The 27th is a date of interest for UT fans. That is when the SEC will rule on whether Florida can accept any graduate transfers, namely Malik Zaire, for 2017. Apparently we are still in the hunt if Florida falls through and Wisconsin decides to move on. Still a long shot but something worth looking out for...
To go briefly off topic, congratulations to the class of 2017! If you missed Chief Brown's commencement speech last night, it is worth watching:
Looks like Erick Fowler is off the team as well. Fowler was a big NSD flip from LSU. Like Elliott, thought he had a chance to make an impact this year.
Yea, that's not surprising. I'm assuming it is related to academics. I brought up that possibility a few days ago. It's pretty disappointing but what are you going to do. There is some big 12 news that came out today: The league is about to elect a new president to replace Oklahoma’s David Boren. Good Riddance. He's single handedly responsible for the disaster that was big 12 expansion. The dude talks without thinking constantly. The conference will be better off when he steps down from OU and you have to hope that happens before the TV rights/realignment comes up again. They need someone that is on the same page as their regents and isn't a Buffon. He's the Donald Trump of college football. The revenue per school is going up by %10 from 30.4 to 33 million a year. It's a good sign for the big 12 from the conference strength standpoint. That number doesn't include the money that each school earns from their own 3rd tier TV deals. The conference just needs to rebound from last year. The pac 12 had a few down years but came back. Hopefully the big 12 can do the same. They are going to start the conference championship game this year. That game would have pushed Baylor/TCU into the playoffs in 2014. It would have only hurt OU in 2015 since they were easily in the playoffs without a championship game. It wouldn't have made any difference in 2016.
"One source said more lucrative television revenue and operational savings will bump the money about 10 percent from last year when the 10 schools earned about $30.4 million apiece." - Kirk Bohls I'm sure there will be a bump on top of that after the big 12 championship game. ESPN and Fox Sports will televise it in alternating years. Cowboys stadium won a bidding war between San Antonio and Kansas City but I doubt the latter ever stood a chance. They hosed 4 previous games but they got screwed when Miss and Nebraska left the conference. I'm sure we'll know more at the big 12 meeting next week about the TV bump. The big thing that is hanging over the big 12 is hanging over all of college football. What is going to happen as ESPN/Fox Sports 's subscriber base continue to fall? The contracts run until 2025 so they won't have to worry about anything anytime soon but new media might determine the best ways conferences should be structured for the next generation. I really don't see any reason that any of the big 12 teams would want to leave. That goes just as much for Oklahoma. They know they will make the playoffs with 1 loss and they will have an easier time doing it in the big 12 than the SEC. They are still making a **** ton of money as the big 12 keeps pace with everyone else. They still make less than SEC teams but there are more numbers in those budgets then just TV dollars. You also have brand value that comes from success that might be greatly reduced in the SEC. The big 12 commissioner has no bias to UT at all and UT has taken a relative backseat to the conference in the last 5 years. Sure, UT can come out against something like expansion but that's their right as a school in the conference. All indications were that they kept their cards very close to their chest and did not have a constant push one way or another. The conference has to come back competitively but there isn't much reason to think they can't based on past experiences. Sagarin usually had them as the 2nd strongest conference overall. I'm not a big 12 fanboy. I think it would have been cooler to join the Pac 12. This is just how I see it objectively and I feel like everything I said about big 12 expansion turned out to be right. My career is in media and I can say that it won't be politics that changes conferences. It'll be the deals that puts college football on youtube/facebook/twitter/netflix/appletv. Those platforms are where the money is and they have so much more versatility than the cable model which has to bundle services. If the nature of that business calls for bigger conferences then that would drive realignment. However, a conference that big would still have mini conferences built in sort of like how the AL and NL become closer to the same organization as time went on. I would rather be in the big 12 than the SEC. I just don't give a **** about those schools. I feel the exact opposite with the PAC 12. That just might be my personal subjective opinion. I love the idea of playing UCLA, Cal and Stanford. I even like the idea of playing Washington, Arizona and the other teams. I'm not in love with the big 12 schools but it wouldn't be better for me in this regard than the SEC. I wish we knew more about what is going on with the UT athletic director. I thought they would have one in place before they began the planning for the new arena but that doesn't seem to be the case. Everyone likes Mike Perrin and he has repaired a lot of the damage that Steve Patterson has done. The current agreement is that Perrin will serve as the AD until 2018 but he doesn't have a contract so we'll see I guess. Maybe he does have a shot at becoming the AD on a permanent basis.
A different perspective would be to consider how long the remaining blueboods, Texas and Oklahoma, can handle being in a conference with considerably less prestige and worse management than the other major conferences. Sure, if both are winning, neither will have a problem with being the class of the Big 12 and getting a playoff berth with it. However, one could also foresee the perception of the Big 12 being a headwind for recruiting and performance. It's also not guaranteed that pathetic Big 12 management will do an effective job renegotiating television deals and revenue. I would feel more confident in Texas' current situation with a strong athletic director, like Oliver Luck, who I feel would be effective at managing the bureaucratic morass to come for tv revenue and realignment.
Win and everything else will take care of itself IMO. We're seeing it now with the ACC and the resurgence of FSU and Clemson getting over the hump. The Big 12 and PAC on the other hand have fallen behind with Texas, USC, Oregon having gone through slumps the past few years. I agree that we need a strong AD to put Texas back in the driver's seat and I think the entire conference would benefit with a guy like Luck leading the next round of negotiations.
Chip Brown (TIFWIW) has reported that the AD search will accelerate towards the end of the year but that Perrin will stay on board through the 2017-2018 academic year. Honestly I think that is the ideal situation, announce the new guy and have Perrin help with the transition process. I trust Fenves and Perrin to do a more thorough and honest search than Powers did. Playing the PAC would be fun and I think Texas would fit in from a cultural and academic standpoint than the other conferences but I would absolutely hate those late games. Scheduling would be an absolute nightmare for all sports. I actually like the idea of the Big 10 and ACC over the PAC for that reason alone but fully expect and prefer to stay in the Big 12. Win and everything else will take care of itself.
I really do think that the poor management is all on Boren. I can't emphasize enough how awful I think he is. He made comments that greatly hurt the league and made it look bad as well as initiated an expansion campaign before getting all the information about the financial impact by the firm they hired. I think you'll see a stark difference with the new president. I was very surprised to see them secure the current TV deal with ESPN and Fox. I think everyone thought the conference would split apart. It was probably a mistake to turn down Clemson and FSU a few years ago if that rumor was true. However, I think the ACC voted to lock everyone in to media rights so I don't think it would have been able to happen anyway. Who knows what was actually true during that whole deal. I agree about the performance issue but I still think that a 1 loss big 12 team will be in the playoffs with a championship game. OU made it in over two 1 loss teams. I think Baylor or TCU would have made it in if they played a +1 championship game. We'll see what happens in the next couple years with that and recruiting. I really feel like expanding the playoffs to 8 teams will fix so many problems with college football. In that case, I think all of this becomes a much smaller deal. Completely Agree. Yea, I think I read the same on the Statesman. It's a handshake deal. I think they really need to find someone that understands media. Yea, the late games would suck but at least they are on Sat night for 5 or so games a season. Now that I think about it, I don't think there is a major conference with teams that are separated by more than 1 timezone. Who knows what could happen but you're right about the logistics issue.
It doesn't. But looks like Fenves and Perrin are just following through with their original agreement. I admittedly wanted a permanent AD on board to lead us through the mess Patterson left, the most recent expansion talks, facilities upgrade, and whatever decision was going to be made with Strong but maybe Fenves had the right idea of having Perrin deal with it instead of letting the next guy inherit it. I do think the Texas job is lot more attractive now than it has been in a long time and you have to wonder if guys like Luck, Jurich, Del Conte would have left their current gigs to deal with the mess that was Texas athletics at the time.
I don't know - I would think if I was interviewing as AD, I'd WANT all those things - I'd want some say in the new facilities I'll be dealing with, and the new football head coach, whether the conference expands, etc. If I'm going to get stuck with the consequences of those decisions, I'd want to be a part of them.
Ya I think some would. For others, maybe not so much. Word was that Luck didn't want to come in and fire Mack right off the back which was part of the reason we went with Patterson. And if Luck is our #1 target, maybe the timing is better now that he's had a few years to fulfill his NCAA duties and cool any bad will from the last go around, if any (complete conjecture by my part). But whatever it is, I think the athletics department is in much better shape than it's been for quite some time. Patterson did a lot of damage during his time and cleaning up his mess would've been a big undertaking on its own.
It'll be interesting to hear the final story with Fowler. 247 thinks it was because of his relationship with the new staff which I can easily see. The kid seems like a punk based on his twitter account. That's the 2nd high profile exit because of staff differences. That's just going to happen. I think they wanted a long buffer between ADs. They also knew Perrin was likable and wanted to give him time to undo the damage that Patterson did which I think is easier to do when you have an acting AD. There is less scrutiny and pressure. The program will be in a much better and stable place when they give the reigns to a new AD than if they hired him too soon. The timing with the arena is unfortunate and I'm assuming they wanted to keep Charlie so they didn't have to find a new coach without having a permeant AD but life just happens like that sometime. This is why I think Patterson was hired and not Luck. There was a desire to come in, clean house and lay down the law. His same attitude that allowed him to do that is what ultimately ruined his relationship with UT and the relationship with the city. It was pretty dickish when discussing the new arena.
IT reported that the previous staff had issues keeping him on track and eligible last year as well. Apparently he was often late to meetings and team functions if not missing them entirely.
I was scrolling around the TV looking for BigXII? tournament baseball, passed the LHN and I'll give you 3 guesses what was on: UT/USC Rose Bowl UT Spring Game 1969 UT/Ark Every. Single. Day. 2 of those are on it seems.
Big pickup for Herman and Co. in Keaontay Ingram. #1 RB in Texas moves us up to #7 in Scout and #10 in 247 team rankings.
I'm ok with it. The kid was arrested for it, admitted to it and made his way through the justice system. He took responsibility and made his apologies. I don't think he serves as a danger to the school. I think it makes it easier from an ethical standpoint that he wasn't slinging coke, heroin or weed. He was dealing a drug that many middle aged privileged people get from their doctors. Sure, it's still drug and you can be black and white about it but that's still how I feel. I think it helps that this is public knowledge and I imagine he'll face more scrutiny when he gets to campus and I highly doubt the coaching staff will cover up any problems he causes and allow him to keep playing. The obvious question is if this runs counter to the opinions against what Baylor did and I think there are enough differences to make it ok. For instance, another coach said he told Briles that a transfer student had a history of sexual violence and Baylor didn't make that public until after more problems occurred. The staff and school also have a running theme of covering things up while Texas has taken more responsibility like when they suspended Jordan Hicks and "I like to Watch" Case McCoy for the Alamo Bowl and there were sexual misconduct allegations. The players were reinstated after the San Antonio police cleared them of wrong doing and there hasn't been any reports of further misconduct in the many years since. Still, the athletic staff opens itself up to more scrutiny in how they discipline players and who they take into the program. Good News. Hopefully they can have a decent year and keep him. He has offers from just about every major school in the country so they'll come after him after the season. 247 reports that current 4* commit Justin Watkins out of Florida is going to be visiting a lot of schools in the coming months. He's already flipped twice and the lack of a Texas connection and loss of Charlie Strong makes it look like he's the biggest threat to leave. I absolutely love the addition of an earlier sighing period in December. It's going to be nice to get a lot of the current commits signed and off the worry radar going into Jan-Feb. It's long overdue. Mack Brown recently said, ""There is no doubt that if the right situation came up, I would coach again. I have a few good years left." I'm happy to hear that but I know he's not the most popular person with UT fans. It could helpfully be a way to end his career on a high note. He's currently the same age as Nick Saban (65) so he wouldn't be a long term commitment and would probably be a target for a program that thinks they are on the up and up and maybe lost their coach because he took a better job. I could also see North Carolina firing their coach if they regress again and bringing Mack Back. It's hard to know what he means about the right situation. I wish him my best.
