Baylor Needs to Move Forward Without Their Big 12 Counterparts
June 14, 2010 by rabernethy · 1 Comment
The big sports news in our great Metroplex the last couple of weeks has been the possible extinction of the Big 12.
This all started a few months ago with a short lived rumor about Texas possibly joining the Big 10. Recently, a much larger bomb was dropped when we learned Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado had received invitations to join the Pacific–10 Conference (PAC 10).
This invitation is part of a nationwide movement by “the best of the best” to create super conferences that are highly competitive and maximizes profits (i.e. television contracts and merchandising).
An interesting part of this whole story is Baylor University not being invited by the PAC 10, despite being in the Big 12 Conference with these schools. As a result, Baylor has been politicking in Austin. Last week, A Baylor Alumni and prestigious Texas Lobbyist, Buddy Jones, sent a letter to several Texas State Legislatures urging them to make sure the other universities board of regents included Baylor in any deal.
In a state known for good old boy politics that combines horse trading and back scratching to make deals happen, Baylor’s politicking has been successful in the past. In the mid 1990’s The Big 12 was formed between the old Southwest Conference and the Big 8 to create a more competitive conference that would generate more revenue. Despite Baylor’s small size, they were able to utilize their political capital and gain a spot in this new elite conference. In the process, they left their small private school counterparts TCU, Rice and SMU to fend for themselves in smaller conferences.
If Baylor’s political maneuvering gains them a spot in the new PAC 16, as they are now calling it, will it benefit them in the long run? Will they be able to compete and will their fans actually see their team win championships?
