Big 12 and SEC agree to bowl game for their champions

In a Rose Bowl type deal, the Big 12  and SEC have come to a five year agreement to have their conference champions play in a bowl game starting in 2014.

If the league champions are involved in the four team national championship playoff then “another deserving team” from the conference would be selected. With the Rose Bowl locked into a Pac-12/Big Ten matchup, this would leave the Big East and ACC out in the cold. The agreement also makes those four conferences the power players in college football.


“Our goal is to provide the fans across the country with a New Year’s Day prime-time tradition,” acting Big 12 Conference Chuck Neinas said. “This is a landmark agreement between two of the most successful football conferences during the BCS era to stage a post-season event. The creation of this game featuring the champions of the Big 12 and SEC will have tremendous resonance in college football.”


“A new January bowl tradition is born,” SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said. “This new game will provide a great match-up between the two most successful conferences in the BCS era and will complement the exciting post-season atmosphere created by the new four-team model. Most importantly, it will provide our student-athletes, coaches and fans with an outstanding bowl experience.”


I don’t buy into a the hub-bub about providing anyone with a fantastic bowl experience. It’s all about the money and if the top two teams aren’t involved in the SEC/Big 12 bowl, then everyone else in the conference that is bowl eligible get pushed up the bowl ladder. Which means more money for their respective conferences.

Bobby Bowden recommends that Florida State remain in the ACC

There have been rumors flying around saying Florida State could possibly leave the ACC for the Big 12. School president Eric Barron has been trying to put an end to all the talk of the Seminoles leaving and publicly stating that Florida State isn’t looking to leave the ACC.

Former Florida State trustee, Derrick Brooks, has said that he knows the Big 12 has reached out to Florida State. There has been one voice absent in this whole mess. The godfather of Florida State football, Bobby Bowden.

In an interview that will air Sunday morning at 9 a.m. ET on the SiriusXM show College Sports from All Angles with Jack Arute, Bowden says that Florida State should remain right where they are in the ACC.

“My message would be stay in the ACC,” Bowden told Arute in a transcript provided by SiriusXM. “Do you want to win a National Championship at Florida State?  You’ve got a better chance in the ACC than you have in the Big 12, or even the SEC.


“You say, ‘Well, gosh, they’re much stronger in those conferences.’  Yeah!  They beat up on each other and you can’t hardly get there.  You know what?  Florida State, wait ‘til you get good enough to rule the ACC then you start looking for someplace to jump.  But my opinion?  They should stay right where they are.”  


“All this talk about Florida State, it kinda tickles me because, in the first place, I don’t think the Big 12 has even talked to Florida State,” Bowden said. “I could be wrong.  I hear different opinions.


Translation: If we have trouble beating the Clemson’s and N.C. State’s of the world, how can we hang with Oklahoma or Texas?

Bowden goes on to state concerns of spending and travel, but it’s all football driven. No one cares about
baseball, women’s softball, or the men’s rowing team.


“I think the president of Florida State is correct.  Florida State, you’re in the ACC, it’s a nice solid conference.  Stay with them.  You know, I can’t see Florida State joining the Big 12 to gain three million dollars.  How much is it going to cost to fly the girls’ soccer team, the girls’ basketball team, the boys’ baseball team out to Norman, Oklahoma, or out to Kansas to play?  They’ll gobble that three million up so quick they won’t know what it’s like.  I think we need to stay right where our base is, that’s right here on the east coast.”


The Seminoles should stay where they are because of the geographic sense that it makes. Florida State in the Big 12. Even Magellan thinks that’s a bad idea.

Hey, when was the last time anyone at Florida State listened to Bowden?

The M In Missouri Will Stand For Mediocrity

Missouri will be leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. When you look at the bottom line (money) I’m sure it stands to be a good move, except from a travel standpoint where moving to the Big Ten would’ve made more sense for both parties.

The problem I have is from a sports point of view, especially football. I think Missouri will be able to compete in basketball. They have a traditionally strong program and will be able to hang with most of the teams in the SEC, Kentucky and Florida are the exceptions. The Tigers will strengthen the SEC as a basketball league. They should be able to bring in their share of high profile recruits and finish in the upper division.

Football is a different story. The Tigers have had some recent success in the Big 12 and have gained a reasonable foothold recruiting the talent rich state of Texas. They’ve also been successful in keeping the best in-state kids at home. There is Texas and Oklahoma in the Big 12, but I think it’s easier to recruit against those schools than it will be against LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and the list goes on. And that’s just off the field. I guess it’s time to adopt the SEC style of recruiting. And no I don’t want to hear how (insert school here) is clean and does it right.

On the field I don’t see the Tigers consistently competing with the top tier SEC teams. They can be a dangerous opponent but I just don’t see them beating a loaded Alabama team. Or Florida. Or LSU. It is possible that they could pull off a shocker here and there, but that’s it. Other than that, they just went from being one of the Big 12’s top four teams to being a Texas Tech like program. Someone that will rise up from time to time but will never be a threat to win it all. I know it will piss off Missouri fans, but I see the football team sinking into mediocrity and could ultimately cost Gary Pinkel his job.

OU’s Lewis Knocks Nebraska

When Nebraska joined the Big Ten, there were some that figured they would be the new bully on the block. Wisconsin took care of that notion with a 48-17 beatdown Saturday night.

Nebraska helped start the exodus of schools in the Big 12 along with Colorado and there is no love lost between some of their old rivals.

Oklahoma linebacker Travis Lewis had some not so kind words directed at the Cornhuskers after the Wisconsin meltdown.

The strange part about it is that you couldn’t find Lewis’ Twitter account. I wonder if any Huskers will have any words for the Sooners if they drop a game.  

   

A Fan Refers To Baylor As "She"

With the demise of the Big 12 nearly coming to fruition, Baylor is determined to be the fly in the ointment. They won’t let Texas A&M go without a fight which sets up for an interesting football game. Now Baylor is “confident” they will be able to latch on with the Big East if the Big 12 folds.

There are some, including me, who feel that Baylor is talking out of both sides of their mouth. They weren’t talking about preserving decades of Texas football when the old SWC disbanded and left Houston, Rice, TCU, and SMU on the side of the road.

One fan sums up how they feel about Baylor and likens the school to a girl.

artisan3m says:



Sep 8, 2011 4:38 PM

Baylor doesn’t belong in the Big 12 ~ never has and never will be a perennial powerhouse in football. Basketball and baseball/softball, yes. Football, no. She should be in a conference where she has at least an even chance of earning a football championship. That will never happen in a league where Baylor has a hard time finishing 1-4 in its own division on an annual basis. This will not be warmly received, but Baylor is a leech on the state universities she competes with. Her fans are fair weather supporters and if the Bears lose two games before October, it is not unlikely that the visitors will put more butts in the seats than Baylor will. She ought to be in CUSA or MWC and she is hardly a BcS contender in any conference.
 
All of this is football driven and it’s true that Baylor wants to save it’s own hide and keep their AQ money. The football program would be better served building themselves up in the Mountain West or Conference USA. They might be able to contend in the Big East with their current edition of teams there. The basketball program is up and coming so that could balance out what the Bears lack in football. But in all of this, who cares about basketball? 

    

Baylor Wants The Big 12 To Stay Together

As the Big 12 continues to go down in flames all around them, Baylor is singing like Al Green. It’s not too much of a shock that the people at Baylor want the conference to stay together. No one has been pulling at Baylor’s coattails, so they’ve started a campaign to keep things together.

Nothing is more beloved in Texas than Texas football. Entire towns travel to neighboring communities on Friday nights as rivals meet under the Friday night lights; Saturday mornings find families rushing out to pee wee football games and spending their afternoons with friends tailgating or watching some of the most historic and storied football rivalries in the nation; Sunday afternoons see families gathered in living rooms across the state to cheer on the Cowboys or the Texans.



Football in Texas is more than a passing interest, it is a part of the fabric of this great state.


Will Texans stand by and watch hundred-year-old rivalries be cast aside as the state’s largest universities align themselves with other states across the country?


Will Texans sit and watch as Texas’ flagship universities pledge their loyalties to other states?


Will Texans stand by as our most promising student athletes are lured out of Texas by new rivals?


Will Texans watch as our most precious resources—the great minds of the next generation—are exported to new conference institutions?


Texans must stand up and call the leadership of the University of Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech to clear-headed thinking about the state’s future. Texas’ flagship institutions of higher learning are the guardians of the state’s future—their loyalties must first be to Texas and to her citizens. Ask these leaders to take a stand for Texas and to stop this madness that will lead to the dissolution of the Big 12 and the end of an era for Texas.

This is the only stand Baylor can take or they face being left out of a BCS conference and going at it in Conference USA or the Mountain West and even that’s not guaranteed. If it wasn’t for Ann Richards, Baylor wouldn’t have been in the Big 12 in the first place (Texas Tech also got in for political reasons too).

Now you want to do what’s best for “Texas football”? Why didn’t you think about TCU, Houston, Rice, and SMU back in the 90’s? You didn’t stick up for them and now you may be the jilted bride. Of course Baylor wants the Big 12 to stick together. The problem is that the reason they want to stay together is the same reason that nobody will listen to them. They don’t have any pull in the conference and nobody has been knocking down their door to invite them into their conference. The were lumped in with the other Texas teams when the Big 8 was expanded to the Big 12 and they will be lumped into Conference USA or something like that. They are starting to come around slowly in athletics but they are still no where close to contending year after year.

Isn’t this poetic justice?