Merger Tactics

How’d you get in here?!?!!

“Your biggest sports brand has earned the death penalty, even though it, like its most famous alumnus, will escape it. "

Impressive, most impressive.

Tactics, Mr. Ripley. Tactics.

You could flummox General Beringer.

“Now if only the PAC 10 would punt the Oklahoma schools for Nebraska and Kansas…”

Based upon what logic? I’m dead serious. Clearly someone far more intelligent than either you or I thought OU and OSU needed to be on board in this rumor. I personally can’t figure out why OU and OSU are even involved in this in the first place. You could make the Pac 14 just as easily and split a very big pie in fewer directions.

Scott just got the job. I don’t think he’s in danger of being fired. OTOH, he can’t blow it, either.

Nate, I just don’t like playing OU in early october with the conference championship on the line. I would prefer it be a nonconference game, but that’s just me.

Nate – Just guessing here, but it would
1) cut down on travel for the Big12 division of the Pac 16. If travel really is a sticking point for A&M (and probably other schools) this would reduce it for many sports. 14 teams mean that 1 school from the west coast gets fucked and has to play everyone over hear every year, plus the Texas schools would have to travel to the west coast 2-3 times a year.
2) It keeps UT’s scheduling options open. I would think that UT and OU would go back to making the RRS a non con game just like it was for 80 some-odd years. If the Pac14 continued to play 9 conference games, that would mean that UT wouldn’t be able to schedule any other big time games other than OU.
3) As much as I hate to admit it, OU draws viewers and ratings pretty well.

Those are just some of the benefits that I see off the top of my head.

If Powers turns it down and Tech ends up in the WAC, The University will suffer "death by a thousand papercuts" in the Legislature for the next decade.

I respect your post as a whole, but I don’t think this observation has merit. Here’s why:

The Legislature has done zilch for UT in the last decade. With friends like Our Friends in the State Capital, we don’t need enemies.

Worrying that some people might operate against UT’s interests from a position of envy ignores the fact that they already have done so, do so, and will continue to do so.

There’s nothing we can do to lessen this, so we shouldn’t waste our time trying.

What you do is you leak the story of a pending offer that gets public support moving in your direction.

Makes perfect sense to me. If you were going to leak this kind of story you must involve someone on the Texas side — someone who isn’t necessarily closely connected or viewed in a favorable light by Bellmont.

Give it to someone who is “favored” by UT and they would approach it with kid gloves, making sure from their own solid sources that is was a go.

Give it to someone identified with Texas, but who, if they haven’t burned some bridges, have at least tinged them around the edges, and you have an outlet who will run with the story full bore.

Someone like Chip would pump the story for all its worth, forcing the mainstream media to pick it up and cover their ass by saying, “A Texas-based internet site is reporting…”

It’s the best way to put public pressure on Texas while also building in some “plausible deniability.”

srr50 was the White House Press Secretary during the Nixon Adminstration. Skins on the wall, people …

That POS Byrne doesn’t give a damn about P16 travel, that’s just a red herring and bluster. The real issue is the Ags trying to kill UT’s cable network. That’s what their SEC threat is primarily about.

BTW, Joketx is going to report your OJ joke to pleasesnitch@whitehouse.org…

Parlin, it could be worse. Texas got some relief from the 10% rule, has raised tuition pretty substantially and benefits indirectly from things like the initiative to add more flagship schools. No matter how bad you think it is, it could always get worse.

horninexile, you don’t like the idea of Kevin Wilson matching wits with Will Muschamp annually in Dallas? Shit, I thought that would bring you guys unlimited joy.

06_UT
Good call on the scheduling snafu with 14 teams. That’s a very good point.

Nate, I like the matchup, but not the stakes. I prefer it as a nonconference tilt.

You make good points. The problem I see with the rumor is twofold-

1. It supposedly takes all of the PAC-10 schools to agree for expansion. They are all good with adding TT and OSU?

2. The Arizona schools spent all their Border Conference years wanting into the PAC-8 as badly as TT wanted to be in the SWC, and now they’re willing to join the Big 12 South and play the PAC-8 schools half as much?

I don’t think Texas is going along until configured the way we like it. I think we will use the Longhorn Network as leverage to avoid any deal we don’t like.

“Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne told his staff and coaches that the reports of a possible Big 12 and Pac-10 merger are accurate and could happen, at least one College Station radio station, KZNE (1150) is reporting.”

anyone else get the feeling that Dollar Bill will be the last one to really know anything?

“We’ll let you know when we’ve come to a decision, Bill, meanwhile keep a close eye on those bats, m’kay?”

I know many on this site don’t agree, but there are many aspects of the Big 10 deal that I like. The PAC 10, I am not so crazy about, and it is probably without justification.

Speaking of perception, what about New Mexico leading Stanford in the 8th tonight? Something is so wrong with that picture.

taylor, the ariz schools are chaff to the rest of the conference, and their opinions don’t matter. they are exactly in the position out there we will/would be in.

realize that this spin-off junk division is just the pac boys partitioning the ariz schools out of their world. this is how this whole brilliant concept was sold to stanford. stanford never wanted to admit the ariz schools and is delighted they will no longer be in the ‘real’ pac-8, the west 8.

what i don’t know is if the ariz schools can scuttle the deal. if so, i’m guessing az st has been promised all kinds of goodies to go along. of course, ariz needs no extras to gain their approval, assuming they are happy with their stoops.

what would happen if we decided to go independent? would we have to drag the remora schools along somehow or other on that? could we use that as a cudgel against being prostituted?

Big 10 please……Pac 10 would work as well.

Baron Von Agghat, please return at your earliest convenience. Joetx, not so much.

The merger will happen. The potential for a hugh increase in research dollars and the jobs it will bring will outweigh everything. $20-$25mill a year for sports?? Try $100-$200mill in added research dollars at a miniumum.
The PAC 10 will allow Texas to have their network in some form or another (delayed broadcasts, the home of the blind schools you play at home, etc.) so that is not a question.
A&M will have to be bought off. The athletic department is in shambles and is seriously in debt. Their university president has started the politicking by bitching about travel and how they want to be in the SEC. But everyone has a price so expect this to be resolved too.
The Big 10 is out because there would be too many cold weather games. Travel dollars for non-revenue sports would greatly increase. Ready for Texas hockey???
The SEC is out because UT is not about to throw away years of academic improvements or open the fertile recruiting grounds of Texas to a conference with such low standards.
The PAC10 proposal was well thought out and that is the reason why the teams that were invited will play in the same division with Az an Az. St. and have limited west coast trips. Rivalies are preserved and revenue is maximized.

No Big 10 please. If fucking sucks ass

The Big 10 is out because there would be too many cold weather games. Travel dollars for non-revenue sports would greatly increase. Ready for Texas hockey???

Actually, I’d be cool with hockey. But not all the schools in the B10 play it, so that’s not an issue.

As to the cold-weather games, it snowed in October the last time Texas went to Nebraska. You’re probably looking at one, maybe two weather risks per season, and given the winds in Kansas the last couple of times they’ve played there, and night games in Lincoln and Manhattan in the past, I don’t think cold weather is a significant issue.

Travel to the B10 without a partner would be a burden, but it would be soothed by the large dollars flowing UT’s way, dollars they may not get from the expanded Pac-10.

If it were just a matter of academics and money, the Big Ten wins easily. When you factor politics, rivalries, travel cost and some immeasurable bennies (football trips to LA, SF, Phoenix or Seattle, compared to Columbus, Detroit, Minneapolis or Chicago), along with baseball not becoming an afterthought, the Pac-10 offer could carry the day.

Still, the more I look at the “new” Pac-16, the more I wonder if this isn’t just another shotgun marriage.

Cold weather would be a much more significant issue if we were the southern border of the Big 10. Still I agree that its not that big of deal; however, give me Arizona and Southern California in November instead of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

will the texas legislature let a&m and tex be in different leagues. and also, where do most texas fans want texas to go, with or without a?&m

Nobody need concern themselves with Bill Byrne messing up any deal. He’s got exactly dick to do with what decision A&M makes. You don’t let your macaw can talk that doesn’t mean you let him manage your portfolio.

I like the Pac-10/Big 12 South merger deal. It means UT can move to a stable, profitable conference, keep its’ rivalry games, and not have to worry about an abundance of late night games on the west coast.

I’m not the least bit concerned with Stanford’s disdain for what would be the makeup of the conference’s east side. Any division with UT, okie, the ‘Zonas, okie lite, and Tech will more than hold its’ own against the surfer boy division. Heck, even agricultural could improve their football program with this move, if they don’t self-destruct and go to the SEC.

There’s a lot to like about moving to the Big 10-14-16(?), but in the longer view, I’d rather see UT in the prosperous west and southwest than the rust belt, and given time, I think the tv money will work itself out to be close to what’s paid out in the big two, the SEC and Big 10.

An attractive couple of games every year against teams in the surfer boy division is a lot more appealing than trips to Manhattan, Kansas edition, Ames, and other outposts of the Big 12.

Nobody (except perhaps Dodds) knows how this is going to work out yet, but the more I think about the expanded Pac, the more I like this deal.

For the record, if the Rivals blogger is to be believed you are taking as many of those destinations with you to the Pac 10 as you’re leaving… Just sayin.

Some Texas lawmakers will try to force Baylor into the Pac 16:

http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1091406&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Apparently the P10 will actually consider replacing CO with Baylor.

For 30 seconds.

Unlike in ‘94, I don’t think Baylor is in position politically to force its way in. Bullock isn’t around & there’s only 1 member of the Senate Finance Committee w/ a direct link to Baylor. Sibley hasn’t been elected back to the Senate, right?

Tech is better positioned, since the president pro tempore of the Senate, Duncan, is a Tech grad. Duncan’s also on the Senate Finance Committee.

Baylor belongs in a league w/ SMU, Rice, etc. Although having Baylor in the same league as UT is convenient b/c an away game in Waco is practically another home game for us, I think Baylor’s dead weight which I wish UT had gotten rid of in ’94.

Either way, I wish these schools would try to get in by virtue of their own merit. I’m tired of their fans always whining about UT when UT is their ticket to an invitation.
-—-

@ Baron Von Agghat/magnusbleuveigner – One innocuous statement & your panties are twisted? I must’ve hit a nerve.

The possibility of Texas Hockey if Texas joins the Big 10 sound nice in theory, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself especially considering the Pac 10 is probably the more likely scenario.Anyway Big 10, Pac 10 or SEC…all 3 sound alright to me.