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When I was a kid I watched my dad’s team the Missouri Tigers play Penn State in the Orange Bowl...
Wow, a win could mean the national title. The Tigers had sure pro quarterback Terry McMillen and stand out receiver Mel Gray. It was very close, but the Tigers lost at the end of the game. It was their best football season of all time. They were 9-2 and 6th in the nation.
A couple years ago they were nearly back, ranked number one (for a few days) and headed for a bright finish with Chase Daniels.
By the way McMillen never made it in the pros and the Tigers have never won a national title.
I followed them because my dad and mom went there. I did a year at UMKC but was never a Kangaroo. I mean, really. I always followed MU football and KU basketball. One decent program and one great program. And it didn’t hurt that our Chiefs were the best team in the NFL back then.
Forty years later, two teams leave the Big 12 and it looks like Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State may follow. Commissioner Dan Beebe seems totally lost in this mess and even mighty Texas can’t seem to stop the blow up of the league.
It’s all money, money, money.
Don’t you find it odd, at a time when there are all these scandals involving college players and coaches, with cheating to get players, paying players, hookers and players, autographs and players and on and on? Yet in the end, even the big boys are no different. It’s always about the bucks.
In the end nobody seems to care about education, just money and power.
You never hear any talk about the schools standings with graduations and grades, no sir. Just how much, how many wins and oh, by the way, we found out that hoops programs don’t count much.
Nobody really wants KU and they have one of the nation’s top basketball programs. Go figure.
All the big money is in football.
As we know only 1% of the college players make it to the NFL. Yet they are not paid to play in college ball. Most of them do not attend classes AT ALL. A fact. So they really are there only to play football. Yes, I know there are some exceptions, and some go to a couple pretend classes. But most of them dream of the NFL, the money, the girls, the TV, the girls, the money.
They sounds like the NCAA guys.
Will the Big 12 survive? I’m not sure it matters anymore.
The teams will all play somewhere. Money will still be king. Everyone will pretend it’s really about the kids. Just like when they say, "We need to make an example out of you."
Or when you vote, "Remember, we are the party who cares about your children and their children’s future."
Tradition. It’s history and it’s sad.
It’s all for the children
You hit this nail on the head. It is all about money and greed and power.
The abuses of the system under the “watchful eye” of the NCAA are staggering. Ohio State, Miami are the current poster models of college athletics run amok. Throw in the KU ticket scandal, coaches who violate the rules and just move on to more money and the illegal payments from BCS bowls and any mention of serving an educational purpose is laughable.
The Big Eight was a joy. Even though I spent many years knowing Missouri would be trounced by Nebraska, I also saw the league do well when they played football outside the conference. Even Iowa State would maul non-conference opponents in their early games.
The Big 12 never caught on in my heart of hearts. Too much Texas for me.
I’ll beg to differ with you on the Tigers best year of football though. When they beat Navy and Roger Staubach in the Orange Bowl in 1961, that was their finest hour.
One of those fans.
“I always followed MU football and KU basketball.”
Ugh.
Assuming the Big 4 are gone, Mizzou has the best options. KU, KSU and ISU look likely screwed no matter what else. Big East, MWC, and egads, Conference USA will be hell for travel and money for non-revenue sports.
Sure
the local three will end up somewhere after this all shakes out and perhaps all three will even land in a major conference, but regardless, KC will suffer as a college sports town. Not only the dollars and prestige that will be lost with the defunct Big 12 tourney, but unless the three schools end up in a conference together, which appears unlikely, 100 plus years of rivalry and its unique to this area dynamic will be gone forever. Universities (sports or otherwise) should be all about traditions and for them to fart that all away for nothing more than extra $ is at best sad, at worst criminal.
Good Points
I agree with all said here to this point. It is almost criminal that 100 years of tradition gets buried for nothing more than extra money, that these schools could live without. Nothing matters anymore but money,power and position. It speaks to all of us about what really matters in this world today,yesterday and tomorrow. Makes us all think about what is important and what isn’t. As I have said, you kinda have to live for today, using yesterdays for referrence. Who knows what the future will bring with anythiing. This entire Big 12, Big 8, Big 6 thing is a great example that in the end, the powers don’t care about you and me.
Big Fan
It’s Chase Daniel. There’s no “S” on the end. I’m not even an MU fan and know that. Nice research dipshit
Anybody who claims to be a fan of Missouri football and kansas basketball is one fucked up dude.
You kind of lost me toward the end there … not sure what your conclusion is … but lets not over-glamorize the good old days. There has always been cheating. I’ll have as many fond memories of the Big 8 as anybody but its time to move on.
I’ll give Glazer
a pass on the Tiger FF/Hawks BB thing as I think that’s pretty common to this area (for a while it was KSU FF), especially for those with no real ties to either university. Different for an alum of either school, but since he’s a Roo short-timer, who cares? Not that different than rooting for a pro team if no vested interest in a particular school.
LET ME EXPLAIN THE FACTS GLAZE…YOU KNOW NOTHING!
state education budgets are being squeezed like never before. the governors and their
lackeys believe the way to financial balancing of the books is by taking money from
education.
Heres a fact…..overall unemployment is at 9.1% (how they get that number is beyond
me….i’ve run help wanted ads and noone is replying…so where’s all the unemplyed
people…i will explain later)….but with those who complete a bachelors degree
it is…
4.3%….YES IF YOU HAVE AT LEAST A BACHELORS EDUCATION UNEMPLOYEMNT
IS AT 4.3%.
so why not use education as a whipping post to cut budgets….every state educational
system has been hit hard…dollars cut…millions of dollars cut making it even harder for
states to run their systems.
so the universities need every dime they can get. Every dime they can get to keep
operating and make up for those lost funds.
so why not go get an extra 8-10 million dollars in revenue….why not go where the
potential to do better as an athletic school allows….university heads have no choice…
its important that they keep more and more money coming in to make up for
funding shortfalls.
And glaze…thats why they are making these moves….money…money…money…
money to keep their schools going…and the cuts will continue as some
rethugs believe that cutting education has nothing to do with unemployment…
and they are so wrong.
its the way the game is played today….get more money or cease to exist…or
do without.
To a school like missouri…sports plays a huge part in funding the university..
not just thru the athletic department but also in almost every other segment of
the university…from enrollment to endowment funds…fundraising to
capital drives….sports and their success drives the success of universities.
The presidents and chancellors have no choice…its money that must be
made up by government cutting off money to those schools.
It’s more than meet the eye on this issue.
Nice article, interestign comments.
Finish your thoughts Harley.
Petro and KK have different takes on the coming disdolution of the Big 12.
Both takes are valid.
My initial knee jerk reaction is Texas ruined everything.
The viewpoints on a 16 team conference are also very interesting, with a great many folks explaining why it won’t work, and the belief that the college landscape will end up right where it was about 10 years ago.
Glaze and Harley are right, its always “Follow the Money” if ya wanna know why things are changing.
This subject is outta my purview, but I wil stay tuned. 🙂
Arizona State and Barstow
Did two and a half years at ASU, one or two semesters at UMKC, finished at Barstow, Cal. I was doing 7 years in the fed and got my degree in custody. Online and mail-in tests. So I had no real feelings about KU or MU. Did go to both schools for parites, rush parties and to visit before choosing ASU. I also rushed Texas three times. Hey they were all fun. The campus at KU is much better now, Texas was a blast, but nobody partied like those crazies at MU. Had a wild time, saw my first ‘gang band’ at a jock frat at MU….I was 15 pretending to be a senior at East so I could go and get laid by older girls, like 18 or 19 well when you are a sophmore in high school thats an older broad. Hah, all three were fun. Chose ASU cause they accepted me first and it was in the desert.
saw my first ‘gang band’ at a jock frat at MU….
NWA?
Or,
Wal-Mart exuctives daughter’s presenting themseves to frat boys?
Wendell’s (old tv dude) had his daughter reemed by three guys at Benidicitene a couple decades ago. Legend. Still talked about to this day. Today that is probably common fair. Not back in the early 90s will all the flannel and aids and failed sex ed in high school.