Still room for discontent in the Big XII

Texas A&M is on the way out, OU and UT are settling back in, but what’s left of the Big XII still isn’t quite a happy family.

Contrasting pictures of the stability of the Big 12 were highlighted by OU president David Boren and Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton during dueling head-to-head news conferences Thursday night. Their comments reflected contrary viewpoints on whether the conference’s problems have been fixed.

Deaton’s news conference was held at the same time as Boren’s. Both used the same audio servicing company and Boren’s voice boomed over Deaton’s during part of the teleconference for media members across the nation.

It might have been a technical glitch, but it seemed more symbolic than that.

Boren projected an air of unity with most of the Big 12’s problems settled; Deaton talked about working to reconcile those differences.

Most importantly, the Missouri chancellor didn’t provide a long-term commitment to remaining in the conference. Some reports have the Tigers interested in joining Texas A&M as a new member of the Southeastern Conference.

“That’s a hypothetical that could occur,” Deaton told reporters. “In a sense, anything is possible. That’s all recognized, and that’s what has led to the discussions that we’ve had over the last several weeks.”

Make of that what you will. For its part, the SEC is going to have 13 teams, which seems to be mighty awkward from a scheduling perspective. Adding one more school might help with that.

South Carolina president Harris Pastides would like to see the Southeastern Conference cap expansion at 14 teams.

Pastides and the other SEC presidents have voted to accept Texas A&M as the league’s 13th member, once the Aggies resolve legal issues regarding their departure from the Big 12. The presidents have not decided whether to add a 14th team.

“I don’t think 13 is a sustainable number, but I think 14 is,” Pastides said. “I’m not in favor of 16 personally right now. You begin to lose what is a very special quality.”

Pastides spoke with the Associated Press this week about SEC expansion and his role in an NCAA summit this past summer regarding reform in major college athletics.

Pastides is favor of the SEC growing after Texas A&M joins “because 14 works better than 13,” he said. “But if it were Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech [together], to me, I’d be saying, ‘What happened to the SEC?’ ”

[…]

The president said identifying a 14th school is just speculation and rumors right now. He’d like for SEC members to have some time out of the glare of conference realignment to find a similarly good match as Texas A&M. Pastides knows that might not happen.

I’m not really sure how much better 14 is. With 12, it’s easy – two six-team divisions, each team plays all five division mates plus three teams in the other division. All rivalries are maintained, no teams go more than two years without facing each other, no muss no fuss. With 14, you either skip some in-division games as shown in the 13 team scenario, or you forget about even scheduling across divisions. Seems to me 16 would be easier to deal with, but that has other problems as we well know. I’d have stayed with 12, but no one asked me. As for who lucky number 14 might be, we’re left to our own devices for the time being. Mizzou would like for it to be known that they would not turn down an invitation.

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2 Responses to Still room for discontent in the Big XII

  1. Ron in Houston says:

    I’m a Longhorn alumni, but it’s that damn Longhorn network that put the sword into the heart of the Big 12. Until UT decides to stop being greedy, I don’t think the Big 12 has any chance.

  2. W.R. in East Texas says:

    I’m a Longhorn alum also and I had no idea that that bastion of capitalism and free enterprise, Texas A&M University, was against so-called “greed” (a misnomer for what I would call getting the most money out of the UT brand possible, $5 million a year of which is being devoted to academics; in an age of less and less state support for UT, A&M or any state school, I call that a good deal for EVERYONE).

    Nothing is stopping Texas A&M from selling its brand, that is, unless nobody really wants much for it.

    There is not a more right-wing campus in this country than the one in College Station and to hear anyone there crying for “socialism” to be forced on “Big Bad Bevo” is, as the MasterCard commercial goes, “priceless.”

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