[College Football] Big Ten, Texas have initial talks

Tradition reigns. It's college football after all...with all it's pageantry

 

http://blog.chron.com/sportsjustice...es-most-likely-with-uh-getting-an-invitation/

If Oklahoma stays, the Big 12 survives, possibly with UH getting an invitation
I guess there’s always a possibility that the Texas A&M Board of Regents are calling an emergency meeting to have the Longhorn Network installed in all their dorm rooms. Otherwise, Monday seems likely to be the day divorce papers are drawn up.

Texas A&M appears to be out the door, and there’s doesn’t seem to be a thing Texas or the Texas Legislature can do to stop it. Now what?

I’m assuming that Big 12 Commissioner DeLoss Dodds is having conversatioins with OU AD Joe Castiglione about keeping the Big 12 together. If the Sooners bolt for the SEC too, Commissioner Dodds suddenly has his hands full in keeping the Big 12 viable.

Texas doesn’t want to be an independent. Trust me on this one. Could Texas talk TCU out of bolting for the Big East. Would a conference with Texas, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Houston, SMU, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Iowa State still be relevant enough to have AQ status?

If OU decides to stay in the Big 12, then the conference survives with no problem. UH likely will replace A&M as the 10th member, and if Commissioner Dodds wants two more teams, he’ll invite SMU and make a serious run at TCU.

Some of you think TCU has no interesting in joining the Big 12, especially after the post-Southwest Conference snub. TCU’s easiest path to a BCS bowl certainly would be through the Big East, but is there any appeal for renewing conference rivalries with Texas, Texas Tech, etc.

When you think back to how this all happened, it’s absolutely amazing. A TV guy made a comment about showing a high school game featuring a UT recruit, and all heck broke lose.

For someone of my age, it’s almost incomprehensible that Texas and Texas A&M would not be in the same conference and might not even play one another every year.

But I’ll get over it. If UH finally catches a break after all this time in the desert, that would be the best news to come out of this whole thing.

 

I don't believe A&M's decision to expedite their board meeting before the meeting with the legislative committee on higher education will be well received.

http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1251051

The House Higher Education Committee has scheduled a hearing to take up the issue of Texas A&M's possible move to the SEC at 2 p.m. on Aug. 16.

But that hearing may come too late to stop the Aggies from bolting the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference. The Texas A&M Board of Regents has posted a meeting scheduled for Monday, Aug. 15, to discuss "conference affiliation."

Sources close to A&M indicate the nine-member regents board will vote to leave for the SEC. The SEC presidents are expected to talk on Saturday in a special gathering to discuss A&M becoming the 13th member of that conference, according to sources.

Under state law, the regents only need 72 hours to post a public meeting, while a legislative committee needs five days to post a public meeting.

The House Higher Education Committee posted its notice for an Aug. 16 meeting on Thursday. The A&M regents posted their meeting on Friday in what appears to be a calculated maneuver to out-flank lawmakers. According to sources, the original plan was for the Texas A&M board of regents to meet on Aug. 22 to take up a possible move to the SEC.

Committee chairman Dan Branch, R-Dallas, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Two officials at Big 12 schools said the SEC is in talks with Florida State about becoming the 14th member of the SEC.

If Texas A&M was to leave the Big 12, the initial indication is that the remaining nine schools will stay together and possibly add a school to replace Texas A&M, sources said.

According to sources, the SEC has reached out to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State as well. But several league sources indicate Texas and OU will stay together in the Big 12.

One administrator at a Big 12 school said he expected Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott to see if Oklahoma and Oklahoma State would be interested in joining the Pac-12 with a regional network in their state as well as Texas possibly its Longhorn Network into a regional network in the Pac-12 with Texas Tech.

Scott expressed in an e-mail response to Orangebloods.com that he is "fully focused on developing the Pac-12" and would have no further comment.

One Big 12 school official said Texas and Oklahoma would be "fools" to leave the Big 12 now because the league still has a BCS bid and may present the easiest road to the national championship game without a title game to play.

"Texas A&M should have been in the top three in the Big 12 every year," the official said. "In the SEC, A&M will probably struggle to get into the top seven."

Branch also called a hearing last year when it appeared the Big 12 could break up with Texas and Texas Tech headed to the Pac-10 and Texas A&M headed to the SEC. But the Big 12 came together before the scheduled hearing.

Those being invited to the Aug. 16 hearing will include Texas A&M board of regents chairman, Richard Box, a dentist in Austin; and A&M president R. Bowen Loftin.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive will be invited, and members of the committee have indicated they'd like to know when discussions between Texas A&M and the SEC were initiated, and by whom, to determine if there may be any tortious interference with a contract between Texas A&M and the Big 12's television partners.

There's a chance Texas, Texas Tech and Baylor officials would be invited to talk about the potential fallout of an A&M departure. Questions for Texas would undoubtedly include the Longhorn Network, which has been a public concern for A&M officials.

"We want to be in position to have a discussion about a potential move to a new athletic conference for one of our major universities - that it's in the best interest of the state of Texas," Branch told Orangebloods.com.

"There's a lot of resources in play. These athletic programs have a lot of dollars involved with the TV contracts and the funding that comes from a particular conference. So we want to make sure if there was a decision to go a different direction at Texas A&M, it's the regents' job to make sure this is in the best interest of Texas A&M as one university in that system. And it's the Legislature's job to make sure it's in the best interest in the state of Texas."

I asked Branch if the committee found that such a move wasn't in the best interest of Texas, what could the Legislature do about it?

"Ultimately, these are public institutions," Branch said. "The Legislature is responsible for funding and directing the ultimate policy of our public institutions.

"So I think it's important that the Legislature be advised. And so I want to create an opportunity on a timely basis to give the members of the House of Representatives the opportunity to ask questions and make sure they felt like this was in the best interest of the state of Texas.

"There's an argument that going to the SEC would be a good thing so that Texas' biggest schools would have a footprint in two major conferences, so I'm going into this with an open mind. But it seems to me it's the regents' responsibility to do what's in the best interest of Texas A&M as the flagship of that system. And it's the Legislature's responsibility to make sure it's in the best interest of the state of Texas."

Branch said there are really two points of interest that are critical to the state's view of a possible move by Texas A&M to the SEC.

"Part of that goes to you don't want another major conference coming undone by the action of one," Branch said. "So there's two parts to this. One, is this a good move for Texas A&M?

"And, more importantly, from our vantage point would there be a negative consequence to the University of Texas or Texas Tech University and even our private schools like Baylor - what effect it could have on them?"

Stay tuned.

 

There is more to it than that. If anything TAMU just pissed and moaned over the network to create an excuse so they could leave. They want UT to look like the bad guys here so they can land in the SEC without any flack. I'm not sure how much they actually care about UT in all of this, they just want the SEC and out of a weakened conference.

 

Wanted to say thanks for all the updates, MadMax.

Someone needs to scrounge up that picture from last year about A&M going to the SEC. (probably not safe for work iirc)

 

Not sure if serious...

 

he's seriously kidding. there was a tweet last night where he referred to dodds as commish.

 

just remember that expression of gratitude when you get my bill in the mail.

 

kbohls kbohls
by richardjustice
Texas AD DeLoss Dodds tells me "it looks to me like they're leaving," says he thinks B12 would be OK with 9 teams, prefers 10. #ut

 

I got this email today....coincidence??

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http://www.statesman.com/blogs/cont...bohls/entries/2011/08/12/dodds_expects_b.html

Dodds expects Big 12 survival
By Kirk Bohls | Friday, August 12, 2011, 04:14 PM

Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds told the American-Statesman on Friday that it appears to him that Texas A&M is leaving for the Southeastern Conference but said he thinks the Big 12 can survive, perhaps with as few as nine teams.

“They’ve got to do what’s best for them,” Dodds said of the Aggies. “We’re going to look at every option we’ve got, and we’re going to end up in a good place. That’s what we do. We’re good at that.”

Dodds told me that he and his staff have been in contact with the other eight Big 12 schools, and the remaining nine teams are already exploring possible replacements for A&M.

“I think nine’s an option,” Dodds said. “I think nine are solid. I think 10’s a good number. I’ve always liked 10. In my mind, we’d try to stay at 10. If we had to, we’d go to 12.”

Dodds said he didn’t know if Texas would continue to play A&M if the Aggies bolt to the SEC.

“That’s one I cannot answer,” he said. “If they leave the conference, we would consider things sport by sport. There are more people involved in that decision than me. Our coaches have to be involved.”

 

MJ4Sports Matt Jackson
Let me clear this up. UH can easily play home games at Reliant Stadium while new stadium is built. So stadium not a deterrent to Big 12

 

MJ4Sports Matt Jackson
How's this for irony: UTs greed took UH out of big time athletics. Now UTs greed may reopen that door. We welcome the challenge. #EatEmUp

 

kbohls kbohls
by richardjustice
Texas AD DeLoss Dodds told me the UT staff "is working on 20 names" for possible replacements for Texas A&M.

 

A 9 member conference filled with lots of scrubs would be a pretty crappy outcome for TX and OU. No matter how easy the road is for Texas or OU, it's hard to maintain a level of excellence or excitement when you're just playing scrubs all year round and know you have one game that probably decides the whole conference every year. It's reminiscent of just having the SWC all over again.

 

It's funny that *UT* staff are looking at the possible replacements, as opposed to Big12 staff. :grin:

 

....with your own network, of course.

this allows TX to keep it's own network AND STILL GET CONFERENCE MONEY.

 

If indeed Houston were to come into the Big 12 or whatever we are now, I would be purchasing season tickets to see BIG 12 play as it's only a 10 minute drive from my home. I wonder if others that went to Texas or any other BIG 12 school would do the same?

 

I'd love to check out BU and UT playing here locally.

 

Going back to the recruiting argument, one of the reasons to go to a big school is to play big opponents that would be big time national games. If you look at UT's conference schedule in this weakling 9 team conference vs A&M's SEC conference schedule, that gives A&M a new selling point for kids they are recruiting against UT.