Tim Fitzgerald, commentary
GoPowercat.com Publisher
Talk about it in Wabash Station
Monday may well be doomsday for the Big 12 Conference, if not college athletics as we know it. Left dangling in a cloud of uncertainty are universities such as Kansas State, but no matter what happens Monday, it finally marks the beginning of a phase of key choices for the leaders of K-State and its athletic department.
When the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma Boards of Reagents meet Monday, they will help decide each of their schools conference affiliations for years to come. Will these schools head to the Pac-12 Conference or choose to stay in the Big 12? Those decisions, whether Oklahoma goes westward (with little brother Oklahoma State skipping behind in tow) with or without Texas (and its lucky cousin Texas Tech) will be the next dominoes to fall or stand in this tiresome game of conference realignment.
If Texas does depart the Big 12, it will almost certainly abandon its Longhorn Network, admitting that it was a failure, and entering into the Pac 12's convoluted TV package.
The Longhorn Network has been the very sticking point for schools such as Texas A&M, which still plans to head to the SEC, and Oklahoma. They are the very financial kingpins who helped set up rules in the Big 12 that created uneven television revenue sharing. Now they are upset because Texas has more. The irony is rich and painted in greed.
Greed, after all, is what this is all about. Texas was given a 15-year, $300 million contract by ESPN for rights to the Longhorn Network. It appears to be a giant miscalculation by UT and ESPN. Signal carriers are simply not willing to pay the bill on that contract.
The question that hovers over this seems obvious to everyone except, sadly, the people making the decisions in this matter.
If Texas is willing to give up the Longhorn Network to move to the Pac-16, why wouldn't Texas give up the Longhorn Network in its current state to help save the Big 12?
Jonathan Knight
Kansas State athletics may soon enter a new world with conference realignment.
If Texas will make that concession -- evolving LHN into a Big 12 Network -- then the Big 12, at least in some form, will survive. That decision would likely keep the Oklahoma schools in the fold and may even bring A&M to its senses, although that school's academic leaders seem too busy learning all of the fight songs of their new SEC brethren to bother with what's best for their fans, athletes and A&M's athletic future.
The news for K-State, though, is no matter what is decided in boardrooms in Oklahoma and Texas, K-State's leaders will finally be facing some choices. For a school that hasn't held many cards so far in this rush to realignment, at least that sliver of control is comforting.
The problem is, the choices may not be great, but at least they are choices.
There are so many possible paths, spelling out all of the alternatives is dizzying. Down to 10 schools at the start of this athletic season, the more schools out of the Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech grouping that the Big 12 can keep a grip on, the better for K-State and the others left behind.
No matter what, the 10-school bill of goods sold to the members and the conference's fans by commissioner Dan Beebe is not survivable. This conference needs to get to 12, if not 16 schools, as soon as possible. That can likely only happen by hitting the reset button with a reformed conference that includes new leadership and likely a new name.
With the ACC's announcement of Pittsburgh and Syracuse as new members -- it sounds as if UConn and Rutgers will likely follow their fellow Big East members into a new 16-school ACC -- that likely means the Big East, at least as a football conference, is the first loser in conference realignment Armageddon.
That leaves Big East members Louisville, Cincinnati, West Virginia, South Florida and pending member TCU without a viable football home. West Virginia apparently tops the SEC's wish list as the 14th member to balance out A&M, so it too may have a home.
Getting seasick yet? Well, we're only beginning.
Once the Big 12 knows what schools remain in its fold, then it can start searching for new members. The question becomes how will the Pac-12 and Big 10 react to the ACC and SEC expanding? And will the SEC push to 16?
The media-driven premise in conference expansion is that it will end with four 16-school conferences. With strong leadership, the remnants of the Big 12 can change that and form another conference with schools that are currently at the BCS level and schools that probably deserve such status.
Will it be a great conference? Possibly no (at least until the revenue of such a league lifts the members' collective ships), but by being inclusive instead of exclusive, a potential Big 16 could use the revenue from the likely string of lawsuits that will surely follow the destruction of the Big East and maybe of the old Big 12 to help build something survivable.
At some point it becomes about best-case scenarios and fighting for survival. K-State and other Big 12 schools are nearing that step in this ugly process.
Out of the Big 12/Big East ruins of K-State, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa State, Baylor, Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida and TCU comes at least parts of a foundation. The more of the other five Big 12 schools that don't abandon the league, the better the strength of a new conference. Add in a selection from a pool of schools such as Central Florida, Memphis, Houston, SMU, Air Force, BYU, Boise State, New Mexico, San Diego State, etc., and there are enough pieces to form an acceptable conference.
The new conference could be a 16-school/four-pod alliance stretching through all four time zones, or a 12-school league consolidated closer to the current Big 12's footprint. What it will be is something. There is value in a TV contract that brings together proven and emerging programs and allows TV programmers to schedule games from early morning to late at night. It may not be as good as the current situation, but it could be the best of future situations.
This "something" may be unattractive to some, but they can pout, complain and dislike it all they want. The brutal truth may be that once Kansas State and other schools finally get to make some decisions, reality may have limited those choices, but not so much that it doesn't mean those schools still won't compete at the BCS level.
This, after all, is soon to become about survival for Kansas State and other schools left out of the realignment shuffle. The best news for fans of K-State and other schools is it still appears that they will indeed survive this hideous money grab.
