The recent expansion circus, or realignment circus, or whatever you want to call it, serves up the latest proof that college presidents cannot possibly be genuine when they extoll the importance of academics.
And I'm not just talking about the blatantly commercialistic and profit-driven ideas behind all this maneuvering and realignment that at one time seemed inevitable.
I'm also talking about the ignorance of basic math in the names of these conferences.
The Pac-10 will have 11 schools.
The Big Ten, which formerly had 11 schools, will now have 12.
And the Big 12 will now (apparently) have 10.
This craziness actually sends a message that's quite fitting: No one can count.
At least the SEC doesn't even pretend to know how to perform simple addition.
Boy, I know of at least one person who had a severe case of the Mondays yesterday.
Joe Schad, college football reporter for ESPN.com, has been known to get stuff wrong. So there was some reason for skepticism when he breathlessly reported that Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were headed to the Pac-10.
There was even more reason to be skeptical when, at about the same time, Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com was reporting the Big 12 would likely stay together.
Brown ended up being right.
Schad made the Tweet Of Shame when he posted this back, back, backtracking message on his Twitter feed.
"Chip Brown is correct. Beebe's proposal, one source said, is "gaining traction."
Brown later posted this on his Twitter feed: "Got bumped off College Football Live today because the producers said, 'Joe Schad is now reporting what you're reporting.'
So no, not a good day for Schad.
This story takes a look at all of yesterday's expansion theatrics.
This Seattle columnist says a done deal became undone in short order.
This Dallas columnist credits Dan Beebe for raising the Big 12 from the dead.
Anyway, those were the story lines available at press time. More may have developed since I brushed my teeth. If Dan Beebe succeeds in putting this back together, he should proceed directly to the Middle East, then work his way around the globe counter-clockwise. Humpty Dumpty should have been so lucky.
Looks like the Big 12, er, 10, is going to be a helluva basketball conference with two of its weakest teams departed.
Very interesting story from the New York Times on how things broke down with the Pac-10.
The Big 12 will survive as a 10-team league because of an influx of television money from Fox that ensured its financial future and lured back Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M — the Big 12’s bedrock teams — who had been in discussions with other conferences.
Although it appeared that Texas was leading a charge of four teams from the Big 12 South to the Pac-10, an official with direct knowledge of the talks said late Monday night that Texas’s 11th-hour demands to the Pac-10 broke down the talks. Texas wanted to keep its lucrative local television rights and also asked for “extra sweetener” in revenue sharing, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the talks.
“It was unacceptable,” the official said. “The talks broke down.”
Congrats to Jack Leggett and the Tigers' baseball team. Heck of an accomplishment, and heck of a climb off the mat after those ugly ACC series losses at Wake Forest and Duke.
Given the contributions from young players on this team -- including freshmen Richie Shaffer and Dominic Leone yesterday -- this program is in good shape.
Here's a look from the Alabama side at Clemson shelling the Crimson Tide's "Peanut."
Now the best news for last: You won't be subjected to my blog ramblings over the next two weeks.
Taking a little vacation. And though I'll be checking in on the WEZ board from time to time, the blog is getting some time off as well.
See ya soon.
LW
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