The PAC 12 (and the B1G) Weigh In

KU was the school of Willie Ray Smith, Jr, perhaps the most important HS player from Texas at the time he graduated from Charleton Pollard & Gale Sayers roommate. Young people today have no idea how much they owe him and his dad.

Beaumont should name that monument to graft & greed after coach and put a statue the size of Sam Houston's on I-10 to Willie Ray, Sr.

 

RIP

Willie Ray "Beav" Smith Jr. Obituary (1943 - 2021) The Beaumont Enterprise

 

Didn't they just have one good year, came crashing back after the Orange bowl year, and he get justifiably fired for anger management issues?

 

Often, new schools are added to a conference in pairs. I don't know if ISU will get an invite to the B1G or not, that is if something comes out of these recent KU rumors. ISU is an AAU member (only the B1G seems to care, but unless you're Notre Dame, they do indeed seem to care).

 

Or was it, rather, overly sensitive guys crying to the admin about their big bad coach who yelled at them...

Similar thing to Leach at Texas Tech, although being Leach he added something of a comic element to it by making young Mr. James stand inside a conex box (not shut/super hot or anything like that).

 

Mangino's antics included screaming at a student in charge of enforcing parking around the athletic department, who ticketed him for being in a no-parking zone.

Look, I can't imagine the pressure of being a college football coach. It's why they work 100 hour weeks to try to do it all, then have all that work go down the drain because an 18 year old drops a ball or such.

That said, they all desperately want those jobs, and the pressure goes with the job. If you're in a position of leadership, you must always act like a leader. Sometimes that means yelling at players when they screw up. But you always need to be in control, and in charge. Mangino wasn't at KU.

 

I doubt he said or did anything worse, or even as rough, as Woody Hayes did with his players. Since we're talking Big 10.

 

Uhh, since Woody was fired for grabbing a player (on the other team!), might not be the best comparision!

 

Ha! Good one!

But Hayes was pretty rough with his own guys too. They weren't exactly sensitive types.


Tatum



Gradishar

 

Wasn't so much Hayes grabbed the Clemson player, but that he hit him with his fist

 

Bear in mind in all this KU talk, there are three kinds of suns in Kansas: sunshine, sunflowers, and sons-a-b!tches.

 

Buckeye Scoop and other B1G sites are speculating very positively on KU:

Great basketball
Willing to put in big $$$ into their football (they’re gonna need it)
AAU and generally good academics
Cultural fit works well for the Western Div B1G
KU rumored to be aggressively looking around more so than the typical left-behind Big 12 schools
KU wants into the B1G, not the PAC (if they had the choice)
Positive vibes now strengthening in B1G country towards KU
No longer just crazy speculation—a real possibility

plus, get this, as a bonus they supposedly get a piece of the Denver media market because Western Kansas is considered part of the Denver cable market. ??? OK, sure…

 

Some more recent buzz. As with all B1G / PAC expansion rumors, for now they are just that: rumors (or rumours when discussing within the realm of the United Kingdom).

--Kansas talk is real, but it's all Kansas right now presenting their case. Kansas is auditioning, the B1G is acting open, and willing to discuss/entertain pitches, but non-committal for now.

--Denver is part of the Kansas tv market, odd as that sounds, which may devalue Colorado's importance

--The BIG12/PAC12 meeting may not have had more substance than the leaders of the two Conference showing the Conference members they are on the job, however much that can mean

--The new FOX/BIG10 contract in the works has HUGE $$! HUGE!

one of the obvious drivers of this whole discussion

--Those huge $$ might be looking very good to USC, Washington, and Oregon, as it could potentially be ~2 times what they make now in their current PAC12 deal

--it's clearer now, USC is determined leave the PAC12

--USC is still looking for one team, just one at the moment, to go with them, Arizona could even be the team
[Chop's editorial comment: this is both interesting and surprising to me. I would think if USC could bring just 1 team with it, it would be Stanford or UCLA (possible state politics issue with the Bruins though). Of the Arizona schools, while I like U. of Arizona better, Arizona State is a huge and growing university, in a much bigger market. Maybe it's an AAU thing? Also, maybe USC is looking to dominate Arizona HS recruiting, like it dominates So. California. Arizona is an above-average HS football state and it's growing.]

--There was no mention of Oregon St, Washington St, and Arizona St in all this


BIG10 expansion talk: a few update details.... | mgoblog

 

The B1G ($54M) was already 2x payout of the Pac 12 ($24M) from 2019-2020 academic year. With a new FOX contract for the B1G expect that gap to widen.

I too am surprised that Arizona would be USC's chosen partner. That may be a sign that the Pac12 schools are less open to abandoning their regional partners, whether due to State politics or another reason.

The money difference though is too big for Washington/Oregon and a few others to ignore. Will their desire to save their smaller sister colleges (eg. Washington/Washington St) carry more weight than the need for more $$? Unlike the Big 12, the Pac 12 has given a lot of weight to these traditional rivalries. They won't quickly abandon them outright for a big paycheck. There will certainly be lots of deliberation and exhaustion of all the options to save their lesser partners.

My bet is that the $$ is still too much to ignore. USC can't go anywhere without at least 1 partner and probably needs 3-5 partners from the Pac 12 to be feasible.

 

The wild card would be a partnership of USC/ND creating their own conference. Won't happen, but makes for fun speculation.

Now, if USC, ND, Texas & OU had formed a new conference with some pick and choose, that would have been fun to watch the SEC scramble.

How long will Stanford sit idly by before they start doing some independent thinking. USC & Stanford would make a very attractive duo.

 

ND joins either the ACC or B1G if they fully join a conference. Of course, they have a sweetheart deal like Texas with LHN in that they have their cake and get to eat it too (NBC deal + ACC membership). The B1G is very egalitarian in how it manages $$ so like UT and the SEC, ND would have to give up their "special" deal with NBC.

I don't get the appeal of Arizona. If USC is trying to bring them along as a partner they don't have near as much leverage as others in the Pac 12. I still think they can't join an Eastern conference without multiple teams joining them for non-revenue sport travel reasons.

 

Re: Arizona

Perhaps USC and the B1G want exposure to another state besides just California. AZ has great basketball and their football recruiting is something USC would surely like. Maybe the B1G’s AAU hangup is also in play.

Just checked: U of Arizona is AAU; Arizona State is Not.

 

SH,

I agree with you that the Arizona schools bring little to the table. I see only Stanford as a USC partner, but not sure they want to go that route. If Cal gave up athletics it would sure solve the vast majority of the PAC's problems.

 

The self self-importance of USC is off the chart. In their one-track minds every player in the country secretly wants to lay on the beach, date the SoCal blonds and be a Trojan.

Don't put any singleton move past them.

 

As a Pac 10 alum (UW) I'm very familiar with the USC arrogance. Notre Dame has the benefit of being CST timezone. Any direction they go is at best 2hrs difference and the West Coast trips the exception. In most cases they stay in the time zone or move 1. USC would be talking 3 time zone trips, regularly. It would be academic suicide for any players and even coaching staffs would be ready to walk, I'd imagine. They'd be at a huge disadvantage nearly all the time.

 

I didn't realize USC was or had ever been concerned about academics for athletes.

 

Gotta keep up appearances. I'd expect that they care as much as any other program with Top 10 football aspirations.

 

USC = SMU located in the South Central LA hood, with an outstanding football program. Second only to Notre Dame as the media darling (of course, we’re surely top 5 in that category…).

 

USC can buy and sell SMU with their pocket change. No way you can compare alumni bases and their worth.

 

You beat me to it.

 

South Bend, Indiana is in the Eastern Time Zone.

- Mike

 

I sit corrected.

 

If I recall correctly, Matt Leinhart took a dancing class for his last semester - does that count for academics?

 

It doubled his total number of hours credit from 3 to 6

 

The PAC is now saying they’re looking to expand.