Friday Five: Tortured Fan Bases

BamaJama17

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Sep 17, 2006
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I'm not sure Nebraska in the SEC would work either. They are so far away.

If you study the history of the Big 12 formation, it's clear that it was heavily manipulated by Texas. They purposely left the lower rung of the SWC hanging out to dry, and halfway conspired with Arkansas for them to join the SEC by themselves in 1991 in order to take any heat off of Texas for the dissolution of the SWC. With Arkansas gone, Texas could then start complaining that the SWC was no longer viable and that they had to move on, which ultimately happened in 1996.

The Big 12 was formed because of tv rights. Neither the SWC nor the Big 8 commanded enough market share on their own. I do think a 16 team super conference was discussed, which would have combined both conferences in full, but Texas wanted nothing to do with the smaller private schools in their own state anymore (Rice, SMU, TCU, and Houston). (I realize Houston isn't small nor private but they were a relatively recent addition to the SWC, that Texas didn't really care for). So, the Big 12 was somewhat of a shotgun wedding that really didn't have much chance for long term survival. But I do think some things could have been done to help keep the band together in spite of the weight Bevo liked to throw around.

They should have kept the Nebraska/Oklahoma yearly game intact. Frankly, Oklahoma needed to remain in the same division with Nebraska somehow, even if the geography didn't work. Because that game needed to remain on Thanksgiving weekend/Black Friday. You could have split the divisions something like this: North: Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State South: Baylor, Iowa State, Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech. No, the geography doesn't work that well, but rivalries could have been properly maintained by having the protected cross division game. OU/Texas becomes a cross division game that's played annually just like Alabama/Tennessee. Missour/Kansas would have been protected this way. Who cares about Iowa State? They would have been happy to have been included.

I think the Big 12 really screwed up by not doing this. Think about Thanksgiving Day each year. You would have had Texas vs. Texas A&M that evening and then Nebraska vs. Oklahoma the next day. Often that would have been like a semi-final as the winners would likely have won the division too.

I'm sorry for being long-winded. This kind of thing fascinates me for some reason.
Yeah I think OU should have backed up Nebraska on that matter. However 20+ years ago, Nebraska was a giant and their word should've carried a lot of weight despite anything Texas would of had to say. The Big 12 had some great rivalries back in the day now it's just OU/ Texas. I still don't take the OU/Okie light all that seriously. It's amazing the Big 12 is still alive right now or that West Virginia entered the conference.
 

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