still LOLing about Colorado to the Pac12. Everyone got hosed on that deal except CU.

 

If the Big 12 sinks, Iowa State, K-State, Texas Tech and Baylor will be left out in the cold. Baylor only got into the Big 12 in the first place by riding Texas's coattails. Okie State might have problems, too. KU at least has a decent basketball program. If the Big 12 goes down, would that make 4 power conferences with 16 teams?

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I don't remember all of the details for all of the teams, but when the Big 12 almost broke up a few years ago, Texas Tech would have been part of a package deal with UT and I believe the same would have been true with OU and Oklahoma State. I believe that many of the teams would have been left out in the cold and would have likely had to join conferences like the Mountain West, Conference USA, or the American.

 

The reason that the Big 12 doesn't have the championship game anymore is that there are only 10 teams now and the regulations call for conferences to have 12 teams in order to have one. The comissioner mentioned something yesterday when ESPN was talking to him about trying to apply for an exemption to that rule because I don't think the schools have any desire to expand the membership right now with the current landscape of teams that might be interested in joining.

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<--OKState alumnus

Okie State and OU are never splitting. Back when the conferences were blowing up, Texas considered the Pac-10. OU said they'd go where Texas goes, and OKState said they'd go where OU goes and all 3 schools are very happy with that arrangement. I think all 3 Athletic Directors for those schools stated as such. I LOL about Colorado, it doesn't make any more sense to me now then it did then.

 

As mentioned, nobody was going to be happy. An 8-team playoff would have Miss. State and Mich. State (yawn) as the final two spots. The whole system has so many flaws it would seem easier to strip it all down and start over. Have 4 super conferences or a bunch of smaller round-robin conferences and 8-team playoff.

 

In my first post, I said this started when Nebraska left for the Big 10, but upon further reflection I think it goes back to the demise of the Big 8. That was such a great conference, the OU/Nebraska rivalry was one of the best of all time. Texas did exactly what Tom Osbourne thought Texas would do and all the power shifted down there, and the Big 12 North became the red-headed stepchild division of the conference. I really can't blame them for leaving whatsoever.

 

The whole TV revenue aspect of college conferences has just made it insane. It seems very possible to reduce travel costs by having conferences more tied to regions than TV markets. Since most of these universities are publicly-funded to some degree, they should have more of a responsibility to reduce travel costs for all sports.

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I would agree that the breakup of the Big 12 was caused by the Texas power suck. Nebraska was the most openly jealous about it, I don't know how the other schools felt about it. Nebraska wanted what they thought was their share of the revenues, and they didn't like how much Texas was getting. When Texas started developing the Longhorn Network, Nebraska essentially lost their **** and moved to the Big 10. Colorado technically beat them to the punch, but the move had been in the rumor mill for weeks.

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You aren't allowed to have a title game unless your conference has 12 teams. I think the ncaa has issued one or two year waivers for conferences that were short of 12 but had schools scheduled to join in the future. But a conference that is set at less than 12 teams cannot have a title game.

 

One thing I think did hurt TCU and Baylor was that the Big 12 named therm co-champions, which is insane. All the other conferences had a champion but the Big 12 didn't. Why not have an official tie breaker, like oh I dunno, head to head so there is a clear champion?

 

But really it comes down to this, Ohio State is Ohio State. May not be fair, but life ain't fair and neither is college football. Schools like TCU and Baylor can't just hope to get invited to this tournament, they need to bash the door down and give the committee no choice but to include them. If Texas or Oklahoma had the same exact resume as TCU or Baylor theyd be in over Ohio State. If they can at all justify picking an OSU or a Michigan or a Notee Dame or USC or any school like that they will choose that school.

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