Too Slow To The Show
The Show-Me State has showed up last again to the party. Weeks after everyone thought Missouri would be going to the Big Ten first, but it was Nebraska who surprised everyone and left. Next Colorado went to the PAC-10, with Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Ok St. to follow. How did the University of Missouri screw this up one might ask. They simply Mizzoued themselves again.
As previously stated in a previous post, the Tigers have a history of hosing themselves over. Extra downs in football, unbelievable plays against them in basketball and now the administration has shown how to bungle a slam dunk invite to a major conference. With all the poaching of schools from the Big 12, everyone assumed Mizzou would join the Big Ten and be the twelfth team. It would work geographically with natural built in rival in Illinois. The St. Louis and Kansas city TV market are in the top 30 which would only enhance the Big 10 network. The school's basketball and football programs are nationally recognized as well as the baseball and women's softball program. The academics are there, its in the heart of the Midwest. The stars were aligned to gain some revenue from the TV network that a lot of pundits laughed at. The Governor said go, regents of the university said go, curators said go, but the chancellor and athletic director stood pat. Now Missouri is going from a major conference with the BCS to a school that is on the outside looking in.
Texas made it clear that Missouri did not matter. All of the Big 12 South said that Missouri was replaceable. The national view of the school is that of consistently underachieves in athletics. Add to that, when the school goes to big time events like NCAA tournament or a bowl game, the fans don't travel well. These are a few reasons why the Big 12 conference catered to the South part of the conference.
Second cause of all the poaching was the Big Ten network. The network has generated billions of dollars and has helped all of its schools grow in revenue, which this is what its all about, football revenue. The Big Ten ends its football season before Thanksgiving and their teams for the most part have been ran over in bowl games. People forget about the the conference and their teams for the most part have lackluster showings in bowl games.
The Show-Me State has showed up last again to the party. Weeks after everyone thought Missouri would be going to the Big Ten first, but it was Nebraska who surprised everyone and left. Next Colorado went to the PAC-10, with Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Ok St. to follow. How did the University of Missouri screw this up one might ask. They simply Mizzoued themselves again.
As previously stated in a previous post, the Tigers have a history of hosing themselves over. Extra downs in football, unbelievable plays against them in basketball and now the administration has shown how to bungle a slam dunk invite to a major conference. With all the poaching of schools from the Big 12, everyone assumed Mizzou would join the Big Ten and be the twelfth team. It would work geographically with natural built in rival in Illinois. The St. Louis and Kansas city TV market are in the top 30 which would only enhance the Big 10 network. The school's basketball and football programs are nationally recognized as well as the baseball and women's softball program. The academics are there, its in the heart of the Midwest. The stars were aligned to gain some revenue from the TV network that a lot of pundits laughed at. The Governor said go, regents of the university said go, curators said go, but the chancellor and athletic director stood pat. Now Missouri is going from a major conference with the BCS to a school that is on the outside looking in.
Texas made it clear that Missouri did not matter. All of the Big 12 South said that Missouri was replaceable. The national view of the school is that of consistently underachieves in athletics. Add to that, when the school goes to big time events like NCAA tournament or a bowl game, the fans don't travel well. These are a few reasons why the Big 12 conference catered to the South part of the conference.
Second cause of all the poaching was the Big Ten network. The network has generated billions of dollars and has helped all of its schools grow in revenue, which this is what its all about, football revenue. The Big Ten ends its football season before Thanksgiving and their teams for the most part have been ran over in bowl games. People forget about the the conference and their teams for the most part have lackluster showings in bowl games.
Final Thoughts
Nebraska President Harvey Perlman taking shots at Mizzou for listening to overtures from the Big Ten is completely uncalled for. Mizzou has the most beef of anyone from the North because they got hosed two years ago when they beat Kansas head to head and got a Cotton Bowl berth instead of the Orange Bowl. Nebraska feels that they are back on the scene because of Pelini and their football staff. But a word to the wise to Perlman and Tom Osborne, just because you are preseason ranked for the first time in five years does not mean you are relevant. The once dominant Huskers used to own the upper part of Missouri as well as Nebraska. But Gary Pinkel and Mizzou started winning and recruits started flocking to Columbia instead of Omaha. From a basketball standpoint, the Huskers have not made the tournament since 1998 and have been to a championship game since the 60's. To me, the Big Ten has not improve itself with Nebraska. If its about revenue for the network they haven't gained very much because Omaha is barely in the top 100 of TV markets.
Mizzou is still dealing from a position of strength if one of these two things happen. Either they get picked up in the Big East and they can definitely dominant in football and get an automatic BCS bid and have a higher profile conference in basketball. Or if they go to Mountain West and that league becomes BCS eligible. The only drawback with the Mountain West is that the teams out west aren't really known nationally and therefore that will hurt recruiting overall. I also fear that by moving to that conference that coach Anderson and Pinkel would bolt for bigger schools at the first sign of an opening of a major program.
Texas put on the front that they could hold the Big 12 together but they are the ones who were really looking to leave. Here's why I say that. Notre Dame and Texas are the two prized recruits in all of this because overall they generate the most revenue. If Texas really felt secure about its place in the TV market outside of Texas then they would keep the Big 12 together and start their own TV network, they wouldn't need an outside entity to woo them. Being associated with the Pac 10 will cost them a lot of the casual fans that they have because who wants to watch them kickoff at 10:30 at night. They could have easily kept the Big 12 together and let Nebraska and Colorado walk and found suitable replacements. Now they will probably have the Pac-16 championship games played either in New Mexico or Las Vegas.
If you cant tell I'm a little disturb by all this movement for football. As much as I a huge college football fan, this is the sort of thing that just might drive me away. I know in life you have to adjust to change. But when you see grown men acting like babies and chasing dollar signs instead keeping the students in mind, its a little disturbing.
No comments:
Post a Comment