If Big Ten Called, Missouri Would Listen

If a change is made and one of the teams leaves the Big 12 I can't see TCU being the team to be accepted into the Big 12. I don't think they can offer anything to the Big 12 that they don't already have. First and foremost, the big twelve is known for it's athletic prowess. TCU would become yet another contender in the south of the conference. This would not be good for the Big 12 as a whole. This would lead to even more resentment from the north. Furthermore, TCU has already shown that they have the ability to hang with BCS conference schools even without the recruiting advantage of the Big 12. I don't think Texas, OU or Nebraska would be too happy about adding a school that could possibly dominate them if given the opportunity. And remember, the Big 12 officials don't want to do anything to upset the University of Texas or OU. All speculation at this point, but TCU could become a national powerhouse if it gets Big 12 recruits. Another reason TCU wouldn't make a good choice is because then either OU or OSU would have to move to the north. If OU moves to the north you don't get the Red River Rivalry every year. If OSU moves to the north you don't get the in-state rivalry of OU/OSU every year. You could split it east and west but that doesn't work well with the geography of the schools in the Big 12. There would undoubtedly be schools complain about their yearly opponents. Finally, there comes the largest issue. MONEY. As far as television markets go, TCU can't bring anything to the table that the Big 12 doesn't already have. The Big 12 doesn't do revenue sharing. This means that it doesn't benefit any schools from a ticket sales standpoint. All proceeds go to the home team even if more fans for the away team show up. I just think that there are too many tears in the cloth for the Big 12 to let TCU in. The only school that I think would be a truly beneficial choice is Arkansas. They're a powerhouse conference team at the middle-low end of the conference. You could put them in the north and sell the Big 12 on the television markets of Little Rock, Memphis, and possibly St. Louis. (St. Louis is a bit of a stretch but it could be argued since the only likely team to leave the Big 12 in the coming years is Missouri.) Don't think that the Big 12 wouldn't like to keep that television market at least in some fashion if Mizzou does leave for the Big 10. And trust me, if Mizzou goes Arkansas is the only school that can offer even mild regional interest in that area. Now, if talks get really serious about MU going to the Big 10 then the Big 12 has some serious decision making to do. They have to either convince Missouri to stay or start seriously trying to mate with Arkansas. I don't know much about Arkansas' relationship with the SEC but i think it would take a lot to get them to come to the Big 12. All I can say for the Big 12 is "They better hope Missouri doesn't leave."

I propose a slightly different approach. Mizzou by itself has some leverage. However, the Big 12 can find one additional member to replace it (e.g. Arkansas, TCU, Colorado St., Utah, BYU). But, Mizzou is not alone in its dissatisfaction with the Big 12. Nebraska also feels it. Due to the Big 12 divisions, Nebraska does not get to play Oklahoma every year anymore, which was the leading football rivalry in the Big 8. Further, Oklahoma and Texas now dominate the Big 12. Nebraska is an afterthought. So why not organize a "package deal?" Call Nebraska and Kansas. See if they are willing to make a pitch to the Big 10 for Mizzou, Kansas, and Nebraska to make a leap to the Big 10. The Big 10 would get the big media markets in Missouri (STL and KC), a great rivalry (KU and MU), a traditional football power (Nebraska), and a traditional basketball power (KU). The Big 12 likely could not handle 3 schools leaving at once. Hello leverage.

What makes Missouri think that it would be treated equally with schools like Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State, or Illinois?

If Missouri moved to the Big Ten, they'd be treated like an ugly stepchild. You know it's true.

This is becoming more of a possibility by the day.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/ncaa/12/15/bigten-expansi...

KU sold its entire allotment of 17,500 tickets to the Orange Bowl and MU sold its entire allotment of 16,000 tickets to the Cotton Bowl. I'm not sure where you are getting this 35K ticket number but since the only remaining tickets would have had to have been purchased through brokers or outlets there is no way to prove your claim. Most of the major bowl games are sold out before the teams are even chosen except for the ticket allotments held back for each team. The pre-sold tickets are going to local businesses, local sport supporters, owners of packages that involve that stadium, seat license owners in some cases, etc. etc.

Dallas is a 7-8 drive from Columbia, Miami is a heck of a lot further from Lawrence meaning many KU fans also had to pony up for more expensive airfare in order to travel to Miami.

Now I'm not saying that MU didn't get slighted in favor of Iowa State for this year's bowl, but if your argument is that MU travels to the state of Texas well, then yeah maybe you can see why they weren't sent to Arizona.

Let's face it the whole bowl system is corrupt, until there is some form of play-off system college football will always be second fiddle to college basketball and a real tournament.

I think you should also expect that programs with long traditions in college football like Nebraska are going to get picked over schools like MU, KU or any other school in the Big 12 north given the same or similar records, the same reason that Notre Dame has a huge television contract despite the fact that they've sucked for about the last decade now, everyone gives them the benefit of the doubt because of "tradition". If MU had a top tier college football program over the last 100 years then MU would be getting the benefit of its past performances.

MU to the Big 10? I think that's kind of funny. Rather than run to another conference why not convince one of the 4 Texas schools to vote with the former Big 8 schools and get a 9-3 vote? Why not expand the Big 12 and overrule the Texas schools if you are that frustrated with the Big 12? Joining the Big 10 would put MU as the NKOTB with no history or reputation at all, at least in the Big 12 there are some things from the Big 8 days that MU can point to or look to fellow former Big 8 schools for support.

I very much agree that the Big 8 didn't really need the Southwest conference marriage to make the Big 12, but people saw $$$ and it happened, not sure it can really be un-done now and if MU leaves who comes in as a replacement? SMU? TCU? Some other Texas school? That's not going to make the Big 12 any friendlier to the schools in the North.

I'm sure the Royals complain about having to compete with the Yankees the same way Big 12 North schools complain about having to compete with the money schools in Texas, but in the end if you have to compete with them you can make yourself better, build better facilities to try and recruit better players, hire better coaches, etc.

Before the Texas schools came into the picture it was typically either Nebraska or OU that took the football crown each year, now that's shifted south to Texas or OU. Nebraska was a powerhouse, but has fallen on hard times as of late and is only now starting to show some improvement, if that can happen to Nebraska it can happen to the Texas schools too. KU and MU are better at football today than they were when the Big 12 formed so it would seem that the Big 12 has benefitted those football programs as well, but unless you are going to go after the whole NCAA/BCS mess and clean it up, which conference you play in almost becomes irrelevant.

The NCAA basketball tournament inspires hope

The NCAA BCS process inspires fear and loathing

If college sports is all about the money then fine, let's be honest and pay the players, enforce a salary cap and some other rules to try and level the playing field and let the best team win in a fair (as you can make it) fight.

Some day in the future people will look back and ask why we let ourselves be deluded by the NCAA and college sports in general, didn't we realize it was about as "real" as the Roman collesium or "pro" wrestling?

Nearly every vote when the big 12 was formed was 11-1 with Nebraska being the dissenting vote. All of the north schools were tricked into voting against Nebraska on certain issues (namely academic qualification issues) because NU was the evil empire and Florida/USC of college football at the time. The north denied themselves of good recruits that would have qualified under big 8 rules but now had to head to the JUCO's and most happen to be located in, you guessed it, Texas. The t.v. deal and revenue sharing have nothing to do with Nebraska as NU was the dissenting vote that wanted to keep the Big 8's old rules. Bascially the old big 8 schools sold themselves out and screwed the north division for years to come over their dislike of Nebraska. To listen to Mizzou whine about the big 12 is laughable. You made your own bed. I will say that NU would bolt to the big 10 if asked because its recruiting is heavily focused nationally (california, Florida, and the northeast) and only recently has begun to be focused on texas. MU on the other would have to adjust its strategy but with t.v. these days I think pinkel and company could easily get it done. Bottom line: MU or NU should leave if asked. The big 12 offers nothing until it exands it t.v. markets to memphis and houston.

The only thing this is good for is to MAYBE get a little attention or TLC from the conference heads. But you know what, if WE want the conference to start paying attention to Mizzou, we need to start winning championships. And that is slowly beginning to happen. 

Listen, this whole Big 10 garbage is just bitter grapes over three years of bowl selection screw-ups (which BTW, we were passed over for all Big 8 North teams... not SWC teams). Everybody thinks this would be so, so great for football and basketball. Well not only would it be bad for them, it would be catastrophic for other Mizzou sports. You essentially would put a dagger in the baseball program's ability to recruit quality out-of-state players and be a consistent national presence. No kid in the warm part of the country would go to Mizzou to play in the upper-Midwest against programs that do not draw pro scouts or 5000+ crowds.

Mike, ask Coach Pinkel what he thinks would happen to that Texas pipeline of recruits if we went to the Big Ten. You think he wants to start over and rebuild all those recruiting trails into the Midwest and the Ohio Valley? What do you think Mike Anderson would say his odds were of snagging the #15 and #54 players in the country from the Lone Star State if Mizzou was in the Big Ten? This is just the tip of the iceberg on why it would be insane to think Mizzou and the Big 10 would mesh. 

And do you really think the Big 10 cares about expanding with anybody other than Notre Dame? When JoePa and Barry talk about expanding..they mean the Fighting Irish. The location, the prestige, the academics, and the money of Notre Dame is what the Big Ten REALLY wants.

There is no bigger MU fan than me. However, I think it is silly to blame the Big 12 here. The Big 12 did what was best for them--selling the rights to the bowl games for money. That money helps every school in the conference. They've already made their choice for what they believed was important and I'm sure Missouri had a say or a vote in that decision.

The problem for me lies directly with Mike Alden. If you look at the teams chosen over us, it has been Iowa State, Nebraska, and KU. Now Nebraska finished w/ the same conference record and we floundered the second half of the year w/ a home loss to OSU and two embarrasing losses. I hardly call that a stretch for Nebraska to be chosen ahead of us considering their tradition. Now we're looking at just ISU and KU--hardly the New SWC powers the Big 12 favors that you make them out to be. Why are we losing out to them? Because Alden cannot present a team that has a better record, higher ranking, and better attendance as a more attractive team than other candidates. Not only that, but you reported Alden sent Alnutt to give the presentation to the Insight Bowl. If it's so important, why aren't we sending the athletic director to make the pitch. Perhaps, they weren't even taking us seriously.

Under Mike Alden, Mizzou has had one problem after another. Starting with getting outwitted by a campus reporter (Wright Thompson who has gone on to bigger and better things) on the Pinkel hiring and threatening that student. Continuing through the 4 straight years of embarrassment over Quin Snyder--I'd rather not rehash every detail. Selling the naming rights of the court to someone who names it after a person who becomes infamous for academic dishonesty. Now losing out to inferior teams on bowl games on a regular basis.

As an alumni and fan, it embarrasses me that these things keep happening. It embarrasses me that you and your son keep writing about moving to the Big 10 because you think it's not 'fair' the Big 12 isn't playing favorites. It sounds whiny and childish at best. It embarrasses me that we have problem after problem and the leadership is not held accountable. Someone once told me "A fish stinks from the head". Well, something stinks in the Mizzou athletic department and Alden has been there the entire time. It is time to stop pointing the fingers at everyone else for our problems and look within.

If you want to write another story on getting passed over, please write about the real reasons we were picked over. Not any more of this 'it's not fair' lets move to the 'big 10' childish nonsense. Please give it a rest.