quote:
tu and ou are like the anchor stores in the mall. They cannot be replaced. There is no "life after tu and ou leave."
The only way any of the dwarves could hope to stay relevant would be to dump every sport besides football, hoops, and 97 scholarships worth of women's sports. They would have to become like Fresno or Boise and go play and win road guarantee games. In other words, purgatory with little chance of redemption.
Their only play will be to appeasement at the next round of contract negotiations, or to get the TX and OK politicians involved.
Theoretically, at least, I disagree. There is one scenario where I could see the BDF limping along, missing a limb or two, and that would be if the BDF expanded to 14, now, and Texas and OU were to go to the Big Ten at the end of the GOR. They would be leaving behind a 12 team conference that, although taking a sizeable cut in TV revenue, still would probably be exponentially more attractive than any non-Power 4 conference. So long as they were included in the CFP bowl contracts, it would still be a viable league. Those schools would never compete, financially, with the schools in the SEC and the Big Ten, but they wouldn't have to.
Now, if its OU, Texas, OSU, and Tech making a break for the Pac, then there's nothing that the left behind schools could do that would result in the BDF still being a top tier league.