The Rest of College Football

[entropy]

hack... I wish UNL was playing OU each year.. and CU.. really do. But OU rivalry was killed with the Big12. I have no feelings of loyalty to it at all. I'd rather be in the BIG than the big12. You won't find that many nebraska fans who sit back and disagree (maybe emotional responses, but not when they think about it).

now back to the old big8... different answer, imo.

[entropy]

mike... I think Hoss is right. If it wasn't clear yet, it is clear now, the Big12 is #5 in the pecking order.

While the ACC could have been crushed and destroyed, the big12 is now the league limping along. And I believe their members are trapped.. not a lot of options.

[hack]

Understood. I know you guys are delighted to be in the B1G, and you've explained your reasons well. In time the loss of those important rivalry games will fade. Especially because now you have this:



(What are the implied dimensions of that flag, by the way? 300 feet tall and half a mile wide or something?)

But seriously, as a basketball-first guy I just hate to see that sport being subject to it. For all we know in 30 years football isn't even around anymore, but it's too late to go back with some of these changes.

[entropy]

WACO, Texas -- After being left out of the College Football Playoff, Baylor coach Art Briles expressed fears Sunday that the Big 12 and its region were not fairly represented on the inaugural playoff committee.

Two hours after the No. 5 Bears were not selected for the playoff, Briles laid out his frustration with the playoff process and his belief that both his conference and state did not have a voice in the selection.

"My opinion, since people are asking? I think the committee needs to be a little more regionalized with people that are associated with the south part of the United States," Briles said. "I'll say that. I'm not sure if there's a connection on there that is that familiar with the Big 12 Conference. To me, that's an issue."

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Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic

Briles knew the vote on putting Ohio State in the No. 4 slot ahead of Baylor and TCU was going to be a close call, and he said he won't "moan and whine" about the outcome. But his disappointment was hard to hide during a 10-minute news conference.

"I hate it for the Big 12," Briles said. "I think the Big 12 is a great conference. I don't think there's any doubt that it's certainly one of the stronger leagues in America. I think the way the format played out, the waters got muddied a couple weeks ago with saying we'd be presented as co-champs. I think that hurt the cause for both of us, quite honestly."

But Briles directed his criticism away from the Big 12 and toward the playoff committee on Sunday. Two members of the committee -- West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck and former Nebraska coach/AD Tom Osborne -- have Big 12 ties, but Briles doesn't believe their representation is sufficient.

"We're all humans. When I die, they're not going to bury me in Maryland. They're going to bury me in Texas," Briles said. "When those people die, they're not going to bring them down here and lay their body to rest. They're going to lay them to rest wherever they lived all their lives. And teams they follow. And teams they know.

"You want to ask me about a team in this part of the United States? I can tell you about 'em. I can tell you their weaknesses and their strengths, OK? They need to have somebody on there that knows the teams in this part of the nation. The only person born in the south on that committee is Condoleezza Rice. She was born in Alabama."

During a Sunday morning appearance on "SportsCenter," Briles suggested ex-coaches R.C. Slocum, Mack Brown or Spike Dykes would be more qualified to evaluate programs in the state and region. He argued that Archie Manning stepping down from the committee in October due to health reasons might have ultimately hurt Baylor's chances.

"When Archie Manning went off, I said we're in trouble," Briles said. "I know Archie. He's a friend. He understands football down here. When he went off that committee, we were in trouble. We need a voice. We need a voice."

Despite being snubbed for the playoff, Briles insisted he's "very, very excited" to face No. 8 Michigan State in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on Jan. 1. He scoffed at the suggestion that his Baylor team won't be motivated for the game after missing out on the playoff.

After losing to UCF in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl last season, Briles said his players better care about this one.

"That's not an issue at all. Our guys want to play, they want to win, they want to represent," he said. "We can win 12 games, finish as a top-five team. For our seniors and our program, it's a huge, huge game."

[Mike]

He just doesn't understand that the 4 best teams are in the playoff. I think it's a fantastic Final Four. And WTH is he talking about people don't understand southern football? He thinks there is a NORTHERN bias!?

[UMStan White]

He needs a solid bitch slap the whining little prick

[Wild Hoss]

Briles truly needs to just STFU. If it wasn't for Texas politics his program would be the Boise State of the south, running up the score on Sun Belt opponents and being patted on the head by UT as "that cute little kid down the block". Plus they tried to squeeze out Colorado's spot on the burnt-orange bus whcih was headed to the PAC-10 a few years ago.

Baylor has received more "representation" than any school in history, from a proportional standpoint.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Briles truly needs to just STFU. If it wasn't for Texas politics his program would be the Boise State of the south, running up the score on Sun Belt opponents and being patted on the head by UT as "that cute little kid down the block". Plus they tried to squeeze out Colorado's spot on the burnt-orange bus whcih was headed to the PAC-10 a few years ago.

Baylor has received more "representation" than any school in history, from a proportional standpoint.

100% agree. Most believe that Baylor is the reason the planned 'merger' with the Pac12 didn't happen. Texas & Oklahoma probably would've taken oSu and Texas Tech with them to create a 16-team Pac12. Baylor and their ultra-wealthy alumni & trustees supposedly started hopping up and down and threatening litigation till the end of time. And most are familiar with how Baylor pulled enough strings to get into the Big12 in the first place.

When you watch their games and see the kind of thugball they play, they remind you of the old Miami. I suspect they play as fast and loose with the rules as well. And Briles is a complete jackass.

As for Memphis & Cincini joining the Big12, I will believe it when I see it. If that happens I genuinely think Texas & Oklahoma will start looking for greener pastures. They already have enough welfare cases in that league that they are helping to prop up.

[Wild Hoss]

UT's athletic direct Deloss Dodds was orchestrating a mass exodus of Texas, OU, the Pokes, ATM, Texas Tech and Colorado to the PAC when members of UT's own administration ratted them out to our Chancellor, Harvey Perlman. Once Perlman leaked it, Baylor's alumni immediately revived the campaign of 1995 in which they threw Houston out of the Big 12-bound lifeboat.

It was presumed that this time it would be Colorado whom the Bears would toss out of the raft, the Buffs being the cultural odd-man-out of this devil's deal. However, in an entirely unexpected display of competence, the Buffs moved swiftly on their own to head Baylor off at the proverbial pass and made their own separate deal with the PAC. This is the part nobody remembers; Colorado was actually the first team to leave the Big 12, not Nebraska. With Texas' grand scheme exposed, the deal fell apart and the PAC wound up taking Utah to balance the league.

Its been downhill for the Big 12 ever since.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Yeah, Colorado left for the Pac12 a couple days before Nebraska left as I recall...in spite of the B1G announcing expansion earlier than the Pac10.

Larry Scott almost pulled off quite a coup. May have just underestimated Texas politics.

[Wild Hoss]

He underestimated Texas' greed. This plan might well have gone through if not for UT's demands in regards to the distribution of TV money, which Scott would not agree to. Or was told he would not agree to.

[iam416]

As I understand it from the non-partisan musings of Wild Hoss, it's shit near impossible to overestimate UT's greed.

I rather like how it's all played out (as Hoss put it)...they've managed to trade Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri and Texas A&M for TCU, West Virginia, Memphis and Cincinnati. They fucked up the the Louisville add. And throughout this whole process they've managed to create two competing in-state "powers" as well as losing their in-state rival and giving them an SEC recruiting advantage at the same time.

Well-played, Texas. Well-played.

[entropy]

History should judge them accordingly.


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[AlabamAlum]

I still think Colorado State was the answer. Plus, legal weed on road games? No-brainer.

[iam416]

I was just reminded that Alabama opens the season with Wisky in 2015. Jebus. Gary Anderson better starting sending tribute post haste if he wants to keep that game within 85.