How Nebraska, Colorado, Mizzou, and most of all, Texas A&M killed the Big 12....
Nebraska gets credit for being a trailblazer. For kicking off realignment in all its glory. Colorado has drifted off into a pot smoking haze, but one day, they will decide to be good in football again, and they will have the resources to do it. Mizzou is the first school to bolt that confirmed what many of us degenerates on Old Rivalries already knew....it didn't really matter how good you were at football currently, it is what media markets you can deliver. By simply residing in Missouri, with access to both the Kansas City and St. Louis media markets, Mizzou was more valuable than Oklahoma. Blasphemy! That move set off a firestorm in the media, lead by ignorance, but slowly coming around to factual awareness. Rutgers and Maryland going to the B1G is the coup de gras of enlightenment for the media. Some still believe that certain, so called, blue bloods still hold value, but their enlightenment will have to wait.
As far as Texas A&M's role, it is still ongoing. Texas A&M is currently in the process of killing the Big 12. Why is it still ongoing? Because its financial success in the SEC will cause the Big 12 to eventually crumble. Texas cannot let A&M continue to beat their brains out in media revenue. They must react. OU thinks it can, but they are flailing their arms like a circus midget fighting a giant under a 1920s big top tent. Texas' options are nil with the albatross around their neck, but soon, that albatross will be removed, and Texas will bolt to what they hope is greener pastures. How did Texas A&M do it?
In 2009, our distribution from the Big 12 was under $10 Million. We leveraged the threat of walking in Summer 2010 into a $20 Million guarantee from the conference. During the 2010 athletic year, the people who are used to getting $20 Million under the then current distribution procedures of the Big 12, OU and Texas, attempted to shame us into accepting less money. The Bowtie promptly showed them the business end of his pimp hand. God Bless that man. They understood what a fiefdom, in conference provided then, and that is why they are panicking now. It was as if they knew what a doubling of our revenue might do to our historically revenue lagging Athletic Department. The serf would suddenly become upwardly mobile. If they understood what a doubling meant then, imagine their reaction when we quadruple it.
If Texas A&M indeed gets a $40 Million revenue distribution from the SEC, that is a ridiculous 400+% increase in conference revenue in seven years. For those of you that remember, in 1997-1999, Texas A&M embarked on an ambitious capital campaign to remove the Horseshoe from Kyle Field and replace it with the Zone. The cost of that expansion? $39.2 Million, all in. So here we are, seven years after the cash strapped doldrums of the Big 12, and we are adding $30 Million per year more than what we were used to. That is the equivalent of a major capital campaign, and major facility expansion, every single year in simple, operating cash flow. That is the fear of Oklahoma and Texas, who are mired in the mud of their own, underfunded capital improvements. Texas A&M can build a new weight room, nutrition center, refurb the entire football office facility, and redevelop Kyle Field for a cool half bill. Out of those projects, which ONE had the capital raise? You know the answer, the rest was done with operational cash flow and minor naming rights sales. While both Texas and OU struggle to fund any and all capital improvements, our financial flexibility is approaching the level of a Silicone Valley millennial *****bag billionaire.
In recent years, the Big 12 has tried to take their shlt sandwich, gussy it up with chipotle mayo, shredded lettuce, a couple of fancy ass pickles, black olives, etc. to make it look like each individual school being in control of their own tier three assets was such a better situation than any other conference. By pimping their revenue numbers, before anyone's conference networks matured, they thought they could buy some political capital with the media and hope that their bell cow teams would produce enough on the field to make their conference strong again. That political capital was all borrowed and the notes are past due. Texas still sucks, and OU got put in its place by a vastly superior and deeper Clemson team. It is readily apparent that the immediate future of College Football lies to the East of the Mississippi, and everyone West of it is simply producing scout team defense and offense for the true College Football Playoff contenders.
The argument in 2016 will be, "Does the B1G and SEC each deserve two spots in the CFP? Can Clemson sneak in above one of the SEC teams? Michigan and OSU will be a defacto playoff game, but is that fair if they are better than the other teams in the CFP?" The worst thing the Big 12 will have to endure is listening to the talking heads discuss how much Stanford belonged last year instead of OU, which will be paired with them acknowledging that the CFP playoff committee won't make the same mistake again in 2016. Hear that Big 12? The season hasn't even begun yet, and your conference is already exempt from the CFP. You had your chance, and you blew it. You thought you were talented because you only watched your conference. You had no perspective.
So what can the Big 12 do? I don't know, as Gerard Butler said in the movie 300 as he left Sparta for the last time, "What can you do?" He said it in a menacing manner as if to say, "you got nothing." See, OU spit the bit last year. They got pummeled in the 2nd half of their CFP game. Clemson had much better opponents several times in their regular season. The Big 12 was shown to be a conference of teams with no depth, talent that is trailing off with every passing year, and just flat doesn't belong. And now you have to do it at an annual cash flow deficit approaching $20 Million? Houston and Cincy are going to fix that?
Sorry folks, it's been over since the day we left. But today, you can finally admit it and write your eulogy.
Nebraska gets credit for being a trailblazer. For kicking off realignment in all its glory. Colorado has drifted off into a pot smoking haze, but one day, they will decide to be good in football again, and they will have the resources to do it. Mizzou is the first school to bolt that confirmed what many of us degenerates on Old Rivalries already knew....it didn't really matter how good you were at football currently, it is what media markets you can deliver. By simply residing in Missouri, with access to both the Kansas City and St. Louis media markets, Mizzou was more valuable than Oklahoma. Blasphemy! That move set off a firestorm in the media, lead by ignorance, but slowly coming around to factual awareness. Rutgers and Maryland going to the B1G is the coup de gras of enlightenment for the media. Some still believe that certain, so called, blue bloods still hold value, but their enlightenment will have to wait.
As far as Texas A&M's role, it is still ongoing. Texas A&M is currently in the process of killing the Big 12. Why is it still ongoing? Because its financial success in the SEC will cause the Big 12 to eventually crumble. Texas cannot let A&M continue to beat their brains out in media revenue. They must react. OU thinks it can, but they are flailing their arms like a circus midget fighting a giant under a 1920s big top tent. Texas' options are nil with the albatross around their neck, but soon, that albatross will be removed, and Texas will bolt to what they hope is greener pastures. How did Texas A&M do it?
In 2009, our distribution from the Big 12 was under $10 Million. We leveraged the threat of walking in Summer 2010 into a $20 Million guarantee from the conference. During the 2010 athletic year, the people who are used to getting $20 Million under the then current distribution procedures of the Big 12, OU and Texas, attempted to shame us into accepting less money. The Bowtie promptly showed them the business end of his pimp hand. God Bless that man. They understood what a fiefdom, in conference provided then, and that is why they are panicking now. It was as if they knew what a doubling of our revenue might do to our historically revenue lagging Athletic Department. The serf would suddenly become upwardly mobile. If they understood what a doubling meant then, imagine their reaction when we quadruple it.
If Texas A&M indeed gets a $40 Million revenue distribution from the SEC, that is a ridiculous 400+% increase in conference revenue in seven years. For those of you that remember, in 1997-1999, Texas A&M embarked on an ambitious capital campaign to remove the Horseshoe from Kyle Field and replace it with the Zone. The cost of that expansion? $39.2 Million, all in. So here we are, seven years after the cash strapped doldrums of the Big 12, and we are adding $30 Million per year more than what we were used to. That is the equivalent of a major capital campaign, and major facility expansion, every single year in simple, operating cash flow. That is the fear of Oklahoma and Texas, who are mired in the mud of their own, underfunded capital improvements. Texas A&M can build a new weight room, nutrition center, refurb the entire football office facility, and redevelop Kyle Field for a cool half bill. Out of those projects, which ONE had the capital raise? You know the answer, the rest was done with operational cash flow and minor naming rights sales. While both Texas and OU struggle to fund any and all capital improvements, our financial flexibility is approaching the level of a Silicone Valley millennial *****bag billionaire.
In recent years, the Big 12 has tried to take their shlt sandwich, gussy it up with chipotle mayo, shredded lettuce, a couple of fancy ass pickles, black olives, etc. to make it look like each individual school being in control of their own tier three assets was such a better situation than any other conference. By pimping their revenue numbers, before anyone's conference networks matured, they thought they could buy some political capital with the media and hope that their bell cow teams would produce enough on the field to make their conference strong again. That political capital was all borrowed and the notes are past due. Texas still sucks, and OU got put in its place by a vastly superior and deeper Clemson team. It is readily apparent that the immediate future of College Football lies to the East of the Mississippi, and everyone West of it is simply producing scout team defense and offense for the true College Football Playoff contenders.
The argument in 2016 will be, "Does the B1G and SEC each deserve two spots in the CFP? Can Clemson sneak in above one of the SEC teams? Michigan and OSU will be a defacto playoff game, but is that fair if they are better than the other teams in the CFP?" The worst thing the Big 12 will have to endure is listening to the talking heads discuss how much Stanford belonged last year instead of OU, which will be paired with them acknowledging that the CFP playoff committee won't make the same mistake again in 2016. Hear that Big 12? The season hasn't even begun yet, and your conference is already exempt from the CFP. You had your chance, and you blew it. You thought you were talented because you only watched your conference. You had no perspective.
So what can the Big 12 do? I don't know, as Gerard Butler said in the movie 300 as he left Sparta for the last time, "What can you do?" He said it in a menacing manner as if to say, "you got nothing." See, OU spit the bit last year. They got pummeled in the 2nd half of their CFP game. Clemson had much better opponents several times in their regular season. The Big 12 was shown to be a conference of teams with no depth, talent that is trailing off with every passing year, and just flat doesn't belong. And now you have to do it at an annual cash flow deficit approaching $20 Million? Houston and Cincy are going to fix that?
Sorry folks, it's been over since the day we left. But today, you can finally admit it and write your eulogy.
