Seems like only yesterday…
The never-ending, ongoing demise of the Big 12 Conference, that is. The crazy part is – Colorado started it by bailing for the Pac 10 a dozen years ago; followed by Nebraska to the now infamous Big 10 a year later; and Missouri and Texas A&M to the SEC in 2012.
The reason they gave: to get away from the financial bullying by Texas.
Funny thing, because looking back, those great escapes resulted in Texas and Oklahoma saying last summer they were bailing for the SEC. Meaning Mizzou and A&M will be reunited with school they fled to escape.
Go figure.
Clearly, the fallout from those moves has not been pretty.
For starters, Kansas gave Mizzou the cold shoulder until recently, ending the so-called “oldest rivalry west the Mississippi.”
Ditto for the Nebraska-Oklahoma fall holiday classics.,
Nobody seemed to care much about Colorado, but Nebraska fell from being a perennial Top 10 in the Big 12, to a Big 10 also ran.
In the meantime, Missouri went from a Big 12 college basketball powerhouse to reegular losses to lowly UMKC – AMC Theatres founder Stan Durwood’s old team. And after playing KU for a No. 1 ranking in 2007, it’s fallen into football mediocrity.
AMC founder / UMKC stalwart Stan Durwood
So yes, they all dodged the Texas bullet – for a decade anyway – and made a ton of dough, but they left behind their fiercest rivalries and have been mostly bottom dwellers ever since.
So what, you might ask, did KU learn from this? Not much.
The Jayhawks have been nonstop kissing up to the Big 10 to no avail…other than embarrassing themselves.
The latest: Pac 12 luminaries Southern Cal and UCLA shocked college sports by announcing they too are Big 10 bound,
Leaving the Pac 12 flirting with extinction, and prospects of Colorado returning to a weakened Big 12 – with Arizona, Arizona State and Utah.
Now KU is reconsidering its Great Escape to the Big 10, as nobody knows which way the college football winds will blow next.
Take this recent nugget about Mizzou in College Football News:
“Missouri might fit the SEC in a hole lot of ideological ways, and no one’s leaving that conference right now, but does it seem like the school is having a lot of fun? It’s out there in the suburbs of the SEC, far, far away from the downtown area where the cool kids hang out. Mizzou is about as as Pepsi. It’s not like College Football Playoff appearances are coming if Mizzou were to switch to the Big 10, but it’s a far better, far more comfortable fit with Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and even Minnesota and Wisconsin with a little bit of a drive.”
The $64 million question:
At what point might the Big 10 and SEC dial back the big bucks payouts to mediocre schools like Missouri, Nebraska, Vanderbilt – and even Texas – in order to enrich the handful of schools that make the playoffs each year?
And how much fun is it getting embarrassed in basketball year-in, year-out by UMKC?
Guess we’ll see.
To answer your last question: “Never”. It’s a dumb idea only put forth by those who are still red-assed about the changing landscape of college sports. Oh and Missouri will never leave the SEC for the B1G. That ship has sailed.
What’s truly hilarious is watching the same batch of morons at kU who bad mouthed Missouri for leaving, in full panic mode trying to find a new conference to land in. Missouri made the right move in 2011/12, and it’s still the right move. The Big 12 was dead man walking from the day it was formed in complete and total dysfunction.
The Texas & OU programs that MU, aTm, NU, and CU left behind have been humbled over the last decade. Gone are the days where they dictate what goes on in a conference. They will sit down, shut up, and row in the same direction as all the other teams in the SEC. Texas A&M threw a hissy fit when UT/OU applied for membership, but when it came to nut cutting time, they were told to sit down, shut up, and vote yes. And that’s EXACTLY what they did.
And trust me, I’d rather travel to Nashville, Athens, Oxford, Knoxville, etc. than Ames, Lawrence, Omaha, Mancrappin’ KS, Lubbock, or Waco. It’s not even a contest.
And let me remind you once again that any struggles Mizzou has had on the field or on the court have been of their own making, and would’ve happened regardless of what conference they were in. The Kim Anderson hire was a joke, Cuonzo Martin had one good recruiting class and then quit recruiting completely. He also refused to coach any sort of functioning offense. Odom was a meathead that couldn’t coach OR recruit. We’ll see where Gates and Drinkwitz take them. I do know one thing, Missouri doesn’t have to worry about what conference they’ll be playing in and how much of a budget cut they’ll have to make because the tv revenue is drying up. And that’s EXACTLY where KU, KSU, ISU, etc are all at.
The NCAA needs to step in and put a limit on the amount of money these schools can all receive from outside sources. Every school can only get so much which would really put them on equal ground and then we will see some of the smaller schools start to excel more which I think would be great. As well take away the free rides for the players and that will really shake it up and even it out.
Don’t disagree with you Super D, however, the NCAA is facing extinction and at this point in time, nobody – probably including the NCAA – believe they have the power and or authority to undertake such an action.
It’s brave new world time
MIZZOU….what do they care….they got a great recruiting class (top10) and things
will be better when they get rid of their present bball coach.
But think of the millions of dollars mizzou got. KU winning championship means nothing if you’re west of topeka or east of prairie village…no body really cares.
Mizzou is now on another money binge and will become the harvard of the midwest.
Take your phony articles back to tuscon where there going to be no water to drink next year. Have fun.
Hey, I’m always up for having fun when it comes to the one-and-only Harley!
Live and well and hiding out in Phoenix…a far hotter, painfully difficult place to drive in or out of and equally likely to be experiencing water issues.
Say what you will, H Man, but Mizzou’s great escape from Texas is about to disappear when Texas joins the SEC. And in the meantime, MU and Nebraska have morphed from having excellent football and basketball programs to being embarrassing cellar dwellers.
Sure it’s nice having more money, but money can’t buy you love remember. And it provides ZERO comfort to sports fans who a) get none of it and b) are left sans historic, passionate rivalries and watching lackluster football and basketball games.
Som uh, enjoy!
When will Hearne EVER get a clue on realignment. Hint: Probably never. Mizzou, Nebraska, aTm and CU all left the Big 12 because it was a poorly run shitshow, with unequal revenue sharing, and two teams bullying all the rest. Texas & OU forced so much bullshit on the other schools that they pretty much created a permanent underclass. Personally, I was ecstatic when Texas and OU joined the SEC. Why? Because they’ve been neutered. They will hold NO more sway over other teams in the SEC. Texas, if you want to talk about being embarrassing, is the definition of the word. No school in the United States has an endless supply of money like Texas does, yet they suck mediocre ass in football and basketball. They SHOULD be winning at an Alabama level. But they don’t. I’d be interested in seeing the amount of money they spend on football, compared to how many wins it’s gotten them. Trust me, it’s not pretty. And how many times do I have to explain to you that Mizzou’s struggles on the field and court have NOTHING to do with playing in the SEC, and EVERYTHING to do with the 2015 protest nonsense, and God awful coaching hires. Trust me Hearne, you hire Barry Odom and Kim Anderson to run your two revenue producing sports, and the results would be the EXACT same in the Big 12. Only a dumb motherfucker insists otherwise. Oh and NU never had an excellent basketball program. Ever. And they had started to suck in football prior to leaving the Big 12. Their slide had already started. What you need to understand is that correlation does not equal causation. The Big 12 is now just a cobbled together pile of ag schools, city universities, privates, and commuters. There are only two state flagship schools left, so the academic reputation of the conference is crap as well. Iowa State recently pulled out of the AAU, to try and save a little face because they were about to be kicked out, like NU was. Mizzou made the perfect move to the SEC, and now KU, KSU, and all the rest of the shitbag programs that are living on the Island of Misfit Toys, can only hope and wish that they land in the SEC or the B1G.