GAME DAY! WOOT! | Finally, it's game day. To get you in the mood, if you're not in Lubbock, check out new photos from Totally Texas Tech's TTURed for Will Rogers and Soapsuds being wrapped for the first time this season.
PREVIEWS GALORE | The LAJ has a handful of articles previewing the 2011 season: offense by position, defense by position, profile of Chad Glasgow, ready to take next step under Tuberville, and game day match ups against Texas St. If you're like me, you've carved out the entire day to do nothing except read about and watch college football, so no blockquotes on this stuff. RP.com's Travis Cram has 3 things to watch. DMN's Mike Graham writes that RT Mickey Okafor and DT Donald Langley are your captains for tonight's game.
And to keep track of the national games, check out SB Nation's Sean Keely College Football Buffet.
CONFERENCE IMPLOSION | Per NewsOK's Travis Haney, Oklahoma President David Boren has poured gasoline on the Big 12 (and I mean this in the most complimentary way as I really don't want to see it survive):
"I’ll just put it this way: I think we’ve been ever since we became a member of this conference, we’re a very influential member of the conference. I think we remain a very influential member of the conference. I’ll just put it that way. Influential not only in this conference, but influential in athletics across the country. It’s a tribute to the strength of this program. I’ll put it this way: I don’t think there’s any chance OU’s going to end up being a wallflower."
Boren goes on to say that OU is obviously looking at all of their options and the last part, about not being a wallflower, again I think is indicative of the situation around Texas, in that OU will not let UT dictate what happens to the Sooners.
CBSSports Dennis Dodds writes that the Pac-12 desperately want OU and UT and are willing to take Oklahoma St. and Texas Tech along for the ride. Pacific Takes' Avinash Kunnath has a link from the San Jose Mercury News' John Wilner:
Yes, there have been discussions between the Pac-12 and Texas and Oklahoma, according to sources.
Whether that means Larry Scott and UT athletic director DeLoss Dodds have spoken directly, I cannot confirm.
But whether it’s Scott, deputy commish Kevin Weiberg (who used to run the Big 12) or one of the league’s media consultants on one end of the phone … and Dodds, Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione or ESPN officials on the other … the lines of communication are open.
Does that name, Kevin Weiberg sound familiar? It should, he was one of the candidates for the Texas Tech athletic director position and was strangely ruled out (I think) because of a possible conflict of interest (perhaps it was Beebe). I wish I could remember this a bit better, but on numerous levels, I'm glad that Texas Tech reached out to Weiberg and I would think that there's opportunity for dialogue.
And OB.com's Chip Brown (our favorite UT spokesperson) writes that there's a chance:
When I texted a key source close to Texas Friday night if the Longhorns were preparing to head to the Pac-12 with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, the source texted back, "Leaning that way." The source later said there was a "50 to 60 percent" chance those schools would end up in the Pac-12.
Any move by Texas to the Pac-12 would not be an easy one. First, there is the issue of the Longhorn Network. No schools in the Pac-12 are allowed to have their own network. Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott has set up a series of regional networks that partner two schools together to share revenue from third-tier rights with each other and with the Pac-12.
So Texas' Longhorn Network, which launched on Aug. 26 and still can't even be seen by most of the Lone Star State, would likely have to be turned into one of the Pac-12's regional networks (and most likely partner with Texas Tech).
And that could mean Texas basically tearing up the 20-year, $300 million deal it just inked with ESPN and giving up its riches.
I said this yesterday in the comments and I'll say it again. I'm not going to get my hopes up and think that this is even close to being a done deal or that Texas Tech going to the Pac-12 (it sounds so dreamy) is anything more than a random opportunity. Last year, Chip Brown let it be know that UT, OU, OSU and TTU were all going to the Pac-12 and it was a done deal. Little did we know, this was merely a power play and Brown was most likely the pawn to force the remaining Big 12 schools to give the big boys in the conference everything they wanted. I have an eerily similar feeling and I don't like it.#