Monday, June 14, 2010

Shrapnel fallout to consider….

If Texas does take the plunge to Pac-10, this will be a major power coo for the UT-Austin President. Fact: UTA Pres is a Berkley alumnus. His political ties are back in CA. He wants to see his ole buds more often & joining the Pac-10 will allow him to do just that. Chummy isn’t it? He has initiated the academic superiority talking point that has been falsely repeated a thousand times. (Which conference had the lowest APR this last measurement period of the BCS Big Six conferences? Big 12. Who’s most famous alumnus during the past quarter of a century scored a SEVEN on his Wonderlic – also ticketed for Assault & Battery at a strip club recently? UT and VY and his fine undergraduate education. Who has a lower APR than ‘Bama, LSU, KY, Florida, UGA and Vandy – HALF of the SEC? UT. There’s a tall glass of shut up juice – take a slow swig, no take a big gulp). No way DeLoss Dodds will enjoy annual meetings more at Haight-Ashbury Park over Hoover, AL. That doesn’t make sense on a number of levels for the Texas athletic director to agree to that. Just as with the academic argument, why not join the preeminent athletic conference to face the best, to be the best? If this is a SOLEY a departmental move, why not do what is in the best interest of that department? No matter how much money the department can print, a good department will want to print more. Joining the Pac-10 shuts down UT-TV before it’s launched, walking away from $3M per yr left on the table. No he’s getting punked just like Vince Dooley did when Michael Adams came to UGA, except this is more subtle, sinister because Dodds doesn’t recognize that his chain is getting yanked by Bill Powers. And apparently this is sitting well with UTA fans who aren’t in an up roar either, because they see this as an easier path to the NC game.

I haven’t seen this much evasion since the OJ chase. Texas, thru Dan Bebee, issues an ultimatum to Colorado and Nebraska, because they (UTA) don’t won’t to be seen as the school that breaks up the Big 12. Now Bebee, umm UTA, still having one foot on the Titanic trying to bail water, is forcing TAMU to wear the moniker as ‘the school that breaks up the conference’, when all of this was started by UTA. Remember UTA had the “Tech” problem joining the Big 10, when Gordon Gee from OSU called. Are they coming, staying or going? Dunno, but what is clear is that Mack Brown, DeLoss Dodds and Bill Powers are getting splinters from riding that wooden fence so hard. Texas started all of this and now when it comes nut cutting time, they are acting just like the iconic logo – bunch of woosies.

Behind the scenes is a guy name Kevin Weiberg. He’s had interesting 3 year career. Until 2007 he was the Big 12 commissioner, before Bebee, and then he leaves to be the point person for BTN start up. Larry Scott gets hired in the Pac-10 and convinced Kevin to be Deputy Commissioner and do the same thing for Pac-10. Thus Weiberg is driving the bus on who to pick off in the Big 12 for the Pac-10. He is using his Fox Sports contacts which owns 49% of BTN. After Fox got spurned by ACC, which meant Fox had money in reserves, the Pac-10 TV deal started to heat up. Mr. Weiberg is the man in the center of this circle jerk.

If they stay as the new Big 10, UTA is seen as the hero when they been nothing but Machiavellian thru out this process. Bill Powers will get atta-boy from the state legislature (more funding and power). By Gawd it’s a win/win situation for them! I just can’t see why Oklahoma wants to be tied so close to those shenanigans. For TAMU, I can’t imagine 115 years of this chaos and cow chips. ...or for the next 100

1 comment:

  1. Excellent analysis - will be interesting to see what it looks like with a larger sample size - like 10 yrs from now....

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