What's Up With The Big-12?

[SoCal_Pony]

Long term College football success is pretty much entirely coaching driven. It's not driven by any particular recruiting class, or conference affiliation, it is all coaching. USC has Pete Carol, perennial national championship contender, Florida has Urban Meyer, perennial national championship contender. What happened to both when those coaches left? Both schools still have ridiculous resources, strong conferences, and prime location for recruiting. TCU and Baylor are just like Texas Tech under Mike Leach. The only difference is TCU fans are smart enough to not run out of town the only thing that has made them relevant. Baylor had their hand forced given the egregious situation on their campus. I give Baylor maybe one more year of mediocrity before returning back to being a conference bottom dweller. If TCU loses Patterson they run the same risk of returning to to bottom. So with all that I doubt OU and UT are worried about creating more "TCU" or "Baylors" as both schools know they can always poach the best coaches because they can just throw money at it beyond their competitors.

Lots of truth in what you are saying.

In hindsight, as I said at the time, UT would have been wise to offer Nick Saban $12M/yr, he's simply worth it. Instead they secured Strong at $5M/yr.

You don't think Nick Saban is worth $7M to UT?

[East Coast Mustang]

Long term College football success is pretty much entirely coaching driven. It's not driven by any particular recruiting class, or conference affiliation, it is all coaching. USC has Pete Carol, perennial national championship contender, Florida has Urban Meyer, perennial national championship contender. What happened to both when those coaches left? Both schools still have ridiculous resources, strong conferences, and prime location for recruiting. TCU and Baylor are just like Texas Tech under Mike Leach. The only difference is TCU fans are smart enough to not run out of town the only thing that has made them relevant. Baylor had their hand forced given the egregious situation on their campus. I give Baylor maybe one more year of mediocrity before returning back to being a conference bottom dweller. If TCU loses Patterson they run the same risk of returning to to bottom. So with all that I doubt OU and UT are worried about creating more "TCU" or "Baylors" as both schools know they can always poach the best coaches because they can just throw money at it beyond their competitors.

Lots of truth in what you are saying.

In hindsight, as I said at the time, UT would have been wise to offer Nick Saban $12M/yr, he's simply worth it. Instead they secured Strong at $5M/yr.

You don't think Nick Saban is worth $7M to UT?

When you look at Alabama's increases in athletic revenue, alumni giving, endowment, applications, and student quality since 2007, how much has Saban been worth to the school? $200M? more? I think they could pay him $15M/year and he'd still be worth every penny

[SoCal_Pony]

It might be more accurate to say that the name schools are all having a down decade at the same time. And by that I mean OU and UT.

Well I agree with this and Digety's ranking of Baylor & TCU as 3/4 in the B10 further highlights that conference's weakness.

I'll add this. UT should be a Top 5 dominant franchise, no question about that, but I think it will be a more difficult path for OU to return to prior glory. They lack the star quality, kids view things differently today, they're located in Norman. Same can be said about Nebraska. 2 proud franchises with long-term down trends IMO.

Of course, as Pony Law stated, if OU or Nebraska hires the next great coach and he is willing to stay, all bets are off.

[SoCal_Pony]

Long term College football success is pretty much entirely coaching driven. It's not driven by any particular recruiting class, or conference affiliation, it is all coaching. USC has Pete Carol, perennial national championship contender, Florida has Urban Meyer, perennial national championship contender. What happened to both when those coaches left? Both schools still have ridiculous resources, strong conferences, and prime location for recruiting. TCU and Baylor are just like Texas Tech under Mike Leach. The only difference is TCU fans are smart enough to not run out of town the only thing that has made them relevant. Baylor had their hand forced given the egregious situation on their campus. I give Baylor maybe one more year of mediocrity before returning back to being a conference bottom dweller. If TCU loses Patterson they run the same risk of returning to to bottom. So with all that I doubt OU and UT are worried about creating more "TCU" or "Baylors" as both schools know they can always poach the best coaches because they can just throw money at it beyond their competitors.

Lots of truth in what you are saying.

In hindsight, as I said at the time, UT would have been wise to offer Nick Saban $12M/yr, he's simply worth it. Instead they secured Strong at $5M/yr.

You don't think Nick Saban is worth $7M to UT?

When you look at Alabama's increases in athletic revenue, alumni giving, endowment, applications, and student quality since 2007, how much has Saban been worth to the school? $200M? more? I think they could pay him $15M/year and he'd still be worth every penny

Yep

[SoCal_Pony]

Long term College football success is pretty much entirely coaching driven. It's not driven by any particular recruiting class, or conference affiliation, it is all coaching. USC has Pete Carol, perennial national championship contender, Florida has Urban Meyer, perennial national championship contender. What happened to both when those coaches left? Both schools still have ridiculous resources, strong conferences, and prime location for recruiting. TCU and Baylor are just like Texas Tech under Mike Leach. The only difference is TCU fans are smart enough to not run out of town the only thing that has made them relevant. Baylor had their hand forced given the egregious situation on their campus. I give Baylor maybe one more year of mediocrity before returning back to being a conference bottom dweller. If TCU loses Patterson they run the same risk of returning to to bottom. So with all that I doubt OU and UT are worried about creating more "TCU" or "Baylors" as both schools know they can always poach the best coaches because they can just throw money at it beyond their competitors.

Lots of truth in what you are saying.

In hindsight, as I said at the time, UT would have been wise to offer Nick Saban $12M/yr, he's simply worth it. Instead they secured Strong at $5M/yr.

You don't think Nick Saban is worth $7M to UT?

When you look at Alabama's increases in athletic revenue, alumni giving, endowment, applications, and student quality since 2007, how much has Saban been worth to the school? $200M? more? I think they could pay him $15M/year and he'd still be worth every penny

Yep. I said $12M, truth be told, he's easily worth the $15M you propose.