Texas To Stay In BigXII? Or not?  (UPDATE)

Texas is blamed for everything that is wrong in the Big 12. This is a PR move by UT so we aren’t blamed for the break up of the conference. I don’t know why they even bother. We’ll get blamed no matter what.

1. Texas A&M goes to the SEC to try to resolve its existential angst
2. Colorado goes back to the Big 12 (now called the Big 10)
3. Pac-10 stays as it is.
4. The new Big 10 and the Pac-10 agree to a TV marketing relationship and to 2 out-of-conference games a year for each of its schools (the hardwood challenge on grass).
5. Pac-10 and the new Big 10 have round-robin schedules and bowl tie-ins (Rose for Pac-10 and Cotton (moved up to BCS status enroute to play-off system) for new Big 10.

All that is missing is the conference championship game, but play-off system may take care of that revenue hole anyway.

Scootie: pass or fail?

jh

I hope somebody writes a book about all this, so I can actually understand who did what and when.

His initial report was good, but as a poster on teamspeedkills.com said (unfortunately the poster throws a lot of subjective opinions in, but his bullet points are worth reading):

Brown had the initial break in all this. Because it came from DeLoss Dodds, who wanted to make Brown and UT’s biggest fan site the go-to for the national media on all this: to get UT’s spin out.

Things Brown has been wrong about since:
- Baylor to the Pac 10 over Colorado (Texas never even considered it; completely unthinkable and not even desirable by UT people; Baylor is a sub-MWC joke that made the B12 as the 12th team because there were no better B12 South options at the time)
- Baylor smeared by Cal with "religious intolerance" once Nebraska was bolting and thus UT likely going West; a complete lie made up by Dodds’ office to distance themselves from not wanting Baylor anyway
- Brown on SportsCenter last Thursday night said A&M et al. to Pac 16 was "a done deal"; obviously wrong but the spin UT execs wanted in order to rush A&M and make A&M look like the deal-breaker if Pac 16 didn’t happen
- Brown saying Rick Perry was fighting for A&M to Pac 16; all Aggie insiders and Perry public statements saying Perry is on the sidelines; Dodds et al. naturally wanted to press Perry into action and give the Pac 16 public perception the authority of gubernatorial support

Chip Brown is a UT hack who has sold his one-time journalist soul to sell OrangeBloods.com subscriptions.

Read any anonymously sourced thing Brown says now as straight from Dodds’ office.

A&M may have the votes to go the SEC but Dodds wants that publicly broadcast in attempt to rally any remaining pro-P16 A&M insiders and fans.

Wondering if this is a stall for an SEC push…I know I hear the “doesn’t fit” business, but I’m not buying it.

FWIW, Wilner’s reporting the conflicting ESPN/Chip reports:
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegesports/2010/06/14/pac-10-expansion-breaking-news-texas-reportedly-to-commit-to-big-12/

Joe Schad tweets:

If the Texas Network were to launch they’d keep all that $, not share
less than a minute ago via txt

Has video of Schad talking to Rece Davis

He still calls the move of UT, OU, OSU, and TT to the Pac-10 as “imminent” and maybe announced even before the UT regents meeting tomorrow. Another interesting note in the interview — despite CU announcing a 2012 date to being play in the Pac-10, Schad says that if all those teams leave, they’ll start playing in Pac-10 in 2011.

Texas stands to make between $20 mil and $25 mil per yr under a proposed new TV pkg presented by Dan Beebe, plus UT’s own network.

http://twitter.com/chipbrownob

I still don’t know how the Big-XII minus Nebraska and Colorado would earn 20-25 mill in TV deals, while also allowing each school to maintain their non-national media rights.. The conference would have two excellent football properties in Texas and OU, but Texas Tech has been the only other schools with consistent and solid success over the last decade. Additionally, I would think the bowl payouts without Colorado and Nebraska (moreso with Nebraska) would diminish.

Chip Brown tweets:

All 10 schools remaining in the Big 12 are are at the table working on a deal that would save the league, sources tell Orangebloods.com.
1 minute ago via TweetDeck

If we don’t get Texas, can we just send Colorado back and keep our conference at 10 members? Otherwise we have to go to 12 schools, a conference championship game and lose the round robin schedule. No thanks.

Can someone please let me know when everyone makes up their minds? I’ll be by the pool.

/starts another productive week

I have less than an idea what this means:

A&M is at the table and Gene Stallings told AP he’d be “tickled” if B12 saved. …RT @EKohli: @ChipBrownOB / So Tex AM is on board also??

From Chip Brown, saying that A+M is listening to the plan. Some people think that this is all a way to make A+M look like the bad guy. Texas saying “We tried, but A+M bolted!” I don’t know if that is true.

beebe must have found a pot of gold somewhere

Now Chipper says that CU and NU leaving the conference was the impetus to keeping it together? Huh?

Once Neb and CU made their moves, a TV network saw realignment about to blow and stepped forward with the plan stop chaos and save B12.

Now, Chip Brown is reporting that you can get a FREE subscription to OrangeBloods! Did not see that coming!

RT gkketch: Orangebloods.com has a special offer (FREE!) to all who want to see what we're about. Message me or email <a href="mailto:gkketchgmail.com">gkketch@gmail.com

Not helping your credibility, dude.

Now, ESPN says that Beebee’s plan is gaining traction:

 @chipbrownob is correct. Beebe’s proposal, one source said, is “gaining traction.” 42 minutes ago via tx

We don’t need those teams changing the nature of our conference forever. We’re West Coast. We should go after one more West Coast team — best would be Colorado State. that way we’d have Arizona and Arizona State, Oregon and Oregon State, Washington and Washington State, and Colorado and Colorado State, plus the biggest California programs.

It would just make sense.

How would bringing a money-hungry school like Texas into the conference help? Any extra revenue from a TV contract or network would just have to be split among more schools. What’s the payoff? Factor in massively increased travel expenses, and I bet expansion turns out to be an albatross around each Pac-10 school’s neck.

Maybe even Houston or Rice. Maybe the loss of Colorado and Nebraska is enough to wake the rest of the Big 12, inlcuding Texas, up to the need for significant restructuring.

If I were in Beebe’s shoes, I’d go on offense right now.

One of those interactive, “how would you do it” things…

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/graphics/0610/realignment/

Upside if expansion falls apart. Pac10 will no longer be perceived as the weakest conference. Thank you, Big"XII"!

Go here.

Sportswriters noticing all references to it deleted as well. WTF is going on?