Show of unity is a good start
With major issues unresolved, Big 12 has chance to make progress if it keeps conflflicts out of public view.
IRVING — The Big 12 stood tall this week.
OK, the members stood together. For this conference — which has problems with public perception as well as internal strife, with destabilizing comments from two of its university presidents — that collective stance represents progress. For now.
And if you believe the camp-fire kumbaya scenario that commissioner Bob Bowlsby and league board of directors chairman Kirk Schulz por- trayed in two days of meetings, the Big 12 also stands together with a bright future, David Boren’s and E. Gordon Gee’s splintering recent remarks notwithstanding. That’s what Big 12 fans should take from these gab sessions at the league’s offiffice in Irving.
“I think there’s a unanimity among the 10 schools,” said Schulz, who is president of Kansas State. “We’re ready to do what we need to make sure the conference is strong. We’ve come a long way in six months. If we’re committed to the strength and stability of the conference, then it becomes tactical.”
It’s clear the majority in the Big 12 room wanted some to change their tactics.
Boren and Gee, the rest of
the league insinuated, should pipe down. Neither spoke Friday after the meetings. UT President Gregory L. Fenves didn’t either. The conference fathers desperately want to paint a picture that they’re all getting along, at least for the time being.
The conference got a team in the second College Football Playoff after almost getting two in football’s Final Four in 2014. Texas Tech’s Kirby Hocutt now chairs the CFP selection committee. The Big 12 is killing it in basketball, although March will reveal a lot, and that hasn’t been the conference’s favorite month. It had the biggest distribution of money of any of the Power Five conferences, but that status will change in the coming months. Its 10 members have big shares of a big pie, but their collective voice has been diminished, at least partly by their own doing. Cue Boren’s remarks.
As for formal action, the league took none this week. Everything is still on the table, but the table has been moved to the May/June meetings in Irving.
The conference discussed expansion, but Bowlsby said no individual school candidates were ever discussed in the fourhour meeting Friday.
Oklahoma’s Boren ducked out and declined requests for interviews, deferring to the conference leadership. But he has been outspoken in the past months.
He’s talked of being tired of being “the little brother” to the other Power Five conferences by being smaller. He’s talked of a league being “psychologically disadvantaged.” He’s touted a championship football game. He’s said he wants to add two teams and favors a leaguewide TV network.
All are still possible. And it’s possible none of it will happen. The Big 12 Network might be the least likely because it would call for Texas to fold its lucrative Longhorn Network into a conference plan and probably be reimbursed for its annual take of $15 million.
All the other nine schools have third-tier rights of their own, but nothing close to Texas’ income. Asked how much money Kansas State makes off its network, Schulz deadpanned, “We make tens of dollars.” He put it best. “If you’re having a family argument, is it better to do it at Applebee’s or at home?” Schulz said. “I think we’re at a point where we decided today that, when we have the family arguments, we’re going to do it at home with the door shut.”
The door’s still open for a title game as well as slightly ajar for a leaguewide TV network and a bigger conference through expansion. And so long as Boren and Gee stay mum, the door’s not coming off its hinges.
‘If you’re having a family argument, is it better to do it at Applebee’s or at home? I think we’re at a point where we decided today that, when we have the family arguments, we’re going to do it at home with the door shut.’
— Kirk Schulz, Kansas State president and chairman of Big 12 board of directors