Big 12 South Seceding to form a new SWC???

[PonyTime]

Just to get things going on a slow week - Out of Boulder, Colorado . . . what are they smoking up there???


Woelk: Eliminating divisions in Big 12 a bad idea
May 2, 2005

Did you catch the recent proposal from Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione?

Castiglione and his Texas counterpart, DeLoss Dodds, have suggested that the Big 12 change its football title game format.

They are proposing that the league do away with the North and South divisions and have simply one set of overall league standings. Then, the top two teams at the end of the regular season would play each other for the title.

Castiglione even wants the neutral site eliminated, with the regular season champ serving as the host for the title game.

Such a scenario would have sent Texas to Oklahoma last year for the championship game instead of Oklahoma playing Colorado at a neutral site. In 2003, it would have meant Kansas State traveling to Norman instead of getting the Sooners on a neutral field. (That also might have meant the Sooners wouldn't have suffered a nationally televised embarrassment at the hands of the Wildcats. You don't think that crossed Castiglione's mind, do you?)

The proposal is bad on a variety of levels, not the least of which is that it's a self-serving idea geared for two schools that ignores the well-being of the conference in general.

For starters, the current divisional setup serves as an incentive for a number of programs.

For instance, Iowa State today is harboring realistic dreams of playing in the Big 12 Championship game next December. But eliminate the divisions, and you eliminate the Cyclones' hopes of taking a shot at the title. In fact, you eliminate the hopes of more than half the conference before the season starts.

Remember, upsets in the Big 12 title game have been a staple since the conference began. Why eliminate those dreams?

Of course, the schools in the Big 12 South are feeling fat and sassy at the moment. Oklahoma and Texas are currently the class of the conference, and their leaders are either ignorant of history or conceited enough to believe that won't change.

But folks who follow college football know that it's a cyclical game. It wasn't long ago that the North dominated the South.

Fact is, under the proposed format, three of the first four Big 12 Championship games would have involved North schools — which means Texas wouldn't have won the title in 1996 and wouldn't have had a chance to play for the crown in 1999.

Meanwhile, it was also just a few years ago that Oklahoma was struggling to regain its identity. All it would take for such a slip to happen again is one phone call to Bob Stoops from someone with enough money to convince him that there are greener pastures — and better golf courses — elsewhere.

At the same time, someone needs to remind UT's Dodds that it was the Big Eight that rescued his floundering program from the near-dead Southwest Conference 10 years ago. Without the Big Eight schools agreeing to absorb four SWC programs, Texas would not be where it is today.

But now, Dodds appears willing to stomp on the schools that helped him — a sign that loyalty and integrity are not major concerns of his.

No doubt, the North schools currently would have the most to lose under such a proposal — and that's why said proposal will never be passed. Guaranteed, there are at least six votes lined up against it.

But sources around the conference have recently hinted that chatter in conference backrooms suggests the football proposal might simply be laying the groundwork for something bigger.

There are rumors that the schools in the Big 12 South are quietly considering "seceding" from the conference. The theory is that the six schools from the South would invite Arkansas back to the fold, then invite someone such as TCU or SMU to help form a reborn, eight-team SWC.

That would obviously send North schools scrambling. Colorado, once a target of the Pac-10, would no doubt see if there's still any interest from those quarters. Missouri would turn an eye toward the Big Ten.

That would leave four other schools looking for a home.

Kansas State and Iowa State, two schools with no nationwide appeal and no television market, would be out in the cold.

Kansas, with its basketball tradition, would be appealing to someone, but probably not a conference with the current punch of the Big 12.

As for Nebraska, word is no conference is anxious to invite NU because of the Huskers' penchant for lax academic standards.

Far-fetched? Of course — but it's also worth remembering that the current Big 12 television contracts are up in 2007.

After that, negotiations are open, and anything's possible.

Stay tuned.

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/sports_c ... 86,00.html

[BrianTinBigD]

Does anyone truly believe that the Big 12 South would create a new conference that would include SMU, TCU, or even Baylor. Arkansas would be a possibility joining them and I would imagine Colorado would not be a bad fit either but the chances of this happening are beyond snowball in hell levels.

[ponyte]

Arkansas is not going anywhere. They have too much of a good thing with the SEC to leave. I can't imagine any other SWC school moving from a BCS conference to a new SWC conference. It would only happen if UT and TX A$M made the move.

The Big (1)2 is so overrated year in and year out that a TV contract is not a real issue. The Big (1)2 will get a nice contract. As long as the Big (1)2 continues to send overrated OUs and NU to the BCS dance, then the Big (1)2 will thrive. Texas will always find a way to blow a championship.

No change in the near future unless Texas decides it needs a weaker conference to succeed.

[No Quarter]

Gosh, sure would be too bad if Iowa State and K-State got left in the cold... I'm sure a LOT of pony fans would sympathize. Realisticaly I don't see thzt conference breaking up, but the threat might force a change in their method of deciding a champion.

[davidsmu94]

Very far fetched, but if it came true, would be the best thing that ever happened to us

[Pony Fan]

I know that never is a long time but this will never happen.