Teams lucky to be left out of Big 12
They were two words that ignited a months-long charade that ultimately accounted for nothing but gallons of wasted jet fuel.
But only one of the words is appropriate when discussing the current state — and, yeah, probably the future — of the Big 12 Conference.
All it took for the Big 12 to begin a fruitless, mythical search for expansion candidates was for David Boren, the University of Oklahoma president, to say the conference was “psychologically disadvantaged” as a 10-team league in college football’s new world order.
The Big 12 is “disadvantaged,” all right, but not psychologically. It’s disadvantaged in its vision, stability and on the football field, and Colorado State and others will eventually count themselves lucky they are not joining the Power 5 conference with the most uncertain future.
The indecision the Big 12 demonstrated during the past few months — which it spun Monday as diligent research when it announced it isn’t expanding — is a symptom of a larger problem. The conference is ruled by two megabrands, Texas and Oklahoma, that are straddling two different
COLORADO
lines, unsure whether to stick together and strengthen the conference or start searching for greener grass. The conference nearly folded a mere six years ago, and the ground it is built upon still seems shaky.
The Big 12 this season will probably be left out of the College Football Playoff for the second time in the system’s three years of existence, and that has triggered anxiety.
While Boren said Monday that no team desires to leave the conference, his school and Texas have also refused to extend their grant of rights deal that extends to 2025. The college football landscape could very well look drastically different by then, and the Big 12 power brokers have no interest in handcuffing their own flexibility.
“The Big 12 exists because we have Texas and Oklahoma in the room,” Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said in an interview with a Des Moines radio station this week. “If we take Texas and Oklahoma out of the room, we’re the Mountain West Conference, and we’re getting $3 million (in annual TV revenue, a drastic decrease). We’ve got two star players, whether people want to like that or not: Texas and Oklahoma.”
Colorado State already is in the Mountain West. Until Texas and Oklahoma decide what they truly want, there’s no use in the Rams joining the doppelganger of the league in which they already reside.
Buffs boost recruiting.
Build it and they will come. It’s as true for baseball fields in the cornfields of Iowa as it is for college football recruiting.
CU’s resurgence on the field has resulted in a windfall of new recruits, highlighted this week by commitments from lineman Xavier Newman and receiver KD Nixon, both fourstar recruits from DeSoto High School in Texas, alma mater of one Von Miller.
Newman had originally committed to Texas, but his decision to jump to the Buffs was solidified while on a visit to Boulder during CU’s romp over Arizona State last weekend.
Tangling with the Longhorns and winning recruiting battles in the state of Texas is just another sign of how quickly things have turned around for the Buffs.