[NU Sports] Big Ten Expansion this week?

[Beamsley, Jeff]

Everyone appears to need someone to hate.

In the case of Texas, it's Nebraska.  

Texans are good politicians though.  Texas has the problem of all of the
other schools in Texas who have constituencies, wealthy alums, and
political influence.  Witness Baylor publically pleading for all the
Texas schools to act as one.  Nebraska doesn't have that issue.  So if
Texas can bully Nebraska out of the Big XII, that clears the way for
Texas to act however it wants to and blame any of the consequences on
Nebraska.

Jeff



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From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of Mike Nolan
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2010 11:32 AM
To: Sportsbiz
Cc: nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Big Ten Expansion this week?

> I think you're right about the super conferences and I also think 
> there will probably be five or six when all is said and done.  
> However, we will still have BCS automatic qualifiers and 
> non-qualifiers since the money and power are divided that way and I 
> don't see the current six relinquishing that without a fight.

Yeah, but the non-BCS schools have got the United States Senate and the
President of the United States to carry their water.  Obama has got to
be drooling over the prospect of dealing with something that can
actually get done (even if it has no impact on the USA as a
nation-state) rather than standing around watching the media count oily
birds.  Of course, the fact that it is likely to get done better and
faster without a bunch of political hoo-ha's getting involved has never
stopped them from getting involved anyway.
 
> Although you're a great deal closer to UNL than I am, I can't but 
> think that it is farther along with the Big Ten than they would have 
> us believe by what's publicly known.  Otherwise there would not have 
> been an ultimatum as UNL would not have given the Big XII reason to 
> question its desire to stay in the conference.

Only geographically, but I suspect you are correct there has been a lot
more happening behind closed doors than anyone has let on, possibly even
in South Bend.  (Wait until the FOIA requests start getting filed!)

One spin on it that I've seen is that Texas was the one behind the power
play at last week's Big XII meetings, that they wanted the Big XII to
draw a line in the sand and dare SOMEONE ELSE to cross over it--first.  

Texas is in many ways a bigger prize than Nebraska (what conference
wouldn't want them?), but making Nebraska out to be the bad guys has
been a Texas theme since the initial talks that led to the formation of
the Big XII.
--
Mike Nolan

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