Southwest Conference Revisionists History Beware

The greatest Realignment articles I have ever read — THE DEMISE OF THE SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE by M. Wagrin

I think the new big 12 will be the toughest conf we’ve ever been in bc of the quality of teams top to bottom along with a much larger footprint. The SWC conf was just Texas and Arkansas. The SWC also had 2 easier wins with tcu and rice being bad in the 70s etc.The new big 12 doesn’t have any cupcakes. In bb it will be better than the old Swc. It will be the best bb conf.

Speaker of the Texas House was a Tech grad. He was also instrumental in getting Tech in.

Interestingly the article does not blame Texas for Arkansas departure. That won’t sit well with many!

The fact is that SWC had too many small, private schools. Schools that were happy to cash cheques issued by the big dogs but werent offering anything close in return.

Add to political power of BU and Tech, and ESPN only supporting addition of 4 SWC programs to the Big 12, and UH was basically toast.

This statement “Still, Nebraska officials wanted to delay implementation. League presidents voted 11-1 to put the rules into immediate effect.
That was the second major defeat for Nebraska.”
Is very interesting.

Even NU own Big 8 colleagues voted against Nebraska! I recall reading that Big 8 members were willing to vote with NU on the PQ numbers in return for NU agreeing to equal revenue sharing, but NU refused.

Very interesting article for sure!

The 12 team Big 12 is much stronger than was the old SWC.

If you want to read that SA special coverage on SWC, I posted it in the Classic UH story section:

It covers all the articles.

The drum beat for the SWC’s demise started in 1984 when the Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA tv cartel. The cheating and sanctions of that era are just red herrings as to why the SWC broke up.

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How many times do we have to write it?
madcowsu imploded the SWC on purpose, highjacked the BIG8/BIG12 to dictacte which school would make up the BIG12.
What did they try to do leaving the BIG12?
IMPLODE THE BIG12

Dang madcows.

Hate them all you want. But at least base your comment in reality. Seriously everything I have read seems to indicate the collapse of the SWC was inevitable. Texas Monthly had an article in 1974 which basically said the SWC was on borrowed time. This was before big TV was even a thought.

I believe Big 8 was in trouble and had to expand. The question is should it have been a full merger? Could Texas have forced a full merger in the face of opposition from ESPN? At least one article I’ve read said that Big 8 wanted a full merger and Texas opposed it, another said ESPN only supported expansion with 4.

Given all the changes taking place in the media landscape, the questions I have to ask how did Texas implode it? What could they have done to keep it together? The SWC was a sinking ship for years. Falling behind in tv revenue, attendance and national appeal. I don’t anything could have saved it.

NOT ONE SCHOOL CAN dictate what a conference does. Especially when these are public schools. They broke every SWC bylaws.

I think a powerful school can at least set the direction of a conference if it can’t dictate what a conference does.

On this very board I’ve read (but haven’t been able confirm from other sources) that UT blocked Big 12 expansion in 2016. If that is indeed the case, wouldn’t that be an example of 1 school dictating what the conference did?

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That 2nd paragraph has been stated many times on this Board. Usually posted by the same member but yes it has been posted.

SWC was doomed regardless of UT’s part in the Big 12’s formation.

SMU, Rice, and Houston were not in a position to be part of a big time power football conference in 1994 when the Big XII was formed.

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:thinking: hmm.

As was mentioned before, SWC went regional TV as everyone else was going nationwide. Texas was the only real national brand.

It’s like the conference doubled down on “F you, we’re from Texas,” and the rest of the nation thought it heard something, peered over its shoulder for a moment, then turned back around.

There was a bunch of other stuff, too. But I remember that feeling of the SWC shrinking in significance.

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Did you read my post about madcowsu high jacking the SWC then the BIG and finally the BIG12? They should never have been allowed to but madcowsu controls the Texas politics. The madcowsu mafia is an appropriate description.

That is not true…Where is Arkansas from? They bolted in 1991. They had enough of madcowsu running the SWC.
All schools from Texas?
What is the size of Texas?
What is the size of sec?
Around 1991 the SWC could have easily expanded its “borders” It did not. The sec on the other hand expanded with South Carolina and Arkansas…I wonder why?
Oh yes right around 1991 the SEC coveted U of H. Who stopped us? I will let you guess.

This brings us to 2023. We are now in a Power Conference again. For the first time since our independent days madcowsu is not on our backside. They/madcowsu wanted the BIG12 to go away like the SWC did. It did not. History will mark their decision to join the sec as the worst one they ever made,

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Coveting and actually inviting are 2 very different things. Was an official invitation made in 1991? And if it was why is it someone else’s fault if we chose not to accept it? How could anyone have “forced” UH from accepting an offer to join the SEC?

For Arkansas, we have the words of Frank Broyles himself. He said the move was all about money, not once did he say it was because they wanted to get away from UT.

In fact in an interview with Mike Looney for his book The Big Shootout, Broyles said the SEC money was just too good to pass up! He had in his office a framed picture of the $6M check that the SEC sent him the day Arkansas joined the SEC! That was more than the full
year payout that the SWC was sending Arkansas!

Broyles also said that as the only non-Texas school they felt on the outside looking in.

I have no problem hating the school in Austin but the reasons you list are not why.

Re your points about SWC being proactive and expanding with schools outside the state, at that time the conference was so toxic because of probation and NCAA troubles, I doubt anyone would have wanted to join. Also who should SWC have added? All the major schools in the states bordering Texas were already taken by Big 8 or SEC. Expansion with New Mexico schools made no sense.

UH being left out when the SWC collapsed, was because of a combination of factors. The most important one being lack of political support. BU and TT had it, UH didn’t!

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Wasn’t the story that Bovine U bullied the Aggies into staying and SEC said they were not taking just UH?