Your also comparing 2 different big 12s. Sampson's big 12 was at the bottom of the power conferences while Capels big 12 is at the top. Competition is a lot tougher. We have 2 teams that are ranked 2 and 3. You have Mizzou, aTm, K-ST, Col and Baylor who are way better than Sampson ever faced. The big 12 is no longer just a football conference...This conference is top 2 in basketball from head to toe.
Guys like Durant, Beasley, Griffin, Jones III, etc are coming to the big 12. You can't compare records between the 2 w/o comparing the competition.
As for Texas...Barnes has turned that team into a top program. He didn't do it over night. If you can't handle OU rebuilding, then I suggest you start supporting a team like Duke that gets nothing but top talent every year.
I disagree with the whole premise of your first paragraph. The big 8 was very tough a lot of years after Billy revived the conference. OU, KU and MU were highly ranked most of the 80's and very good programs. In the 90 season, OU, MU and KU were in the top 5 the entire year and all were ranked #1 at one point.
The big 12 now is not near as tough as it used to be. Sorry, but you are very misinformed.
Texas has been good since Barnes took over, and his only final 4 was in 2003. Texas was good under Penders. He won a few SWC titles and competed for Big 12 titles.
aTm and Baylor weren't anything great but Baylor under Bliss was an NIT team one year and the year after he was fired were set to be an NCAA tourney team and a big 12 championship competitor as that team was loaded with Lucas, Lawrence Roberts, and a few other really good players.
KSU was a nobody for most of the Big 12, but in the big 8 they were very good most years.
CU was a joke in the big 8, but in the big 12 they always had an NBA potential player on their roster (Billups, Harrison, Vandiver, Boyce Roby, etc.). Patton took them to the NCAA tourney in 97 and 2003 and to the NIT a bunch of times. They should have made the NCAA one year when they had 10 conference wins, but did not.
OSU after Eddie Sutton came to Stillwater was very good and was probably the 3rd best program in the big 12 (behind KU and OU in that order) and they are nothing now like they were back in the 90's and early part of the decade, like us.
KU has always been KU.
MU had a few bad seasons under Snyder, but before Snyder they were again a very good program and even with Snyder they made an elite 8 and dang near beat us for the Big 12 championship.
ISU hasn't been very good of late, but with Johnny Orr, Tim Floyd, and Larry Eustachy, they were battling for the conference title and NCAA berths every year. They are nothing now compared to what they were.
Tech was very good when the conference was first created. Battie, Hamm, Carr, and Sasser they were in the elite 8 or sweet 16. The next season they had Battie and Carr and won in Norman and were on the verge of a great season and then collapsed. After those guys left they took a dip, then Knight revived them and they were tourney bound most years.
IMO, the Big 12 is weaker now than it was 10 years ago in basketball. The reason aTm and Baylor are so much improved is in part due to ours and OSU's decline and maybe even due to ISU's decline. I just don't see how anybody could say the conference is tougher now, because it's not.
