Big 12 Doomsday Scenariosl

[DarthGrumpy]

At the end of the season, the Big 12 had two teams ranked in the top 6 (I think). A victory by either team over a top 6 opponent would have likely put the victor into the playoffs.

Last season, the perceived weakest team was Florida St, which was the defending national champ, undefeated, and they won their Conference Championship. No way they were being left out. A 1 loss, conference champion SEC can't be left out either because 'everyone' knows the SEC is the most powerful college football conference in history, cough, cough. Ditto for a 1 loss conference champion from the B1G, which may not be the best football conference right now; but, is the most influential conference with a lot of history on their side. TCU had 1 loss to Baylor; but only 2 marquee wins over Texas and Oklahoma, who both had off seasons. Baylor lost to WVU and ditto for marquee wins as TCU. Oregon lost to a decent Arizona team (call it even with Baylor's loss to WVU); but also beat Michigan St (2 losses, beats Baylor), UCLA (3 losses) and wins its conference champion. Have to give it to Oregon.

I can also see this continuing going forward, too. Without a conference champion, teams from the XII have to 1) go undefeated, 2) get good seasons from the big 2 (Texas & Oklahoma), 3) some in the upper tier (Baylor, TCU, OK St, WVU) to make noise and 4) schedule serious non-conference games in order to make-up for the lack of a conference title game (Baylor - SMU, N'western St, Buffalo; TCU - Samford, SMU; OK - Tenn good, LA Tech & Tulsa, not good; Texas - was OK in 2014 w/ 2 good games w/ BYU & UCLA mixed with N Texas). Otherwise, they are going to be on the outside looking in.

 

[whaler11]

All the Big 12 needed last year to make the playoff was for Georgia Tech to score 3 more points in the ACC championship.

There are four spots and they picked the teams with the four best resumes. Any one of about a dozen games going a different way and the Big 12 has a team in the playoffs.

 

[amory]

The only consolation as a UConn fan is eventually the majority of this country is just going to stop giving a crap.

It's no fun anymore.

 

[pepband99]

All the Big 12 needed last year to make the playoff was for Georgia Tech to score 3 more points in the ACC championship.

There are four spots and they picked the teams with the four best resumes. Any one of about a dozen games going a different way and the Big 12 has a team in the playoffs.

Indeed. Most of the whining was around the difference between the prior week and final playoff rankings, ie how TCU/Baylor got "jumped". All noise.

 

[itgoeslike]

All the Big 12 needed last year to make the playoff was for Georgia Tech to score 3 more points in the ACC championship.

There are four spots and they picked the teams with the four best resumes. Any one of about a dozen games going a different way and the Big 12 has a team in the playoffs.

If Baylor chalked up a win against TCU or TCU a win against Baylor that would improve the resume, especially against an OSU or FSU loss.

 

[itgoeslike]

The only consolation as a UConn fan is eventually the majority of this country is just going to stop giving a crap.

It's no fun anymore.

CR has ruined it for many, including for some fans in p5 conferences. I no longer visit ESPN.com. I watch a lot less ESPN. The reality is that I don't have time (or desire) to watch a bunch of different sports events outside of UConn and major events (says the guy with a 1,000 posts). I currently get everything when it comes to sports, but I'm seriously considering cutting the cord and getting my entertainment via my a combination of my smart HDTV's, sling, chromecast, roku, hulu, etc. My daughter doesn't watch cable, all she needs is a wifi connection for (too many) hours of entertainment. My wife is stuck to her iPad when she is not watching the news or Netflix. Aside from sports, we don't need to watch anything when it airs. We DVR most everything. I even watch half my sports on delay due to conflicts. I would gladly pay $50/month for complete UConn sports access. Heck, I was paying $10/month for a handful of UConn hockey and baseball games. Now I'm just rambling. . .

 

[Exit 4]

CR has ruined it for many, including for some fans in p5 conferences. I no longer visit ESPN.com. I watch a lot less ESPN.

I agree with the start of your ramble. ICR has ruined my college sports fun. I watch more NHL now and never watch ESPN because of their role in CR. I also find ESPN to be so full of itself its absurd (never giving credit to other media outlets, never permitting their people to visit other media outlets, etc).

In my office, CR has done zero to enhance interest. All those apathetic non p5 grads have become even more lost watching college sports after the disintegration of the BigEast. Yes, the BigEast was a mess, but in the NYC area, with its mix of catholic, state schools and whatever, it kept people interested. Now this area is suppose to just watch Rutty and Syracuse or adopt an SEC team to have fun. Guess what, neither is happening. Instead we are finding other things to do.

 

[itgoeslike]

I agree with the start of your ramble. ICR has ruined my college sports fun. I watch more NHL now and never watch ESPN because of their role in CR. I also find ESPN to be so full of itself its absurd (never giving credit to other media outlets, never permitting their people to visit other media outlets, etc).

In my office, CR has done zero to enhance interest. All those apathetic non p5 grads have become even more lost watching college sports after the disintegration of the BigEast. Yes, the BigEast was a mess, but in the NYC area, with its mix of catholic, state schools and whatever, it kept people interested. Now this area is suppose to just watch Rutty and Syracuse or adopt an SEC team to have fun. Guess what, neither is happening. Instead we are finding other things to do.

Doing without and ultimately not missing it is the fire that ESPN is playing with.*

*ESPN you know what to do to reverse this. Get it done.

 

[sportsart]

In 50 years collegiate sports may not exist at all. There's no way to know.

College football CR has to be still going in 50 years.

Fishy needs college funds
for his great grand children.

 

[OkaForPrez]

@itgoeslike cut 6 months ago, don't miss anything. I watch a lot of soccer on Spanish tv over the air, use sling for ESPN, and Netflix most of my non sports content. I will miss red zone in the fall, but that's why you have friends.

 

[amory]

If the big12 dies we may as well shut this board down because we're stuck where we are, permanently

The only positive I could see is that the AAC at the very least wouldn't be getting any worse, cincy and ucf are likely stuck here too

 

[uconnphil2016]

Maybe I'm off the mark, but I think the Big 12 imploding is UConns best case scenario outside of an improbable immediate invite to the big ten. If the big 12 implodes, we at WORST add teams like Texas Tech, Baylor, Iowa State in Tha American which would drastically improve our level of play. If we avoid the worst, we end up in the Big Ten or ACC as conferences enter into the next phase of expansion. We kind of need the Big 12 to implode. We are fooling ourselves to think we're a viable Big 12 candidate and even if we were, why join the Big 12 when its death is imminent anyhow? Why be the odd man out AGAIN after UT and OU jolt? Not sure that's a great idea.

 

[pj]

I agree. If the B12 dissolves then the P4 will need to expand in order for the college athletics world to have national legitimacy and avoid inbreeding/overexposure of a few teams, plus antitrust risk. 4 x 16 = 64 teams is not enough, especially if the Pac stays at 12 which would make sense meaning only 60 teams. Expansion to 4x20 = 80 teams would do it. UConn would surely be in, as we're a top 60 athletic department.

The exception would be if in order to dissolve the B12, the P4 have to make space for all the weak B12 teams. If that happens, there might be little appetite to continue expanding.

 

[huskymedic]

If the big 12 implodes, we at WORST add teams like Texas Tech, Baylor, Iowa State in Tha American which would drastically improve our level of play.

Big assumption that they wouldn't consider re-constituting in the MWC w/ a west/mid-west focus.

 

[uconnphil2016]

Big assumption that they wouldn't consider re-constituting in the MWC w/ a west/mid-west focus.

I see where you're coming from and there definitely is a worse scenario than my imagined worse case scenario. with that being said, I'd still find it hard to believe that the leftovers of the Big 12 and top-tier members of the MWC (Boise and Colorado St) would prefer to continue playing with the likes of Wyoming, New Mexico, etc. as opposed to cherry picking the top teams in the AAC (UCF, Cincinnati, UConn, Houston, SMU) and creating an entirely new quasi P5 conference. I imagine it would look something like this:

East
-Connecticut
-WVU
-UCF
-Cincinnati
-Iowa St

West
-SMU
-Houston
-Texas Tech
-Baylor (if they can't find another conference)
-Colorado St.

Probably forgetting others because I am heading out to dinner with my girlfriend and on the move, but you get the idea.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I see where you're coming from and there definitely is a worse scenario than my imagined worse case scenario. with that being said, I'd still find it hard to believe that the leftovers of the Big 12 and top-tier members of the MWC (Boise and Colorado St) would prefer to continue playing with the likes of Wyoming, New Mexico, etc. as opposed to cherry picking the top teams in the AAC (UCF, Cincinnati, UConn, Houston, SMU) and creating an entirely new quasi P5 conference. I imagine it would look something like this:

East
-Connecticut
-WVU
-UCF
-Cincinnati
-Iowa St

West
-SMU
-Houston
-Texas Tech
-Baylor (if they can't find another conference)
-Colorado St.

Probably forgetting others because I am heading out to dinner with my girlfriend and on the move, but you get the idea.

The only thing keeping the football program in the AAC is the possibility of moving it to a P5 league. When that door is finally closed forever, there will be changes.

 

[CoastAtlantic]

West
Iowa State
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
Baylor
TCU
Texas Tech

East
West Virginia
Cincinnati
Connecticut
East Carolina
Central Florida
South Florida

Pretty decent league, likely above the MWC. West Virginia finally gets eastern neighbors, even if somewhat diminished. NBC/Comcast would make a run at the TV contract should Fox/Disney drop them. BYU and Boise State would be better off as independents.

 

[SonsOfNutmeg]

No more indepenents (including Notre Dame!) make everyone join a conference at least for FB... If the Big XII blows up. Do 8 conferences of 16 teams each.

New Conference-

Northeast Division:
UConn
Army*
Temple
Cincinnati
Navy

Southeast Division:
East Carolina
Memphis
Tulane
Central Florida
South Florida

West Division:
Kansas State*
Iowa State*
Oklahoma State*
TCU*
Texas Tech*

 

[31GuardTrap]

No more indepenents (including Notre Dame!) make everyone join a conference at least for FB... If the Big XII blows up. Do 8 conferences of 16 teams each.

New Conference-

Northeast Division:
UConn
Army*
Temple
Cincinnati
Navy

Southeast Division:
East Carolina
Memphis
Tulane
Central Florida
South Florida

West Division:
Kansas State*
Iowa State*
Oklahoma State*
TCU*
Texas Tech*

Did you demote SMU & Houston & Tulsa?

 

[Huskybite]

An example of the growing concern in Texas (if you are a smaller private school) of the doomsday scenario:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/co...s/20100611-Economist-Texas-will-lose-8396.ece

 

[SAMCRO]

That article is from 2010, back when the P12 was rumored to be grabbing UT, TT, OU, and OSU. Baylor was very vocal back then about suing if they were left behind.