Future of the Big 12 Conference

HE: Yep, I'm with you 100% on all of your arguments. And KU can certainly make a strong case. The only question is will the Big Ten be responsive, knowing that they might have some other options too (beyond just the Big 12, even, given all the flux).

PS: Another feather in our cap is that adding KU would extend the Big 10 TV viewing audience to the KC Metro - and really even St. Louis, since that's a huge KU alumni hub.

PPS: One MAJOR downer of a KU move to the Big Ten that just struck me is that we go from being the Top Dog in our conference - including hosting the conference tournament in KC every year - to being a newbie that likely won't get much respect on matters like that. (Though one would assume over time KC would get to host an occasional tournament)

Konza- very true about KC and the conference tournament. >sigh<

Song of the day, week and month to date: O'Jays: For the Love of Money

HawkErrant wrote: Song of the day, week and month to date: O'Jays: For the Love of Money

Close 2nd place finisher: Beatles: Money (That's What I Want)

CorpusJayhawk wrote: SQUEEZE ME!!! The Beatles come in 2nd!! There is not any way on planet earth that a Beatles song should come in 2nd to any other song for any reason. Are you not familiar with the 2nd part of Ockham’s Razor? It says that if a Beatles song fits the criteria it is always the best choice.

Huge Beatles fan ("Play it George, one time for Ringo...") and I do happen to follow the guideline, but as always there are the exceptions to the rule... and I believe The O'Jays killed the sacrificial lamb when they were creating "For the Love of Money", with the result that it has surpassed all the tests of time.

Plus one must factor in that "Money (That's What I Want)" was a JPG&R cover of the Janie Bradford & Berry Gordy composition, so it's not as if we are dissing a Lennon-McCartney original (which still is a Beatles Top 25 song in some folks mind).

Thoughts from probably the most well connected KU fan and source not in the Athletic Department - HE

Jon Kirby JayhawkSlant
kansas.forums.rivals.com/threads/things-...ent-yesterday.97363/

Paraphrasing a post by JK on the JayhawkSlant Memorial Stadium football board (if you are a Slant member, click on the above link for the original). Direct quotes from the post are in italics.

First, for those RCBers who do not know, JK is even more wired into the business of college sports than his coworker Shay Wildeboor (Shay handles the Slant Basketball duties) if that is possible. Both are the straightest of shooters and do their utmost best not to post crap.
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JK wrote today he is getting tons of calls from “people in the media or those who work in college sports” regarding realignment and KU, enough to be able to post something on this every hour of the day. But he won’t do that, and is doing his utmost best to filter out the flotsam and report only what he believes in his experience to be solid, if speculative, information.

“I want to stay as credible with you as I can and not turn it into a soap opera filled with bad info.” - Jon Kirby

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Speaking with a source currently employed in a Power Five athletic dept –
absolutely certain if realignment starts up and conferences start expanding Kansas will have its choice where it can go. Said somewhat tongue in cheek (still must consider factors such as geographical, overall and other “fits”), but after OU and tu, KU is the most attractive Big XII school and will have lots of options.

Surprise: speaking with people who know national college athletics and several mentioned two of the most coveted schools in realignment would be KU and U of Central Florida (the latter will be a rock star in realignment).

“From things people said... Although a commuter school UCF has 72,000 students. I was told their incoming class has a very impressive SAT combined score. I was also told Orlando just passed Miami in TV market share. They have very young alumni base. They are an upcoming school to reckon.

"They get calls all the time from Power Five schools," one person said.

I was surprised to hear more than one person say KU and UCF would be two schools that are coveted if it becomes a race to get to 16-team conferences.”

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If Big XII looks to survive losing OU and tu – the Big 12 would be a viable conference if the right teams were added. Add UCF (the Rock Star), Cincinnati, Houston and one other crapshoot school (assuming the remaining schools want to get back to 12 instead of 10). Assumes other conferences don't expand.

BYU? He gets cold response when they are mentioned. Apparently they don’t play well with others and their admin is suspect.

SMU? TCU already brings the Dallas area.

Most opine such a Big 12 would be recognized as a second tier Power Five.

TV $$ - The biggest issue with staying as the Big 12.
“Opinions have varied when I talk to people about this. Last year the Big 12 gave out $34.5 million and that was down because of COVID. Bowlsby said next year's payout is expected to be around $40 million. I spoke with someone who has worked TV deals and he didn't know what a revamped Big 12 would bring but he guessed somewhere in the $22-$25 million range. Once you leave the Power Five TV model, the payouts really drop. The next closest conference is the AAC where they pull in $8 million per team and there is a drop off after that.

I know some KU fans hate this idea. I talked to a few friends last night and they said "no way" to this scenario. But people had better [keep] their minds open because nobody knows how this will go.”

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Submitted for your information and consideration.

Keep that Positive Mental Attitude, folks!

I know "I'm Not Gonna Let it Bother Me Tonight!"

Good stuff, HE.

Count me in as an alum and fan who wants no part of a Rump Big 12 that has been left for dead with the carcass picked apart. If the school has a choice and is coveted, as Kirby says, then the best landing spot by far is the Big Ten. It’s a great conference, a natural fit, and would actually be a step up - academically and culturally - from even the present Big 12.

Let us hope that such a scenario, if it is presented, is not torpedoed by the Kansas legislature - for if it is, we’re stuck in the Rump Big 12 and on our way down.

AZhawk87 wrote: college sports as we've known it is over. Not sure if it will be better or worse going forward, but it won't be what we've known.

In my opinion the B12 is done, or at least it's done as a power conference. I think it's time for KU to grab a spot elsewhere, where our hoops team will dominate and have some new competition, and our football team can start anew without the baggage of being the historic doormat (excluding the occasional outlier of a good season) of the conference.

Let's expose the brand to Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, etc. and grab the 2-3 star FB player who can't get on at the top tier Big10 teams, but want to play in that conference.

A new start wouldn't be bad for basketball or football. Let's make the move and get out of the constant stress of the Big12 struggling to stay relevant.

I agree with you.

My biggest concern (after “will the B1G invite us?”) is the short minded people in power (political and financial) who will fight it because of KState and other schools’ interests (there might be a crappy life left for the Big XII without OU and tu, but even that crappy life would be doubtful if KU joined the exodus).

IMO, if KU can join the B1G and KSU has to look elsewhere, KUFB will benefit primarily (at least initially) from getting Kansas kids who want to play Power Conference football and only have one in-state option in the future.

Conversely there is concern for both hoops and fb re: Texas recruiting if the future KU has no ties to the Lone Star state.

Fingers crossed…

Illhawk wrote: If the Big 10 was that concerned about Nobel prizes they should not have ran off the U of Chicago. KU does mesh with many Big 10 schools flagship in a state that , until recently took public education very seriously, full array of professional schools and PhD programs, a university press, gorgeous campus.
The one ding might be that admissions let me in, but so did Iowa.

“In the late 1930s, university president Robert Maynard Hutchins decided that big-time college football and the university's commitment to academics were not a good fit. The University of Chicago abolished its football program in 1939 and withdrew from the Big Ten in 1946.”
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Maroons_football

Slayer2384 wrote: Just out of curiousity, wasn't the creation of the B12 the first big move that started the whole conference re-alignment movement. It seemed all of the re-alignment has been around college football which I have found concerning with our present state of football. I find the more recent posts above encouraging.

I'll go back to something I posted years ago when B12 started losing teams. If the B12 does continue, then maybe the conference should be renamed the Big X conference with X as a variable.

Realized no one addressed your question.

IIRC technically Texas imploding the Southwest Conference was the first big boom. Arkansas left for the SEC in 1991 and then Rice, TCU, SMU and Houston got left behind in 1996. Sure, the original 4 Texas teams (tu, TAMU, BU and TT) hooked up with the Big 8 to form the Big 12, but tu's willingness to destroy the SWC made it all possible. (The other 3 knew they had to go wherever tu did to remain relevant, and there was a big hullabaloo in the Texas state legislature to influence who made up that other 3, TAMU was a given, Tech was solid, but the fight over the fourth spot was big with the governor's alma mater BU getting the nod.

I know it's a fine distinction, but if the Big 8 had said no thanks, Texas et al would have looked elsewhere. So while the birth of the Big 12 happened because of the SWC disappearing, the Big 8 was not responsible for it.

I find it ironic that if the Big 8 had fought to go to 16 back then by bringing on all the Texas schools, things would look very different today. Could have had East and West divisions, splitting the Texas schools 4 each into the divisions.

Football could have been 7 games against div opponents, 2 against the other division opponents (different two every year so play everyone over 4 years) and 3 non-con.

Basketball could have been 14 (7x2) in division, 7 against other division opponents, leaving 10 games for non-con.

What could have been...