So what's happened in the last day?
-Texas bullied its way into its own TV contract by taking advantage of the smartest, most-confident, most-capable league commissioner in all of the land.
-Texas A&M, after days of tough talk about not following the Longhorns, decided to follow UT and stay in the B12.
-Missouri, after being bad-mouthed and blamed for the B12's poor management, decided to play the role of the beaten spouse who can't leave...kinda fitting- they already played "the girl too-easy-to-get" for the BT a few months ago.
-Kansas, Iowa State, Baylor, KSU and Mizzou decide that they'll simply forgive and forget the fact that much of the conference was ready to bail on them and leave them for dead.
-Beebe decided to use Colorado & Nebraska's buyout funds to help leverage UT and others to stay.
Remember, this whole thing started because multiple members of the league were angry that UT got preferential treatment...Good thing that problem is solved.
Honestly, I don't fault UT for being arrogant and looking out for its own best-interest...that's its president & AD's job. I do greatly-fault the Big 12 and many of its members for bowing down to them.
-The Pac10's Larry Scott looks like a boob (
and James Taylor) as he
continues to promise a bright future with unicorns, rainbows and fantastic expansion plans (
read as Utah coming to the P10).
-Colorado exists on an island in the Western-most collegiate conference in the US...at least for the time being.
-The Mountain West goes back to being marginally-important as the little sisters of the B12 turn their collective back on the non-BCS league.
-Jim Delany stays quiet.
-Jack Swarbrick stays quiet.
-The SEC stays put...for the time being...and no dominoes from the ACC, then the Big East fall.
-EsPN continues to report out of both sides of its mouth. I think it's OK for an entity to report what it hears from reputable sources...but EsPN clearly has made it a practice to send multiple reporters different directions in search of different expansion story lines. This way, they'll always be right.
"Various sources reporting: FIFA to join the Pac10, as soon as 2011...Steven Strasburg named commissioner of the Big East."
Some say Jim Delany is a loser in all of this- I don't think so. Delany wanted and wants to do a couple things with expansion- grow the footprint of the TV network and move toward a playoff in football...which grows the revenue base of the conference. I'd argue both have been achieved...and the BT's efforts might not yet be completed. Plus, he didn't bow down at the alter of Bevo during this process...a real positive, if you ask me.
Jim Delany kisses no one's ass...except Notre Dame's.
The biggest losers are, in a very particular order:
-The Pac 10 and its commish, Larry Scott
-The numbers 10 & 12- like Larry Scott, they no longer have any clout nor carry any weight. No one respects them for what they once were.
The biggest winners are:
-University of Texas
-University of Nebraska
-The Big Ten
The seismic changes that seemed to be upon the college sports world turned out to be little-more than a small shake beneath our feet. Now the question becomes, is Silent Jim done, or will two more teams join the BT?
