rams80

Yeah....that's not the attitude I would take with a group of schools that collectively award 15% of the Nation's PhDs, and have control of 12% of total Federal Research funds.....in addition to their mostly being large state schools.

PROTIP: Once the CIC money starts flowing in Nebraska's probably going to get back in. (Well that, and the rest of the Big Ten is probably going to tell the rest of the AAU's membership that their stance is kind of stupid.)

See earlier conversation. AAU membership is contingent on you doing the "right" research. Even though it is rather critical to keeping our species alive and functioning agronomy (which Nebraska is spending a decent chunk of change on because, well, DUH!) is not the "right" research.

Boise State is a jumped up community college. Jumped up community colleges do not do heavy academic and scientific research. This is not happening for decades, if ever.

Probably because Louisville is still shaking off the after effects of Kragthorpe's misrule. Just leave all basketball revenues to those schools and they are good.

Oh goody they found more change under the cushions.

As of when NYT's Pete Thamel filed his report yesterday, early talks between members did not mention Texas schools. Reportedly, the early list is: 1- Notre Dame (like everybody else) 2- Arkansas (stealing them back from the SEC) 3- BYU 4- Pitt Here is the almost certain response of the first two on the list. If I was the Oklahomas, Kansas, Texas Tech, and Missouri, and you came to me with that list I would start actively extending feelers to other conferences because clearly Texas doesn't have any serious designs on keeping this league together or the glorious conference-saving TV-contract. No school that is in an existing BCS AQ league or has an in to the BCS will join the Big XII-ish. There are way too many negatives and too few/no positives. And furthermore I suspect BYU wants to try this Mormon Notre Dame thing a little longer before they jump into a rapidly disintegrating Conference.

Hey Big XII! SMU would give you your choice in automobiles and athletic department slush fund money to join your league.

Texas A&M to officially explore joining other Conferences.

Winthrop football: Defeated since 2012.

This. The Stars have an ownership situation. If Quebecor comes in looking to buy the Coyotes to move them to Quebec City then it wouldn't surprise me to see Bettman toss them the Stars (or any other team with ownership and/or money problems) to save his desert-based government funded ego trip. ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!!

In regards to 2-please note how the SEC will be re-negotiating their TV rights and how said buyout suddenly ceased to be a problem when the Big Ten and Pac 12 dollars flowed into their respective coffers.

And now everybody's just hovering their finger menacingly over the button. If this keeps up, somebody's liable to slip and then... Whoops.

Well of course they can't invite them NOW. A&M hasn't officially left the Big XII yet. But in about 48 hours... /There are procedures to this and forms that must be followed.

The "media reports" were Doug Gottlieb spitballing.

Navy and Air Force are mid-tier football programs at best and football is by far their best athletic programs. There's no way in hell the Big Ten would pick up a goddamn Patriot League team.

To write out what I know about college sports could barely fill a postage stamp, but all I know Mizzou as is a team that is often involved in the wrong side of notable games. (The pro wrestling slang for this is "jobber to the stars.") I don't know that they squander what they have, though. Seems like they have a strong statewide fanbase to me. If the squandering you refer to with Illinois is their failure to wholly capture Chicago, that's going to happen when you have a large population that goes every which way for school and lends its primary allegiances to professional football and basketball. I'd say they do well enough with a big downstate fanbase and a decent alumni foothold in Chicagoland. For that matter, Northwestern does about as well as they should for a school that doesn't emphasize athletics. I was speaking more in terms of recruiting and exploiting talent. Illinois should be a lot better historically than it is because of the access it has to Chicago's talent, and as Missouri is the only major school in the state, they should theoretically have first call on the talent in St. Louis and Kansas City. That's what I was getting at.

Nebraska is not the KC market. Kansas and Mizzou are. And Mizzou has a bigger piece of the St. Louis pie than Illinois. And besides, not everything comes down to what market they are. This isn't professional sports. Some of these schools are simply big money makers based on their own athletic teams. Kansas is one of the biggest basketball draws (as much as it pains me to say that), but football is not. They're not gonna go after them directly, but they'd be a decent "attachment school" if they went after Mizzou. Speaking of which, is becoming a steady football program that could become a Top 25 fixture. I still think, and would hope, that Mizzou winds up in the SEC if the Big XII does in fact dissolve. The whole reason that Nebraska was admitted to the Big Ten instead of the Tigers last year was that the Huskers convinced the Big Ten that they had enough alums in Kansas City to cover the town and to get BTN into those households. If that's what the Big Ten wanted, then they got what they wanted, their product on in more households. That's not what it was. Nebraska has alums all over the midwest, not just KC. They could've claimed any market over the other. It had nothing to do with simply the KC market as you seem to believe. Nebraska is a traditionally money making football college, plain and simple. Not because of a TV market 200 miles away in another state that's primarily a tv market for two other schools. You're actually making your case sound worse than. What you're telling me is that Mizzou would have put BTN on in households in Kansas City, while Nebraska can put them on across the Dakotas, in Omaha, and in Kansas City? All the Big Ten cares about right now is getting their product into as many homes as possible, and the combination of Nebraska and Illinois has put it on across Missouri, no? You can't tell me that they wouldn't rather add the Baltimore/Washington, New York, and Boston markets as opposed to "strengthening" viewership in St. Louis and Kansas City. There's a lot more money to be made and a lot more households to get into from the east coast schools than Missouri. Now, I could understand if Missouri was a top athletic school, but stop pretending like it's on the level of prestige of a Nebraska, Ohio State, or Penn State. The whole state doesn't behave like those states do when it comes to caring about the university. Mizzou going to the SEC is a move that makes the most sense for everybody involved. The SEC accesses the KC and St. Louis markets they weren't already accessing (but the Big Ten was), and they can spread their product as well. The money is the reason for all of these changes. Anyways, what good is it for A&M to fall back into a weak conference? They've got a chance to go to the elite conference in college football, why wouldn't you make the move? You'll add revenue, and believe it or not, kids will get more excited about playing SEC ball than playing a schedule consisting of Kansas, K-State, and Iowa State every year. With Texas seemingly on the verge of going independent here and the rest of the Big XII probably going to bolt west, who knows? So you think A&M which prides itself on it's football, would want to move to a conference where they KNOW outright that they have absolutely NO shot at a league championship, let alone a national championship, unless 6 of the perennial college football powerhouses all magically have :censored:ty season the exact same year, rather then staying a conference where there is a good chance that Oklahoma/Texas will knock each other out of the national championship chase and A&M can maybe sneak into a BCS bowl game. Even A&M can't possibly be that stupid, even of Rick Perry is a graduate. I'm sure A&M has noticed that Arkansas, a program that they are roughly analogous to, has made 3 trips to the SEC Championship game in their time in the league and also been to a couple of major bowls. If Arky can do so, why can't they?

Debatable. The utter failure of the Big East's mid-2000s expansion demonstrates that pursuing markets at all costs doesn't always work. Market. Footprint. Rivalries. Competition. Keeping them AWAY from the SEC. Pooch = Screwed We're in the St. Louis and Kansas City footprint already, and outside of Illinois they didn't have any rivalries of note. Regarding competition, Mizzou historically may be one of the few programs that does a better job of squandering the advantages given to them by geography and circumstance than Illinois, and you know what, I'm not seeing the Big Ten as in this life or death struggle with the SEC.

Debatable. The utter failure of the Big East's mid-2000s expansion demonstrates that pursuing markets at all costs doesn't always work.

Oh boy... Looks like the Big 12 is going to be dead in the water now. Who would of thought that Texas A&M would be the one that gives it the potential death knell? Big 12 is not dead unless the Oklahoma schools bolt (they are likely a package deal where if they leave they have to leave together). The Big 12 can probably still exist as the Texas, Oklahoma + 8 other conference. Mainly because the 8 others don't have anywhere to go and deal with Texas having the power. So if A&M leaves they'll operate at 9 or call up Houston fill a spot and be a doormat for Texas. Naw the uncertainty surrounding the potential of more departures is gonna be too great. Most of the schools are probably going to start to reach out to the other major conferences for membership so that they can find some security and not be left on the backburner with nowhere to go but the MWC. They may be able to survive with the remaining schools, but I don't think any of them are gonna want to wait around and try and find out. That is why I said unless the Oklahoma schools leave qualifier. May not make a difference. Who knows. Conference is back on shaky ground again. Seriously. When your beleaguered Conference responds to its latest defection with "It's ok, we're grabbing that jumped up community college, Houston." You have to be looking for your own exit strategy.

I don't think the Big Ten wants Texas. Or at least Texas with the Longhorn Network. Nebraska alone would fight to the last ditch to oppose this, and I suspect the rest of the Conference didn't really enjoy their negotiations with Texas last summer. Just not worth the headache. On a similar note, I think the Big Ten has reached a point where they will no longer actively seek out the Irish, but wait for Notre Dame to come to them.

You might want to try your math again when you add up the three scores, but at least you finally see what the data shows. And where are you getting UNR is one of the fastest growing universities? Enrollment hasn't really spiked up since 2007. UNR's 4-year graduation rate is 15%. It's 6-year rate is 48%. Less than half the undergraduates finish school in six years. It's tough to grow when people are leaving. I meant physically growing. Apparently, according people in the area, there are cranes running every day, and they're apparently going to renovate their stadium. Look, I'm probably the biggest Nevada Wolfpack supporter on this board, went to the university (Didn't graduate form there due to many reasons, class offerings was one though), and live about 50 miles from Reno, but the idea that UNR could be accepted into the Pac 12/4/6 is really crazy. Sure, the city is growing, but that's mainly due to lower real estate prices than just across the boarder in California and the fact that work is insanely hard to find in this part of the state. Nevada's economy for the most part depends on two things, the fortunes of their meal ticket to the west, and gambling. California is in debt up to their eyeballs right now, and Nevada is paying because of it. EVERYTHING in the state is underfunded, including the school systems. Nevada has by far one of the worst educational systems in the entire country in terms of funding. Both UNR and UNLV have had major financial cutbacks in the past few years that have all but crippled their educational offerings. And when it comes to gambling, just look at the city of Vegas. You'd be hard pressed to find any other area of the country that was hit worse by the poor economy than Vegas. It's gotten so bad in Vegas that people are leaving at a faster rate than coming into town now. I for one would be giddy as a schoolgirl to see the Wolfpack find a way to join the PAC #, but there is simply no way that either of the Nevada Universities have the resources to do so any time soon. Well, not going to argue with a native. Who's the next best bet then, Air Force? They have a big national following and great academics, but would a service academy join a BCS if given the chance? To get 16, you'd probably see the Pac 10 take a run at Texas Tech, the Oklahoma duo, and Kansas. Big East may be next in the "big time BCS conference tv payday" queue, but it's not that much more stable than the Big XII and currently wracked by a heated Civil War between the basketball and football schools. Most of the old Big XII North teams merely see the Big East as a worst-case scenario landing pad-not an actual objective to seek out.

As much as I hate to say it, Kansas State is probably either 1b or 1c on that list as well. Though they do have Kansas City close by, it's still a rural-based school. Nebraska was a hard enough sell for the Big Ten. There's no way in hell you're getting the requisite majority to agree to take on Kansas State or Iowa State. In the event of a Big XII collapse, Iowa State is likely going to become the Boise State of the MAC.

Common thought has Vandy and the Alabama schools shifting for reasons of geography, rivalries, and competitive balance.