If I were a decision-maker at A&M, it wouldn't bother me so much to not play UT. With a much more difficult SEC schedule going forward, removing UT and adding a cupcake game might be a good idea.
This was true back in the 1960's when the local teams were basically the only ones on TV. But the SEC has its primary contracts with CBS and ESPN, so most of it's big games are already on national TV as opposed to regional broadcasts on ABC or FOX. And any football fan - especially high school football recruits - are already watching SEC football because they are the strongest conference in the nation. Besides all that, the SEC is already very successfully poaching Texas HS football players - it's not like they don't have pipelines into the state. OU was already recruiting Texas long before the Big12 formed. Mizzou certainly wasn't, but they also were a relative unknown that was never televised in Texas. That's not an issues for any of the major SEC teams. The lower tier SEC teams like Vandy, Kentucky, etc will get more Texas recruits, certainly. But whatever impact you have there, you'll have the same for A&M in all the SEC states - except that A&M isn't currently on TV in those states, because they aren't on TV as much and they are generally more likely to be on regional ABC or FOX, with their Big12 contracts.
The law should state that this years game dictates the future. If TAMU wins they play UT every year. If UT wins TAMU has to stay in the Big 12. Play it in Dallas. That's a game I'd watch.
I just wanna know because I'm in my senior year here at bama (no victory lap for me not even a half victory lap for an extra football season!) and i'm from Houston so it'd be awesome if we get to play A&M every year. Then I'd get to see a Bama game every other year without having to make a 10 hour drive.
None of those schools brings anything to the table for the Big12, even though id like to add TCU...i say add BYU, get ND to place its non-football sports in for now..and then wait them out. If and when super conferences start forming ND wont go SEC or Big10..at that time we can add ND, West Virgina, South Florida and maybe even 2 others..
Why is ND, the glamour school with the national schedule, going to join a conference of midwestern teams who are mostly in the middle of nowhere?
From Jon Wilner, probably the most reliable reporter in the country on realignment: http://twitter.com/#!/wilnerhotline
No way in hell does Boise get an invite. No. Freaking. Way. He may be reliable, but that is a bad dent to any cred he had on this subject. That makes no sense on any level. I can't even imagine them "considering" it. Unless you mean crazy senile T-Boone mentioned it on twitter once or something.
I actually think Boise St makes sense as part of a 4 team package. The Big12 has two goals: making $$ / getting exposure, and maintaining itself as a premier football conference. If you just bring in 1 or 2 schools, they are hard to justify. But if you're bringing in 4 teams, you can afford to bring in one that just brings football attention - especially given that none of your other potential options are really star-level schools anyway. That said, for all the talk about "what's best for the student athletes" in terms of travel, bringing in those 4 schools makes a mess of the Big12's geography.
That's more plausible than full membership, but the Big 12 doesn't need Boise State to bouy its BCS credibility. Why on earth would they add a school that takes more revenue than it generates, is located out in the middle of nowhere, has sub par academics, is currently up to its ears in sanctions, and will pose a legitimate threat to take conference titles and/or recruits away?
The problem with Boise is that it's short term. The first bad season they have will turn them back into the also-ran they were before this current success. The fact that they've managed to keep it up this long is incredible. I just don't see it as a long term, next 100 year, type of program. Any buzz generated by bringing them in would be short lived when they start going 5-7, 4-8, etc.
