Despite Texas having a population greater than several SEC states combined, the SWC at the point it died, was facing a main problem (other than the backstabbing) was that it had one program (UT) with a national following, 1 program (A&M) that had strong regional and a decent national following, 4 small private programs (SMU, TCU, Rice, Baylor) with little following outside their home regions, and 2 state programs that at the time couldn’t carry enough market weight on their own and needed UT support. And UT picked Tech over UH.
That conference had no way to go but down. And that’s where it went. The conference just wasn’t sustainable with 40% of its programs being small private schools.
Recruiting for UT was falling off a cliff, with the best Texas players heading out of state. So it was greed fed by a changing landscape of college athletics that made it inevitable that a conference confined to just 1 state was going to collapse.
Btw Texas Monthly has a 1974 article (available online for free, google Texas Monthly Southwest Conference) that talks about how the SWC is weak. They basically predicted that the conference did not have a bright future. It took 18 years for their prediction to come to pass.
Horsefeathers. Don’t fall for this nonsense. They will never invite us to the B12. Whoever wrote this is just messing with you, giving you hope where there is none.
Baptists and Methodist don’t go to one school to represent all of them. BTW, Baylor would never be considered if I was Baptist, being from Houston…and the same of SMU…Houston would still be my university.
Seen the error of their ways? That’s a comforting thought and completely unrealistic. In the minds of horns et. al. they do not make mistakes, need not reflect on past errors, or amend their ways/decisions on anything, ever. It is fools gold.
If you were in the big 12, what error do you feel you made in 2016?
Oklahoma has made it into the playoffs since then. They may be left out this year but, except for the SEC, no conference has a perennial contender to grab the top spots.
And monetarily, the big 12 makes bank.
UT and/or OU leaving isn’t a sure thing so 2016 so far has no negative repercussions.
Wrong. They Big 12 will only want us if they lose another member, namely one of their four Texas schools. And, as I see it, UTA is the only school that could make that jump on its own. And I doubt that is going to happen since they can’t take LHN with them.
Also, UTA will never go independent since they need a consistent slate of conference games each year to fill out their schedule in all sports.
Go Gadfly, when the B12 media deal is renewed, you think UT and OU will sign the GOR since that will give the B12 a higher payout than not signing the GOR?
History is soon the repeat itself because OU-national, and horn-regional. I hope it continues to implode on the greedy program that got that flaming garbage truck of a conference rolling. Serves ya right horn!
If SMU was a public school UH and SMU would make a lot of sense right now, moreso than in 2016. The B12 has surpassed the P12 clearly, it would make strong hoops even stronger, people would stop mocking them for B12 10 teams, and you’re embracing one of the biggest and fastest growing states and metro areas. Both us and SMU have good reputations currently. But SMU being another private school makes this unlikely.
If Memphis has a couple of great runs in hoops and keeps it up with football and no violations come up, I could see them over SMU. Their academics apparently aren’t great but you’d think that would naturally improve as their athletics rise.
