Good news. The good news is that I finally closed on my house yesterday. This is good news for you because I hopefully won't be mailing DTN in next week. The other good news is that I had a blowout on one of my tires on the way to court yesterday. The reason this is good news is that I didn't fly off the road, I called my client, he picked me up, the hearing went well and had a good friend (shout-out Brandon) help me change the tire after the hearing.
I will have open threads up on Saturday for anyone that wants to comment on games from this
Unfortunately, this morning's links are all related to conference realignment. With the bye week, expect there to be little news for the next couple of days.
T. Boone Pickens Predicts Big 12 Survival, Equal Revenue Sharing - From Our Editors - SBNation.com
I missed Pickens talking last night, but Oklahoma State's mega-booster, T. Boone Pickens, said that the Big 12 would be saved and that there will be equal revenue sharing:
Equal revenue sharing, says Pickens, who knows some things about revenue. He quickly laid out a system that would allow Texas to keep its Longhorn Network, but otherwise spread money evenly throughout the conference, citing the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 as potential models.
Oklahoma State in the Pac-12 could be huge for Pickens' program, but it's growing just fine in the Big 12. It's not necessarily in Pickens' best interest for the school to stay in the Big 12 if the Pac-12 is calling, though, so his comments could be read more as an actual recommendation than as Bayloresque spin.
Baby steps. Obviously, this isn't official or anything like that, but it's something. And it's a start in the right direction. It stinks that UT wants to keep it's 3rd tier rights (which is the Longhorn Network), but I have a hard time blaming them for being able to do so. I'd rather have a conference network rather than each university having their own "network", but if this keeps the Big 12 together and doesn't force Texas Tech to a non-AQ conference, then I think I can live with that. I think.
Stall in Realignment Process Gives Big 12 Hope - NYTimes.com
NYT's Pete Thamel gives some thought that the Big 12 will maybe survive:
"The general feeling right now is we want to do everything that we can to keep the Big 12 together in as close a form as we can to the current configuration," a high-ranking official at a Big 12 university said. "We need stability and a longer-term commitment from the big guys so we can become 12 again down the road."
UT independence fraught with peril
Statesman's Kirk Bohls writes that UT understands the problems with becoming an independent, which is that they lose any money a conference would provide and have to rely on their own network as well as the headaches of scheduling the Olympic sports. Here's Bohls:
Ego and power.
Texas does not want to concede either. It doesn't want to give up its precious Longhorn Network, nor does it want its clout diminished by joining another established conference where it won't have as big a say.
By clinging to their new toy — a valuable one, at that — and flaunting it, and insisting on uneven revenue sharing, the Longhorns have alienated the rest of the conference, created unrest and acrimony, and thrown their weight around so much that schools in their own league see them as a bully.
Yes, they are the Joneses.
But if this keeps up, how long is it before Texas becomes the most hated school in America?
Does President William Powers really want that image? Does business partner ESPN want that? Has ESPN's image taken a blow because it has cozied up to one school so much and become a major factor in the breakup of an entire conference?
When I asked a Texas administrator its preference on Thursday, spokesman Nick Voinis said, "Big 12, Big 12, Big 12. The Big 12's our priority."
Big 12’s 'forgotten five' have clout - KansasCity.com
Kerkoff writes that he thinks the forgotten five (Baylor, Iowa St., Missouri, Kansas and Kansas State) now have a voice:
Of course, we think of the Big 12 as dysfunctional family now. Just think of schools getting after each other for killing athletic ambitions. And that’s just at the presidents’ meetings.
But the upshot from the latest development is everybody in the Big 12 has a stake — and now a voice.
It’s taken legal threats, bitterness and the postponement of a party — "We are being held hostage right now," was Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin’s reaction to not getting to wear a party hat — to give the Big 12 something it has never had.
Aggies hope SEC withdraws condition - San Antonio Express-News
Zwerneman writes that although there are problems with Baylor's threats, his sources tell him that the Aggies will be in the SEC by 2012:
One A&M insider Thursday night remained confident that the SEC eventually will take that minimal risk, should this drag on, with the idea that adding the Texas market is a bigger plus than the minus of a frivolous Baylor lawsuit. Three A&M insiders said Thursday a resolution might come as soon as today, or this process might drag on for the next few weeks — though A&M would still wind up in the SEC by 2012.