I check out the other Big 12 team boards every once in a while and the talk on most of these boards lead to the discussion of how the Longhorns control everything. Apparently we have nixed any TV deals for the conference, control the refs, moved the Big 12 head quarter where we wanted etc. etc. My question is did we really do all this and do we wield power over everyone else in the Big 12?
Yes, and despite all the rumors the only conference change coming is a name change. Big XII is out, from now on it will be called Texas and its lil *******.
Yeah, if the conference HQ wasn't in Dallas, the Big XII North wouldn't suck... I'll tell you what happened. The Big 8 and the SWC merged and as Texas got better it highlighted the fact that was already in place in that the Big 8 was two good programs and a lot of mediocrity. The Big XII is exactly what it should be - Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska dominating, with A&M, Kansas State, OSU and Missouri occasionally threatening to break through. They're just using Texas as a scapegoat for their own failures.
Exactly, Prodigal. Nebraska's pissed off that we and the rest of the conference got them to compete on a level playing field and it took them until now to adjust. We're the biggest kid from the other neighborhood, so we're the easiest to blame. Waaaaahhhhh.
no, but the big 12 certainly helped texas come back to national forefront.... and mack of course. texas owes the big12 a bit of gratitude themselves.
Texas has been really ******* clever about having the Big 12 basketball tournament in KC 9 out of 14 times, and scheduling it to return there next year, too.
I actually do agree with notreally on this. The SWC was a millstone around our neck, and the program was in bad shape - conference championship notwithstanding - at the time of the merger. The best the conference could do nationally was an A&M team that roughed up the regional opponents and then looked overmatched when it got on the big stage. Texas' previous SWC champion team got de-pantsed the first time it played a top 5 caliber team. I don't think there's any question that the Big XII gave Texas more credibility - yes I know it sounds weird to say we lacked credibility, but if you sat through all that bad football in the '80s and '90s, you know what I mean. We went a long time not being competitive nationally, and the SWC wasn't going to help us change that. Having said that, I'd argue we've done as much for the Big XII as it's done for us.
UT has taken advantage of the broader stage the Big 12 presented it, nothing more, nothing less. The idea that somehow UT should bow down in reverent thanks to the other 11 teams for presenting that opportunity is amusing, at best. It was inevitable with the creation of the Big 12 that the power shift would be to the south side of the conference. It has the population, the bigger tv markets, the better weather, and a much larger and more skilled high school base than teams on the north side of the conference. If Nebraska's trying to play the blame game with Texas, they're missing the point. Big 12 athletics, by and large, is like real estate....location, location, location. Relocating to the Big 10 might help Mizzou a little bit...I don't see it doing much at all for Nebraska longterm.
What do you guys mean "how so"????? You think kids all over the country were buying Texas t-shirts when the SWC was still around? You don't think it helped , just a LITTLE bit, for young high school kids to see Vince Young make dramatic come from behind victories over Oklahoma State?? in the SWC, texas had 1...ONE national game a year - Oklahoma. Now they have the big12 title game, Nebraska and great blowout games with ranked teams like Mizzou. the big12 has helped Texas a LOT, and of course, Texas has probably helped the big12 even more. But the road does go both ways.
Texas hasn't ruined the Big 12. In fact, it's one of the few schools who have actually held up their end of the bargain. The rest of the bottom feeder whiny ******* in this conference are the problem. Nebraska and Mizzou could have great athletic programs. Instead all they do is cry about mean 'ol Texas. NU because Texas made the Huskers stop enrolling 14 morons at a time who had no business even graduating high school, much less carrying guns and playing for the Huskers (as well as put an end to their loop hole cheating walk on program). Mizzou hates us because - well they have to blame somebody for not winning a conference championship in ANYTHING. OU and A&M are their own self loathing breed of idiots who hate Texas more than they love themselves. However this will never change so they get a pass (and OU has actually been pretty damn good at things from time to time...Big Red Motors be damned). CU never wanted in the Big 12 and is always waiting to get stoned in Cali with the rest of the Pac 10. Baylor will always suck in any conference and Tech does what Tech does - play spoiler and act tough, but in the big picture, they are very mediocre in everything...at best. The rest of the almost ag schools in **** hole towns around the conference have programs and teams who act like they are ag schools from **** hole towns, so who can blame them for sucking at everything? The fact is people outside of Texas typically don't like Texans. Sorry Bears, Ags, and Raiders- but at the moment UT represents the state of Texas and gets the brunt of the "I hate Texans" ********. If these idiots in this conference could stop crying for once and actually try to be good at more than one thing then maybe, just maybe this conference wouldn't suck so bad.
thank god for some rational hornfans. if you think the big12 didn't help texas, then i don't know what to say to you. did texas help the big12, you bet your ***.... but it certainly goes both ways.
Did Texas benefit from joinging the Big XII, unquestionably yes. The SWC was the walking dead and Texas was leaking money and prestige for years. But the Big XII wouldnt exist without Texas so whatever benefit Texas has gotten has been paid back twice over. The problem right now is that some schools (I am looking at you Mizzou and NU) would rather blame someone else for their own shortcomings and its easier to say oh Texas is mean then admit that your own actions put you in the position you are in. Nebraska fired a coach who won 9 games and relaced him with a certifiable moron who they had to fire shortly thereafter. NU sold its soul in firing Solich and now wants absolution by way of blaming Texas for their own mistakes. Mizzou wants to play at athletics without any real commitment and then complains when they win nothing ever in anything. Look in the mirror folks because you will be the Big Ten's bottom dwellers.
I'm generally not the orange sunshine pumper, but in this situation, I have to admit that our badassedness does have some part in "killing" the conference, if you want to put it that way. When the cards are laid down on the table and only speculative opinions are allowed, it's obvious that the Big 8 thought that it would "control" the Texas schools, but as soon as the debacles like the 1996/98 football conference championship games, and the first basketball tourney outside of KC happened, the North teams figured out really quick that they weren't in charge.
Good Post OSR... Nebraska fans have blamed UT for everything they could think of but never once do they mention that they had not one vote from their fellow Big 8 members supporting NU. Do you think that maybe all those 82-14 football games came back to bite NU in the butt?
nu is in some ways like aggy who place blame when things don't go their way. nu won 1 nc title while in the big 12 and really michigan should have been the true champion that year. The big 8 was a joke with only 2 good teams most years. Of course nu isn't going to have the same success in a real conference and if they join the big 10 they would fare even worse. The north knows it can't compete right now and they feel they have to blame somebody for it.
Horns11 is right about one thing. The Big 8 schools thought they could assure their survival by hooking up with some big market schools. What they didn't bank on was waking up a sleeping giant.
I really don't get the sentiment that the conference sucked so bad. Was the SEC better? Unfortunately, yes. But which other conference was better than the Big 12? None. Every conference has their Baylors, Vanderbuilts, Illinois, Wash States, etc.
