Why is this all happening? ( a rambling take, seriously rambling)

Ryan McGee over at ESPN has a pretty good article up that is worth reading. It sort of channels some aspects of the ongoing current events in the Big 12 and college sports that I have thought. I am not a very political person and at the risk of sounding political (not my intent) we have morphed into a self-indulgent "give me what I want or I'm taking my toys and going home" sort of society in a lot of ways. Many people tend to look at an issue and process it through the lens of "is this what I like or want" lens and then plowing into the fray loaded with a wheelbarrow full of emotional ammunition to make their case. In other words, there are a goodly number of people who don't really think through the situation from all angles and complexities. Having said that, let me also say that I don;t read any other KU boards or really any other boards of any kind since they seem pretty much nothing but persiflage. But this group on this board is almost universally thoughtful and on point. But I digress.

So the direction I'm taking this is that real things are happening and are being driven by real motives with real goals and agendas and it pays to try to understand theses various goals and agendas. That is nominally the underlying theme of McGee's article at least in part. But i wanted to expand on that.

When the NIL blasted onto the scene over the last year, my emotional reaction was I would prefer not to have this. I would prefer for the Big 12 to stay as is and life to "Party on, Garth" uninterrupted in my little life bubble. But that is not an option and that is purely and totally an agenda of 1 human in a world of almost 8 billion. Last i checked, the world does not exist to make me happy and cater to my whims. So I endeavored to understand the agendas at work and then adjust my life as I deem appropriate to respond to the situation. The reality is, we want to perceive that the world around us is largely in sync with our thoughts and desires. Now note that I very carefully used the term the world "around us" meaning the things we are actively participating in. So for instance, we, as KU hoops fans, really want to believe that every KU player on every team every season loves KU as much as we do and wants to win for the good old Crimson and Blue purely motivated by a spirit of unity of love for KU basketball. Now while there is certainly a good amount of truth to that, the reality is, each player has his own agenda that may vary ever so slightly and sometimes more than slightly with our own motives and desires. But for the most part these non-aligned motives are not significant enough and we all can just happily assume them away. But occasionally it comes down to radical actions and changes like the dissolution of the Big 12 and all the commensurate realignment and the NIL issue. We just happen to be in the throws of two major issues simultaneously. So again, where am I going with all this?

As McGee points out, all that is happening with this OU/UT and SEC and so forth is really bringing to the fore some issues where we (various schools, fans, school administrations, conference executives, coaching staffs, etc) have never been in alignment. It is sports so there is one very clearly defined thing that always drives our alignment and that is winning. But it is not the only major driver. For instance, even two fans of the same school will have potentially varying weights on the goals of winning and how far do you bend the rules to win. Some will say I would prefer not to win if we have to bend the rules in any way where another may say I think it is okay to go into gray areas if that is what it takes to win. That is an example of a degree of misalignment. As we look at what is happening now with the realignment, it serves us to understand the motives of the various players. We can disagree that those motives are right or rightly prioritized, but only after we understand them.

OU and UT are motivated by making the most money for their programs which in todays world equates to remaining competitive on the field and maintaining a brand that keeps the big donors happy. With the NIL issue coming in simultaneously, it adds a dynamic that will allow some schools to surge ahead as the trendsetters and first movers. While in my sunset years, I am far more personally motivated by altruistic endeavors, that is simply not the luxury of a school president, AD or coach. Their motives are much more about financial gain (personal as well as for their school) and that is okay. That is common sense and appropriate. It just does not fully align with my desires. One thing that I believe about all that is going on is there is nothing nefarious at hand. I believe the motives here are somewhat clear.

While coach Self wants to win every bit as much as I want KU to win, and we are pretty much 100% aligned on that, our 100% alignment ends there. When it comes to coach Self's alary, I am happy for him to make millions, but my focus on that issue is far less than his focus. He is going to be far more motivated to defend himself to keep his job than I would be Of course we are not grossly misaligned there since I do support him and am glad he makes a tone of money and I would like to see him stay, but we are not 100% aligned on that. I use this as an example where our alignment can be generally in concert but not totally. OU nd UT are actually ahead of the game and the SEC is as well. I cannot begrudge them for acting in a manner that optimizes their opportunities to achieve their goals. I don't share their goals while at the same time I don't disagree with their goals, I just don't weight them very highly. So what we have here is, in concept, the intersection of divergent goals. Since as a fan, I have zero input, all I can do is look at the brave new world and decide how much I want to invest my fanhood in terms of time talent an treasure in this new world. What I will not do is set out to howl at the moon and curse the darkness. That is annoying to others and erosive to my own happiness. That is why I engage in these issues form a level of pontification and supposition because that is what role we fans have in the process. It is fun to think about and conjecture. And even though it seems to me that NIL can be a negative to the alignment of things I care about with what the new players will care about, it is, in fact, a fact. All I can do at this point is to make the assessment as to is the misalignment enough to change my fandom? If the answer is yes, then I will find something else to invest the time talent and treasure I previously invested in my fandom. If the answer is no, then party on Garth. Accept it and make the best of it.

I have read several articles (mostly here in Oklahoma from OSU peeps) sort of cursing the darkness if you will and accusing Oklahoma of betraying the state. You know, as I said above, OU is doing what they perceive will give them the best chance of achieving their goals moving into the brave new world of college sports and finances and stuff. While OU's actions are most definitely greatly misaligned with the goals and desires of OSU and OSU fans, I don't believe for a second that OU is motivated by anything other than aggressively seeking to optimize their opportunities to excel in the world of college sports moving forward. It sort of sucks for those of us who are not the elite national brands. But such is life. It has been said on this board that we are probably in the best position we have been in in years to weather a storm like this. I tend to agree and we should be thankful for that. I have never been jealous of much in my life and certainly not OU or UT. I have always been pleased and happy to be a KU fan. I still am. The reality is that we have to aggressively fight for our own future now. I don't want to clutter up an already trying situation with a lot of animosity, jealousy, retribution and vengeful thinking. I stand ready to support the guys we have to aggressively, thoughtfully, competently, and respectfully forge ahead to position KU so we , the fans, can remain excited to do what we do, watch the games, listen to the games, analyze the games and talk about the games.

To give another perspective, if basketball ruled the world instead of football, and there was a conference of duke, KY, UNC, Gonzaga, Indiana and a few other decent schools, and that conference paid $15-20 million more a year to its member schools than the B12, I suspect KU and many/most of its fans would be clamoring to be invited to join, even if it meant a 14 year conf champ run would be impossible.

We wouldn't care much about KSt, Iowa St., TCU, etc., being left behind, and would see it as our natural right to be included in such lofty company. We wouldn't be moving to that conference out of spite, or to injure the other B12 teams, or for any dark world reason. We would simply be joining a group of similar schools who value basketball success, who spend the money to produce annual top 5 and national championship caliber teams, and by doing so have managed to pay millions more each year to the member schools.

It is past the time when TX and OU need to move on to the SEC, where frankly they've earned the right to do so (though TX has been better at producing TV money than FB success in recent years, but I believe they'll be back near the top soon). Their perpetual flirtation with the SEC has hurt the B12 and its member schools. Realign now and find the best spot for KU. Let the others do the same and this will be an afterthought in a couple years.