I’ve always admired the Texas football program. The tradition. The bigger than life aspect. The love of football. I now admire them for sticking with the Big 12. Now, I know they only did this for the money. The reduced Big 12 teams stand to make 20 million per year in TV revenue, more than SEC teams make. So their motives aren’t all that altruistic, but they did stay at the dance with the one who brought them and in the process saved the Big 12 from certain destruction.
Just by virtue of Texas staying, Oklahoma State stays as well. The reduced conference has also agreed to let individual schools pursue their own television networks. Texas’ decision to stay also kept Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M in the Big 12 fold. As Texas goes, so goes everything else. And that includes Big 12 basketball.
Texas has not only saved the Big 12 football program, they saved the Big 12 basketball program as well. A breakup of the Big 12 would have caused a ripple effect throughout all the other sports at the departing universities. Kansas would have been left the odd man out and as they have one of the stellar basketball programs in the country, it would have been a huge blow. Recruiting would have suffered tremendously had they been forced to move to a non-BCS conference. Texas saves all.
There may still be some more moves to come this year. But for now, the landscape of college football has only slightly shifted, but the core remains undamaged. Texas is like the ring in the Lord Of The Rings, one ring to bind them all, or in this case two horns.
© photo credit: aaronisnotcool
