In many ways they'll miss the good old days
Someday, someday
Yeah it hurts to say but I want you to stay
Sometimes, sometimes
When we was young oh man did we have fun
Always, always
Promises they break before they're made
Sometimes, sometimes …
… I see alone we stand together we fall apart
Yeah, I think I'll be alright
I'm working so I won't have to try so hard
Tables they turn sometimes.
Oh someday.
I ain't wasting no more time.
I love The Strokes. Anyone else? This is one of my favorite songs and it is my official “adios” to Colorado and Nebraska. We had some good times, didn’t we? I enjoyed my trips to Lincoln and Boulder, and while Texas won more than they lost, they had their moments. This isn’t the time to remember the bad things, only the good. I wish you both good luck, but a couple of things:

• Colorado, have you thought this through now that the Big 12 still exists? I know you want to go west, but do you have the money to go west? Where are you getting your Big 12 buyout money? You can’t spend what you do not have, and the fact you couldn’t come up with the $3 million to buy out Dan Hawkins last year tells me you don’t have it. I guess it’s too late now. You signed your new lease and put down your deposit and everything. Maybe have a bake sale? Pull some girls together and have a carwash in the parking lot? Call Coors? Those are just a few ideas. Who will the students hate on now the Texas schools are off the schedule? My guess is Oregon. They are too much alike to get along.
• Now we will see just how friendly your fan base is, Big Red, because you are about to enter the meat grinder of away games. You think Texas fans were rude in 1999 at the Big 12 Championship? Wait until you travel to Ohio State for a night game. Or Penn State. Or Wisconsin.  Michigan State destroys their town during daylight savings when the bars close, so what do you think will happen to you guys when you play them in East Lansing? Nobody go to the bathroom alone if you are sitting near the student section. Ever. Enjoy your new family.

The Big 12 survived. I guess. We will get to that in a minute. First let’s address the horrible end to the baseball season.

Texas Baseball

The Horns were the chic pick to win the National Championship this year because of strong defense, terrific pitching and the intangibles that have gotten Texas to the College World Series 33 times. It turns out that Texas got out-Texas’d by a TCU team that was better, deeper and frankly looked like they wanted it more. A quick post-mortem:

Game One — TCU 3, Texas 1

It was the Matt Purke Show. The freshman lefty was the first round pick of the Texas Rangers last year and you saw why. He is dynamite. He looks goofy with his sideways hat and his Kareem goggles, but the look doesn’t match his personality. He struck out 11, walked only one and made only one mistake, hanging a pitch that Kevin Keyes get into the air for a solo homer in the seventh. Starting pitcher Cole Green looked very good, allowing only five hits. Two sacrifice flies plated two runs and Green, while attempting to intentionally walk a batter with runners on second and third, got a spike stuck in the turf and lost control of a pitch, putting it into the backstop and allowing a TCU run.

It was a Major League-type game and the pitchers dominated, but TCU found a way to get three runs and Texas left runners in scoring position in the eighth and once again failed to execute when they needed to, throwing the wild pitch and botching a sacrifice bunt that eventually ended in a double play.
He may have looked like a combination of Kevin Federline and Seth Green in Can’t Hardly Wait, but Purke was awesome.

Game Two — Texas 14, TCU 1
 
It was the sort of game you would expect from the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. With Taylor Jungmann on the mound, the Horned Frogs never really threatened Texas. The Horns got on the board in a scoreless game in the third inning when Kevin Keyes hit a slow-roller to third. The throw was wide and two runs scored. The “accidental” contact by Keyes didn’t allow the runs to score, by the way. Texas blew it open in the fifth with seven runs and Jungmann went 8 1/3, allowing only six hits and the one run.
 The Horns were back in business. No way Texas loses at home in Game 3.

Game Three — TCU 4, Texas 1

I could be wrong about that. In fact, I am. Texas did lose. The Horns had their chances early but couldn’t capitalize as they left runners on base time and again. In fact, Texas left 10 runners on base and never once could capitalize on the little momentum they scratched out at the plate. Meanwhile, TCU had all the mojo working for them.  A double in the fifth by lead-off hitter Matt Featherstone was made worse by a throwing error, getting him to third with no outs.  A single scored him and they had the lead. Texas pulled starter Brandon Workman for All-American Chance Ruffin, but it totally backfired. Ruffin walked the second batter of the seventh and then gave up a two-run homer to Aaron Shultz, his first hit of the Super Regional, and TCU had a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 lead. Brian Holaday added a laser-shot home run in the eighth and that was that. TCU was on to their first ever College World Series with a 4-1 win.

What happened?

Two things happened. First, TCU is damn good. They do almost everything well and didn’t make mistakes. They got hits when they needed them, great plays from their defense — That  play in the first inning of game three by the first baseman might have won them the series — and their pitching was phenomenal. It’s hard to combat a great pitcher and that’s what TCU had last weekend. Secondly, and this one might be hard to take, but they looked like they wanted it more. Friday TCU looked better, Saturday Texas looked better and Sunday TCU looked excited and Texas looked hot.
Yuck. Congrats to the Horned Frogs and good luck in Omaha. I don’t want ou to win anything ever, so I guess I’ll be rooting for you.

The Big 12. Sort of.

As you all know, the Big 12 was saved in the final hours with a new TV deal that kept the remaining 10 (remember, Colorado and Nebraska have left) together for the foreseeable future. I am calling this new conference “The Big ~ 12” or just “The Big~ “ for short since there are no plans to change the name and the conference might add more teams down the line. The Big~ will not have a conference championship game in football and all ten teams will play each season, meaning nine conference games for everyone. Here are the details on how it all came to pass:

• After Nebraska left for the Big Ten and Colorado soonered Baylor and took a bid to join the Pac-10 before the Texas legislature could try to force Baylor in — They weren’t going to do that, but CU thought they would try. — the Big 12 was on a breathing tube. The departure of Texas, ou, Oklahoma State, Tech and A&M to the Pac-10 was imminent, and Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, Iowa State and Missouri were going to be kicked out to the street.
• The kicked out were saying and doing anything to keep the Pac-10 invitees from leaving. They even offered to forfeit their share of the buyout money from Colorado and Nebraska to them for not leaving, which is the athletic conference version of saying, “We can have an open relationship if you will stay.”
• The hold-up was Texas A&M, who had a majority of regents dead set on the SEC. Athletics Director Bill Byrne had stated openly he had no intention of sending his teams to the far reaches of the west coast for any reason. The Aggies, if necessary, were going to leave the other Pac-10 invitees and head to the SEC and they had the full support of their powers on campus to do that. Texas said they would leave with or without them and rumors swirled that if the two went to separate conferences they would no longer play against each other. The Aggies didn’t budge.
• The standoff between Texas and the Aggies was holding the Pac-10 deal up and while they were staring each other down, the deal changed. According to Chip Brown, one of my favorite writers and champion of all information regarding the Pac-10/Big 12/Big Ten/The~, Kansas and Utah started to emerge as replacements for A&M and one other team in the Big 12 invited west.
• Texas blinked. They came back to the table and wanted to see what needed to be done to keep A&M and Texas together.  The Big 12 and their TV contract had something the remaining Big 12 wanted to hear, and Texas was now listening, meaning everyone else was, too.
• The TV deal would remain in place for The Big ~. All contracts would be honored and revenue guaranteed, including the Big 12 Championship Game that would not be played. That meant that the 10 teams would split the money originally allotted for 12 teams and they would all get a piece of the Championship Game money even though it would not be played. Everyone’s share would increase dramatically. The buyout money coming from Colorado and Nebraska, which will be around $35 million, would be divided between the remaining schools. That pushed the totals for Texas, ou and A&M to $20 million each (remember, unequal revenue sharing means the most TV appearances gets the most money) and everyone else would get $14-$17 each.
• The kicked out schools were happy, even though they were getting less than the other schools. Oklahoma State and Tech were not, but they were still making more money than ever before. Texas A&M was getting more at $20 million than they would have from the SEC ($17.4), and ou was getting more than they would have from the Pac-10 (~ $17 or so to start). Texas was allowed to create their own network, which would generate an estimated $3 to $5 million per year and make Texas the most profitable BCS school around at annual revenues of $25 million.
• All ten teams signed off and The Big ~ was saved. Sort of.

First of all, let me say that from a financial standpoint it totally makes sense for everyone involved to stay in The Big ~. Each school is making more money than they would have anywhere else and for schools like A&M that have an athletics department under water is was a no-brainer. Who could turn down $20 million per year? No one. A lot of the fans aren’t happy because they see this as a watered down league with few marquee games, but if the money is there you have to do it.
My question is whether or not the money is there. I know ABC/ESPN and Fox committed the money for the existing TV contract and that will suffice for now, but that contract is up in 2016. That means in five years this deal must be renegotiated and I see absolutely nothing that leads me to believe that will happen. Unless something changes in The Big ~.

A lot of the Big 12 schools, both current and former, call Texas an arrogant bully. They say Texas dictates to the league and the league obeys. A few of the Pac-10 invitees really wanted to go west, but Texas didn’t so they had to stay. Some are still not happy with the unequal revenue sharing, but they didn’t have a choice but to sign. Some say Texas is overbearing, pushy and far too smug about their place in college athletics. That could be all true, and I say this to those in this new Big “ that think that: do something about it.

Texas got you all paid. And make no mistake, Texas got you paid. If Texas bolts for the Pac-10, this deal isn’t happening. I’ll give A&M a ton of credit for doing what they had to in order to get Texas back to the table, but the bottom line is, if there is no Texas in the new  Big~, this TV deal isn’t happening. Call it arrogance, call it whatever you want, but it is hard to argue that isn’t true. Texas hit five of you with the paddles on the ER table and brought you back to life. Texas ensured every member in the conference now has more money than ever before coming in. Now respond by investing in your facilities and programs, hiring great coaches when applicable and winning some games. If you guys want this thing to survive, and I suspect that you do, you need to step it up. Yes, Texas and ou are the haves of college football  and now you have the money to start the process of becoming one as well.
I’m looking directly at you, Aggies.

You want to be considered a real player on the college scene and dictate your own terms when realignment comes up again? Earn it on the field. Texas has done that. The sooners have done that. Your turn. You did it in the 80’s and 90’s and now you need to do it again. I don’t like you, but you being good is good for all of us. It makes the Texas/A&M game relevant nationally. It makes the A&M/ou game relevant nationally. It helps make the Big ~ relevant nationally. There is no conference championship game, so these games need to be the marquee games on the schedule. Make it happen.

You, too, Oklahoma State.

You already have wonderful facilities thanks to T Boone, now respond with some success. Make Bedlam another Must See game on TV for the national audience.
If Tommy Tubberville succeeds at Tech, and I think that he will, The Big ~ would have half of the league as relevant players on the national scene in football.  Anything out of Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas or Kansas State would be a bonus. I’m not sure what to think about Missouri. They were so open and overt about wanting to leave they have created some serious ill will with the rest of the league, to the point that some schools have wondered what the league would look like without them. I don’t think that will happen, but the talk is out there.

That talk must go away and several teams must become better on the field very soon if this league is to survive. Five teams got a second chance and everyone got rich, so now is the time to take the next step. If that doesn’t happen, the Big ~ goes away forever in 2016.

Misc. …

I have my doubts this league will succeed, but there are several things I like about it. I love the loss of the Championship Game. No one benefits from it.  In the 14 years of the Big 12’s existence, that game has cost the Big 12 four National Championship berths: Nebraska was set for three-peat title defense in 1996 before Texas beat them, the Aggies upset No. 2 K-State in overtime in 1998, you all remember that horrible game with Colorado in 2001 in Texas Stadium and the No.1 ranked Missouri Tigers were housed by ou in 2007. Be gone, silly game. And the fact everyone gets to keep the money from it for the next five years is a bonus. Nebraska is gone, so that’s nice. The Big ~ is going to rock in basketball as every team plays a home and home with everyone else, meaning Texas vs. KU twice a year. The loss of the worst two teams in the league (Huskers, Buffs) only makes the conference stronger.

No, this isn’t the sexiest league and yes, there are going to be some ho-hum games, but this is what we have. Complaining about it won’t make it go away, so make the best of it. Get better, Aggies. Get better, Oklahoma State. And get a freakin’ baseball team already, Iowa State. Let’s see if we can’t make this thing work.
With the loss in the Super Regional, I am back to bi-weekly, so I’ll see you guys in two weeks.