Pre-Snap Read

P.S.R. Op-Ed

Nebraska’s Moving and Shaking

By Paul Myerberg   //   Jun 10, 2010

It’s doesn’t matter how good a bluffer you are. It doesn’t matter how many chips you have. All that matters is that you have the right cards, and know when to play them.

Texas bluffed, Texas bullied – in the end, it huffed and puffed and blew its own house down.

Here’s what must sting the most: in hindsight, the original incarnation of the Big 12 was a wonderful fit for Texas. The conference was gracious to a fault: “We see no problem with playing the title game in Texas every year.” Giving: “What’s one second between friends?” The Big 12 recognized it had a top dog in Texas, and to its credit, the conference nurtured that relationship to its mutual benefit.

Yet Texas went too far. In the end, its false start towards the West Coast – along with five of its conference brethren – threatened the future of a once-great, now good, always proud member of college football’s elite.

Nebraska’s response was slow, even plodding, but tactical and well-planned. The Cornhuskers didn’t hold all the cards, no. Texas was dealing, of course, and the deck was stacked from the start. But Nebraska had the right card. An ace in the hole, if you’ll allow this metaphor to continue: a ticket to the Big Ten.

And we’ve come full circle. It feels like ages, but remember that it was the Big Ten that opened the talk of conference realignment only a few months ago. Missouri was the hot name at that point, seeing it had a television market – St. Louis – the conference coveted. However, if the last half-century has taught us anything, it’s that Nebraska nearly always beats Missouri.

So where do we go from here? The Big 12 enters hospice care, for starters. Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado still have offers from the Pac-10. It’s good to know these six still have an opportunity to land on their feet.

Now that word from the West Coast is Colorado is on the verge of making a solo run for the Pac-10, the Big 12 is on life support.

The only way the conference does survive, in fact, is if the five remaining programs — the above six, minus Colorado — reject the Pac-10’s entreaties, opting instead to stand pat. It’s not an impossibility. Pete Thamel of The New York Times has indicated as much, reporting that officials from Texas and Texas A&M will meet today in an effort to save the rapidly decomposing Big 12.

If that does occur, the Big 12 will look for other programs to fill the spots left vacated by Nebraska and, potentially, Colorado. Or it could opt to have a smaller league, which would cost the Big 12 its conference title game. As Dan Beebe, always seeing the glass half-full, told Pete:

“(Not having a conference title game) would be one less obstacle to getting into the national championship. I think television value would still be there. I’m not talking about any one school that would be departing. It would still be an extremely strong conference and player in the national landscape.”

That Dan Beebe, always one step ahead of the game. Keep up the great work, Dan.

A program like Iowa State doesn’t see this glass half-full. Instead, I.S.U. sees its future lie in the balance. As Randy Peterson of The Des Moines Register told me yesterday:

“Iowa State’s  proposed athletic budget for fiscal year 2011 is $41.6 million, of which $9.8 million is projected to come from conference and N.C.A.A. revenue. If Iowa State joins a lesser conference, that figure drops significantly. Iowa State’s fiscal year 2011 budget also includes projected $11.6 million in ticket sales. That, I believe, would drop significantly, too, if relegated to a lesser conference.”

So who’s the bad guy in this scenario? Is it Texas, whose posturing forced Nebraska to investigate all its options, eventually settling on a future outside its long-time home? Or is it the Cornhuskers, opportunists who saw a more financially secure future in the Big Ten, as well as a place where their voice would find equal footing instead of merely serving as white noise?

It doesn’t even matter now. Despite its 14 years of success – three national championships, dozens of marquee moments and players – the Big 12’s lasting legacy will be this rancorous breakup. It didn’t have to be this way, which makes the situation all the more disappointing.

The tortoise, Nebraska, beat the hare. Texas might have won all the battles along the way, but Nebraska won the war. The Big 12 Conference, unfortunately, will be collateral damage.



Tags: Big 12, Big Ten, Dan Beebe

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