Everything Is Bigger in Texas (Except the Big 12)

Texas move helps Big 12 survive
ESPN.com news services

The Big 12 is alive and kicking.

The University of Texas on Monday said it was staying in the Big 12, followed moments later by pledges from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M to remain in a league that had seemed to be falling apart last week when Nebraska (Big Ten) and Colorado (Pac-10) decided to leave over the next two years.

The Texas announcement came shortly after Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott confirmed that Texas had declined an invitation to become the 12th member of his conference.

"University of Texas President Bill Powers has informed us that the 10 remaining schools in the Big 12 Conference intend to stay together," Scott said in a statement. "We are excited about the future of the Pac-10 Conference and we will continue to evaluate future expansion opportunities under the guidelines previously set forth by our Presidents and Chancellors."

Well as far as the Big 12 front of the Conference Expansion Wars go, the battle is over. Consider this college football's Version of V-E Day. Now there's just the issue of adding a team to the Pac 10 (probably Utah) and the Big Ten continuing to court Notre Dame (save the SEC going forth on adding Florida State, Miami or Virginia Tech, but that's a long shot.)

You'd have to be blind not to see who benefitted the most here. Everyone gets more money but Texas gets the most. Not to mention they can create their own TV network that will operate outside the proposed Big 12 Network (of course Dann Beebe still has to explain where that TV money is going to come from.) The North teams that remain no longer get a weak division and inevitably Texas and OU will play for the Conference Title every year in the Cotton Bowl. But what do I care? Nebraska isn't there for UT to kick around anymore. So if this is what makes you all happy then get ass after it.

But as one last parting shot I'd lick to include College Football News.com's Barrett Sallee's analysis of the Big 12 decision.

"Eliminate Nebraska: Check.

Eliminate Colorado: Check.

Eliminate Big 12 Championship Game, a game in which we came within an eyelash of losing last year: Check.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the University of Texas Conference.

When the Big 12 lost Colorado and Nebraska last week, the conference was on life support. Apparently that's right where Texas wanted it to be. UT manipulated this entire realignment situation to get more money while playing weaker competition.

Mission accomplished.

The resurrection of the Big 12 is nothing more than a stay of execution for the embattled conference. Sure, the conference higher-ups will tell you that it's in the best interest of the league to continue on as a 10-team conference. They'd be wrong. The shift of power to the south -- which is what ultimately sent Colorado and Nebraska packing -- only becomes amplified with this 11th hour deal. In this new look Big 12, the winner of the Red River shootout between Texas and Oklahoma will essentially have a cake walk to the BCS Championship Game. Something tells me that's not going to go over well in the long run.

Texas' manipulation of the rest of the Big 12 is baffling, but the big picture is even more frustrating. College football took two steps toward the era of the super-conference last week. Sure, it wouldn't be a playoff, but it'd be a nice substitute. After all, we may not settle it on the field, but eventually, the major players would be on equal footing.

Monday evening, it took four steps back.

With this new Big 12 set-up, we are farther away from a college football playoff than we've been since the pre-Bowl Coalition days. Do you think that the other conferences are going to allow a playoff to exist when they're not playing on equal ground? I don't.

Texas gets TV money. Texas gets its TV network. Texas will probably get a lot of Big 12 championships too. But it made a lot of enemies in the process. Hope it was worth it."

By the way I could care less about us not getting a playoff but I agree with everything he wrote. For opinions not quite as anti-Texas as Sallee's and mine click here for the full column.