Realignment speculation

If the Big 12 (or any other P5 expands) the competition UH faces, will not be Tech of Baylor, they are already in, it’ll be from UCF, USF, Cincy etc. All of these programs will be looked at by the Big 12 and ACC.

The only P5 for which UH is the silw expansion option is Pac. The trouble there is, they need to expand with 2, who would be a good partner for UH?

Completely pointless to go on and on about Big 12 expansion! They didnt expand for a simple reason. OU and Texas already knew they were going to leave when GOR expires, and an expansion only wouldve complicated that situation. They were NEVER going to expand…the whole thing was a sham…The only way the Big 12 even survives after OU and Texas leave is if NO ONE does anything…Not PAC, not SEC, no one…does anyone really think thats going to happen?
PAC in a bad place now and way behind their rival conferences. PAC desperately needs to expand eastward to try and help themselves market wise and money wise. We have to hope they will make a move when time comes, and that would be when tv deal comes up for renewal in 2023. Nothing to do but wait…Only certainty is OU and Texas are GONE…

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How do we draw for away games? How do we draw against no name team games? How do we draw for bowl games outside of Texas? We need that kind of brand.

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New Mexico or UNLV

The SI Oral history article that you posted was good, but left out some key parts and Chuck Neinas tried to throw in that revisionist history abut ESPN deciding.

Check this one out and you’ll see how Texas basically nixed the merger of both conferences

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Thanks for the link to the history article Pray10. So, it was UTs call to dump 4 SWC schools. Can’t help but wonder how things might have evolved if indeed it had been a full 16 team merger.

Would like to have read the Mercury article, but it’s no longer available. Pity.

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I can assure you that UH was not even on A&M’s (or the SEC’s) radar when A&M made the decision to leave the Big 12. Second, if you have followed SEC news and events over the last ten years, you would know that there are a core group of schools who carry SEC exclusivity in their state that will vote against expansion within their respective states. It’s the so-called gentleman’s agreement. It’s why the SEC will never seriously consider Clemson or FSU even though those are two very successful programs.

A&M and LSU will fight to keep UH out of the SEC.

Now not only is UT scared of UH but so is aTM and LSU?

A&M has not played us since the break up of the SWC and LSU has refused to play us since we almost won in Baton Rouge ( it took the refs to beat us in that game). LSU even paid us off to not play the next scheduled game. You tell me if they are afraid of us or not.

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I don’t feel either feels that they have anything to gain by playing us. Losing to us would not be the end of the world but they would rather have a higher percentage chance to win. Whether that’s the reason, or our previous athletic directors were simply inept in their social and marketing abilities, who knows.

That being said, I have full disdain for A&M for not playing us. Even UT agreed to play us after the break up until we screwed that pooch.

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That sounds, to use a charitable term, fanciful.

Truth is that UH on a level p5 playing field, meaning being a p5 member, scares the heck out of A&M, Tech, Baylor, TCU, OKS,LSU, both schools in Kansas, and both Schools in Mississippi. UH in Houston playing a p5 schedule and haveing access to the playoffs scares everyone except the very top tier of schools such as Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, and a very few others. You will notice that I did not say anything about PAC schools. That is because we will most likely be PAC and it will benefit them with better access to the #1 recruiting area in the United States.

I don’t feel having UH in the pac will affect recruiting for pac schools. The ones that recruit Houston already do so well enough without playing anywhere near here. Instead we will likely be like WVU and be an outlier with our own little recruiting area.

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It is as simple as this. You are not afraid of us? Then let us in and join a P5. We made it clear multiple times that we could financially "ease"our way in like many others have done.

Probation and probation? You decide.

We got hammered and have never fully recovered from it. What better way to tackle us from behind and slow down our momentum? You betcha it had and still has a major impact with fans. When you build a brand the last thing that you want to see happening is a major set back. We had three. Three within a few years. uta and atm fully knew what they were doing with the ncaa’s help. These three probation killed our progression toward national prominence. It would have affected fans attendance for any other School if it happened to them. It is very convenient to say that our attendance sucked. When you get punched in the gut (to put it mildly) multiple times and at crucial times it has a major impact. For a new program this is devastating.
This leads us to today. Since 1996 we have played in shitty conferences but we now have a P5 like sports foundation. We recruit third, fourth or fifth choice players with a few exceptions. Besides all of that we managed to soundly beat FSU, OU, and Louisville when every single media outlet picked us to be blow away. OU comments regretting playing us or inviting us into the small12 speak volume. You betcha uta, atm and others are scared for U of H joining a P5. Actions speak louder than words.

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How about we keep building our brand. Avg 30/35 thousand a game and win our conference on a consistent basis. This victim mentality by some of our fans is nausitating.

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I wouldn’t say that it’s a victim mentality. It’s more of a bitterness over past/present injustices.

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Hoping that UT/OU others can be shamed into getting UH into a P5, is not a strategy that is likely to work.

It will come down to finances. If UH were in the Big 12, the networks would be paying $37 million this year as opposed to the $4 million they currently are for UH.

The networks will need one heckuva threat, or amazing ROI business case for them to support any G5 program moving to a P5.

When I look at the huge difference in what the networks are currently paying for UH versus what they will pay of UH were in the Big 12, from a purely $ and business perspective, the case becomes very distressing.

The rice fields have been dried up and turned into developments. They won’t return to South Main.

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So, we now have five conferences everyone considers as the P-5. What if the Little-12 dies because uta, OU, Kansas, and maybe one more, leave for some other P-5?

If the TV networks still want five power conferences, could the ACC simply replace the Little-12?

Just askin’!

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