Per the article…
Patrick had to work quickly and started placing holiday-morning calls to the presidents and chancellors of Texas Tech, TCU, and Baylor. He also called Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby to urge UH to be included. Patrick then spoke to more than a half dozen State Senators with connections to the three schools.
I read that part.
I’m wondering what kind of leverage or whatever was used to make them go from a no to a yes. People don’t change their minds that easily.
Those three schools should be thanking their lucky stars every night. The group of four that was invited to the Big12 kept them from becoming Conference USA v.2. And chances are, the “Invited Four” will probably surpass the existing Big12 members quickly in overall athletic success. UC, UCF and UH all know how it feels to achieve with less. Watch what we do with more!
We just came off a Final Four and nice run in football staring them in the face at that time.
I find it hard to believe they would have risked all that egg in the face.
I’m now lining TCU, BU, and TT in my crosshairs of teams I don’t like. How ironic, TT and BU are in the B12, in spite of being unwanted, due to the then Lt. Governor and Governor (though some say Richards didn’t help BU, I don’t believe them) and now we had to use the Lt. Governor to slap them into line to get us in. Karma is a beotch.
We have been wanting Arch Rivals to play on a regular basis…
Gentlemen, I give you Arch Rivals…
I’m pulling hard for Okie State against BU this weekend. Maybe they can go to the CFP once we eliminate Cincy.
Crazy that BYU draws an average of 2.2 million against P5 opponents. All the new members should get a considerable boost to their gains as you said. Predicting that the average is going to be more in line with 1.2 million, while not crazy insane numbers like OUT; it’s still pretty good and should grow as the conference settles and brands grow.
I worked for the legislature for 3 years in the 80s (both houses)
Texas is unique as we have a very weak governor. The real power is in the LT gov (leads the senate), speaker of the house, and since bob bullock the comptroller. Any of those three can bring the pain if they want to. Think godfathers…
Apparently Patrick was willing to put skin in the game for us.
Okay
I doubt this is an apples to apples comparison though because it compares channels like ABC and Fox to FS1 and ESPNU. OU and UT likely were on over the air broadcasts than the others. Now you can argue they earned it, but if OU and UT were always on FS1 and Iowa St on ABC, they would likely have higher viewer numbers
Yeah, I can see where he could influence TT,
but for the private schools, not clear what leverage he or senators would have over them. Of course they all ran to the state when it went down , I guess in hope that the state would put pressure on UT.
Bob Bullock vs Ann Richards dynamic… Baylor is really the one that benefitted last time around given power dynamic wasn’t in their favor,… but having a private school is good for keeping everything behind B12 curtain a secret.
Bullock was a mean drunk. You didn’t want to cross him
Not sure why any of you are surprised at this. Why add another in state school to make recruiting even more difficult?
Regardless, I’m excited to get the “new” Big 12 rolling.
Very interesting and surprising tbh. Also a 4th position for O’Rourke to run for whenever Patrick’s time is up
Nice read. The Big 10 or the PAC is looking better all the time, but in the meantime I would hope we find ways to repay our ah friends… The first thing to do is go after every single one of their commitments in every sport. The second thing to do is assure their players we would be receptive via the transfer portal. The next thing to do is put up some locker room articles. The last thing would be to whip the living snot out of those AHs every chance we get…
Can you elaborate on what screws they could put on TCU and Baylor ?
Delay funding for roads around the schools maybe, or other stuff like kickoff
accreditation reviews, etc ?
For one thing, they could get rid of the tuition equalization grant.
That’s not the point. They’d rather protect their recruiting advantage versus solidifying the conference with the one in-state school that can make you money in a major market.
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