Kansas begs Nebraska not to leave the Big 12

[Mr.B!!!]

Not at all. Wouldn't take another AD over him. Not sure what lead to that inquiry in the first place....




I do agree with him, at this juncture staying in the Big 12 is what's best for OU. All this expansion talk, while very hot, is still nothing until its official.

But I also know that Joe C. is doing a lot of work behind the scenes, and that might not mean trying to stay within the conference. He knows "how to play the media game" so to speak, and isn't going to comment on what research or opportunities he's been exploring, nor should he. I think he has a plan should Nebraska and Mizzou indeed make the Big 10 transition, and it will be what's best for OU, Big 8/12 tradition not withstanding. And IMO it would make the most sense to head to the new-look Pac 10: More academic clout, greater opportunity for OU's athletic endeavors, and more earning potential that would better the university as a whole.

So I don't know what's going to transpire at this point in time, but I'm confident Joe C. will do what's best for OU. Whether that means stay in the Big 12 should it remain intact, or head out West should Missouri and Colorado leave. We'll see.

There is more to this than speculation, I'll leave it at that.

 

[Cheno]

Honestly it's just sad. I can't sit back with a smile and watch Big 8 Conference tradition and history be wiped off the face of the map. This sucks.

I agree. People with a sense of history understand that. The Big 8/12 has been a big part of many of our lives. The youth don't understand. They don't remember Johnny Orr and Norm Stewart...heck some don't remember Billy Tubbs really. If it happens, I'll miss the contests on the field. I'll miss Hilton Magic......I'll miss the Orange in the arena when playing OSU...hell, I'll even miss the Antlers. It's bigger than just a few more dollars in the short term....for some of us fans anyways.

 

[stoops4pres]

It was already wiped off the face of the map when the Big 12 was formed. Think about it. Is Nebraska even our rival anymore? We don't get to have the home and home in basketball with teams like Kansas and Mizzou.

It was ruined the day that the Big 12 was formed.

Agreed. The Big 8 was virtually dissolved when the Big 12 formed, unfortunately. This just puts the final blow on it.

 

[Mr.B!!!]

I'm not saying that I would have wanted this to happen. But if it is going to happen, then I want to at least enjoy the fact that the most arrogant basketball fanbase this side of the Mississippi might get left out in the cold. Throw in the small chance (I doubt it) that OSUJeff's clan could get the squeeze, and I am tickled pink.

If the Pac-10 expands and we are part of it, I think that it is more likely than not that oSu is not a part of the deal. The local media pundits may feel otherwise, but there is not a law that prohibits OU from moving on, and Utah and Baylor may be more likely targets. Utah for its proximity and sports program, and Baylor for its ease of getting UT in the conference. I'd also add that as big of OU homers as many of us are, I think if we are joined at the hip with oSu, we become expendable, just like KU. If you are in Oklahoma, you should be calling your legislator and demanding that OU be allowed to choose its own conference pursuant to existing state laws.

 

[Sooner23]

KU basketball would actually be a natural fit in the Missouri Valley with rivals Wichita State, Missouri State and ........

 

[Cheno]

I'd also add that as big of OU homers as many of us are, I think if we are joined at the hip with oSu, we become expendable, just like KU. If you are in Oklahoma, you should be calling your legislator and demanding that OU be allowed to choose its own conference pursuant to existing state laws.

But why would you not WANT to be part of Bedlam anymore? Why would you not WANT to play OSU in all sports every year? To me that's just crazy talk. That's what college sports is all about. You want to give that up so you can go play Oregon St and Arizona St? How much fun would that be?

 

[stoops4pres]

There is more to this than speculation, I'll leave it at that.

Definitely doesn't shock me to hear that. Glad Joe C and Boren are running the show for OU.

 

[stoops4pres]

But why would you not WANT to be part of Bedlam anymore? Why would you not WANT to play OSU in all sports every year? To me that's just crazy talk. That's what college sports is all about. You want to give that up so you can go play Oregon St and Arizona St? How much fun would that be?

Hypothetically, if OU and Ok State were in fact split apart, I'm willing to bet the yearly match-ups in all sports would still remain intact.

 

[Cheno]

KU basketball would actually be a natural fit in the Missouri Valley with rivals Wichita State, Missouri State and ........

Wouldn't be much different. KU basketball would dominate that conference like they do the Big 12. Same if they join the Mountain West.
It would really hurt KU's other athletic programs though.

 

[Cheno]

Hypothetically, if OU and Ok State were in fact split apart, I'm willing to bet the yearly match-ups in all sports would still remain intact.

Possibly. But I keep hearing from some they don't mean much.
And it wouldn't be the same. And wouldn't include home and homes in the same year. And it wouldn't be a conference game. To suggest they would is silly. The hoops and football game would probably be in some neutral site with no passion. Like the Mizzou/Illinois hoop game. I look forward to Bedlam. I look forward to KU/Mizzou, KU/KSU...I look forward to Texas/OU....I look forward to those rivalries.

 

[BigTime]

If the Pac-10 expands and we are part of it, I think that it is more likely than not that oSu is not a part of the deal. The local media pundits may feel otherwise, but there is not a law that prohibits OU from moving on, and Utah and Baylor may be more likely targets. Utah for its proximity and sports program, and Baylor for its ease of getting UT in the conference. I'd also add that as big of OU homers as many of us are, I think if we are joined at the hip with oSu, we become expendable, just like KU. If you are in Oklahoma, you should be calling your legislator and demanding that OU be allowed to choose its own conference pursuant to existing state laws.

I think you make a valid point about us becoming expendable if we truely are tied at the hip with OKSU. I would have no qualms about being in a different conference from them though. I mean, we could still have bedlam in every sport. Look at Iowa and Iowa State. Look at the Florida schools in football. They still maintain the rivalry despite being in different conferences.

And if OSU stays with us then that's great too. Bedlam will stay bedlam as long as sooners are living amongst cowboys, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

 

[Mr.B!!!]

But why would you not WANT to be part of Bedlam anymore? Why would you not WANT to play OSU in all sports every year? To me that's just crazy talk. That's what college sports is all about. You want to give that up so you can go play Oregon St and Arizona St? How much fun would that be?

Ummm, becuase we can still play them non-conference for starters. See CU and CSU, UF and FSU if you need some examples. We spent the better part of 50 years NOT being in the same conference with oSu and we've pretty much dominated them in the two biggest sports anyway...it is a rivalry, but in name ("Bedlam") only.

Look, I get that you are having a bad day, but the SECOND this thing started up your University President should have been all over it....instead she went to Europe. Go vent on her dumb ass. You fire the only coach to get you to a BCS game and throw everything into a basketball program that, while danged impressive, is admitted by your own head coach to be irrelevant in the current climate. I'd draw and quarter Lew and Bernadette (seriously, Bernadette?) if I were a KU fan.

 

[BigTime]

Ummm, becuase we can still play them non-conference for starters. See CU and CSU, UF and FSU if you need some examples. We spent the better part of 50 years NOT being in the same conference with oSu and we've pretty much dominated them in the two biggest sports anyway...it is a rivalry, but in name ("Bedlam") only.

Look, I get that you are having a bad day, but the SECOND this thing started up your University President should have been all over it....instead she went to Europe. Go vent on her dumb ass. You fire the only coach to get you to a BCS game and throw everything into a basketball program that, while danged impressive, is admitted by your own head coach to be irrelevant in the current climate. I'd draw and quarter Lew and Bernadette (seriously, Bernadette?) if I were a KU fan.

I bet Mangino is laughing it up right now (in between bites of fried cheese balls). I still can't believe they fired him. Amazing really. He was like a Sampson of the football world. Would have always made them relevant using the rich Kansas football juco talent and by getting more with less.

 

[Mr.B!!!]

I think you make a valid point about us becoming expendable if we truely are tied at the hip with OKSU. I would have no qualms about being in a different conference from them though. I mean, we could still have bedlam in every sport. Look at Iowa and Iowa State. Look at the Florida schools in football. They still maintain the rivalry despite being in different conferences.

And if OSU stays with us then that's great too. Bedlam will stay bedlam as long as sooners are living amongst cowboys, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Exactly how I feel. In fact, "Bedlam" may become an even bigger deal (just not to OU fans). I've been vocal and consistent, we need to make sure that we are not handcuffed to them if we want to be in one of these super-conferences. I don't think that they are truly that interested in oSu...and our strength in football actually hurts as with respect to the established powers in those conferences. We need to be proactive here.

 

[Tony]

Possibly. But I keep hearing from some they don't mean much.
And it wouldn't be the same. And wouldn't include home and homes in the same year. And it wouldn't be a conference game. To suggest they would is silly. The hoops and football game would probably be in some neutral site with no passion. Like the Mizzou/Illinois hoop game. I look forward to Bedlam. I look forward to KU/Mizzou, KU/KSU...I look forward to Texas/OU....I look forward to those rivalries.

The Texas/OU game was a non-conference game for decades. And it was (and still is) at a "neutral site with no passion." I swear, the youth these days just do not understand.

 

[boksooner]

I bet Mangino is laughing it up right now (in between bites of fried cheese balls). I still can't believe they fired him. Amazing really. He was like a Sampson of the football world. Would have always made them relevant using the rich Kansas football juco talent and by getting more with less.

The cost of cleaning all those towels was too much to bear.

 

[Cheno]

Ummm, becuase we can still play them non-conference for starters. See CU and CSU, UF and FSU if you need some examples. We spent the better part of 50 years NOT being in the same conference with oSu and we've pretty much dominated them in the two biggest sports anyway...it is a rivalry, but in name ("Bedlam") only.

Look, I get that you are having a bad day, but the SECOND this thing started up your University President should have been all over it....instead she went to Europe. Go vent on her dumb ass. You fire the only coach to get you to a BCS game and throw everything into a basketball program that, while danged impressive, is admitted by your own head coach to be irrelevant in the current climate. I'd draw and quarter Lew and Bernadette (seriously, Bernadette?) if I were a KU fan.

Yeah cuz CU vs CSU really means something. Blah. Just like the Illinois/Mizzou game played in St. Louis has passion. No.
And what does Bernadette going to Europe have to do anything. Man, KU must be powerful if you think the possible break-up of the Big 12 wouldn't have happened if the female chancellor went to the Big 12 meetings and said "guys, nobody is leaving...case closed". LOL. I mean come 'on this is about money and football....not KU's chancellor. Silly statement. And what has Lew Perkins done wrong? He's elevated KU's athletic department hugely. Doubled the athletic budget, brought incredible facilities. Yes, I'll hate it if the Big 12 breaks up. Probably wouldn't be good for KU.
I won't like it as an OU fan either. Are you really looking forward to playing the Pac-10 teams? Are you looking at it as you'll have a better chance for success? I don't see the excitement as a fan. I can see Nebraska and Mizzou fans being excited about the Big 10. I get that. Maybe it's just me and my dislike for the Pac-10. I think the Pac-10 sucks...from travel to late night games to crappy Fox Sports.

 

[Mr.B!!!]

I bet Mangino is laughing it up right now (in between bites of fried cheese balls). I still can't believe they fired him. Amazing really. He was like a Sampson of the football world. Would have always made them relevant using the rich Kansas football juco talent and by getting more with less.

Oh, you know he is laughing it up. I was kind of laughing at what Self said myself. You know who else is crapping their pants? The NCAA. Hoops pretty much pays their bills. Not saying that this is the end of college basketball as we know it, but NCAA is loosing some stroke in this process as well. I could EASILY see all of this leading to the MAJOR conferences splitting off and starting over.

 

[seniorsooner]

NORMAN — The two coaches Sooner fans care about most feel differently about the possibility of Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 for the Pac-10.

Football's Bob Stoops is excited.

Women's basketball's Sherri Coale is not.

"It's kind of exciting to me, what the possibilities are for our program,” Stoops said. "What actually it will be, I don't know. In the end, it'll be positive.”

Coale is not so enthusiastic.

"It's not something I want to happen,” Coale said. "We have one of the premier conferences in women's college basketball. We've been No. 1 in attendance, No. 1 RPI the past two-three years.

"The Big 12 is a great conference for our sport. I would hate to see it broken up.”

While Coale believes a Pac-10/Big 12 merger might not be the best thing for OU women's basketball, Stoops thinks it stands to benefit his program.

"(The Big 12) has been great for us. We have been in a good number of Big 12 championship games and won a number of times. Obviously, it's been good for us,” Stoops said. "But the more people are talking about (the Pac-10), the more people are thinking, 'That's exciting. That's pretty cool. That has a chance to be special.' It's win/win. Best of everything.”

Stoops says a chance to play against Pac-10 schools in conference could open the window to one of the nation's largest recruiting hotbeds, California. With the Big 12 South schools expected to join OU in the event of a merger, the Sooners would keep their traditional recruiting base of Texas strong, too.

"When I first heard it, I thought it was exciting. Thought, that has a chance to be pretty good, by bringing the West Coast recruiting into play,” Stoops said. "For us, especially to play down in Texas, has always been positive. I think that has a chance to be the best of everything, a good number of games we have in the South and then out West.

"It brings everything out West into play, particularly California.”

Coale, however, has cause to hope the Big 12 stays together.

Over the last decade, the league has become a powerhouse in women's basketball, and OU has thrived in that environment.

Both in performance and in interest.

The Sooners ranked fourth nationally in attendance, and advanced to their second straight Final Four.

The Big 12 has also thrived in women's hoops.

A national-best seven schools from the conference made this past season's NCAA Tournament.

And for the 11th year in a row, the Big 12 also led all conferences in women's basketball attendance, with an average of 5,247 fans a game.

In fact, the Big 12 had five schools rank in the top 10 nationally in average home attendance in women's basketball, with Iowa State, OU, Nebraska, Baylor and Texas Tech all averaging more than 7,200 fans per home game.

Only of those schools, OU and Texas Tech, are certain to receive invitations to the Pac-10, which other than Stanford, is mediocre in women's hoops, both in performance and interest.

Last season, only two schools from the Pac-10 ranked in the top 50 in attendance: Stanford (No. 23) and Arizona State (No. 45); while Arizona, California, Oregon State, UCLA, USC and Washington State all averaged fewer than 1,500 a game.

In other words, Sooner fans would be watching lesser opponents at the Lloyd Noble Center, and OU's teams would be playing in front of smaller crowds on the road.

"I'm concerned about what (a move to the Pac-10) would do to our fan base,” Coale said. "We're in a conference where we play in front of thousands night to night. Out there, you might see crowds of one-thousand. Maybe it's something where (the Big 12 schools) help their attendance. I don't know.”

OU baseball coach Sunny Golloway, whose Sooners take on Virginia this weekend with a College World Series berth on the line, aligns with Stoops.

He believes a merger with the Pac-10 would create college baseball's top conference and generate more interest in the sport, locally and nationally.

"Potentially, Arizona and Arizona State is who we're talking about being aligned with, my personal feeling, that's the best baseball division in a conference in the country,” Golloway said. "You look at who the weakest link would be and say that's how strong the chain is? Whew. Whoever someone might argue is the weakest on that is going to be the strongest in other conferences.

"I'd be ready to compete. And it could help college baseball get on the tube more. There would be a lot of interest in that division. And how they cross-bracket every year, and the pride in the divisions crossing, oh man. Everyone's RPI would be in the top 10.”

John Helsley contributed to this report.

Read more: http://newsok.com/ous-bob-stoops-int...#ixzz0qKPpr1yc

 

[Sawyer]

Possibly. But I keep hearing from some they don't mean much.
And it wouldn't be the same. And wouldn't include home and homes in the same year. And it wouldn't be a conference game. To suggest they would is silly. The hoops and football game would probably be in some neutral site with no passion. Like the Mizzou/Illinois hoop game. I look forward to Bedlam. I look forward to KU/Mizzou, KU/KSU...I look forward to Texas/OU....I look forward to those rivalries.

Neutral sites are notorious for their lack of passion (see: Red River Shootout every year, ku/MU in KC). And if you think the Illinois games in St. Louis lack passion, you've obviously never been to one. It's a huge deal for Mizzou fans, especially in that part of the state.