Super Conferences Aren’t So Super
Texas A&M’s departure from the Big 12 sparks many questions.
All are important, including the most pressing around these parts — “What happens next to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State?” — but I suspect there’s a big-picture question that will have ramifications for many years to come.
Is this the dawn of the super conference?
It sure looks that way.
The Aggies are likely headed to the SEC, which is sure to add another team to maintain an even number of schools. That will bring the SEC’s total to 14 schools.
Remember when the Big 12 first formed and people thought a dozen teams was a big number?
Now, four of the six BCS conferences have a dozen teams. ACC. Big Ten. Pac-12. SEC. And with the SEC on its way to 14 teams, you have to wonder how long it is before other conferences start expanding. The Pac-12 has made no secret of its desire for expansion. The Big Ten just added Nebraska, but it always seem to have its eye on Notre Dame. Why wouldn’t it be interested in others, too?
Super conferences sure look like the wave of the not-too-distant future.
I’m not a fan.
And no, I’m not some sort of stuck-in-the-past traditionalist. I loved when the Big 12 formed. Loved adding the Texas schools. Loved expanding the conferences borders.
Heck, I even got excited about the idea of OU, OSU and others going to the Pac-10 a year ago when conference realignment was all the rage. The idea of football games in Los Angeles at the Coliseum or in Eugene at The Zoo was pretty cool.
But now, as I listen to people throwing out all sorts of realignment scenarios that would result in these massive super conferences, I’m worried about all this talk. Thinking about all these different college football combinations is making me a little sick to my stomach.
The reason?
College football is different in different parts of the country. The experience in the SEC is different than the experience in the Big 12. Game day in Blacksburg, Va., is different than game day in Corvallis, Ore., or Madison, Wisc. Yes, people love their college football everywhere, so that passion is the same, but the way that passion is displayed is completely and totally unique in different areas of the country. But if you start throwing all of these strange bedfellows together, that vibe starts to change.
I mean, Nebraska playing in the Big Ten doesn’t feel like a stretch. Same with Colorado playing in the Pac-12.
But Missouri in the SEC? OSU in the Pac-12? Air Force in the Big 12?
I’m just not sure it feels right.
Sure, there are some potentially great match-ups, but they feel like great non-conference match-ups. Part of the reason why we love the idea of Boise State playing Georgia or Oregon playing LSU is because it’s not only a great clash of football powers but also a great clash of cultures. They do things different in Boise than they do in Athens, different in Eugene than they do in Baton Rouge, so bringing those teams together makes for great drama.
But making teams from vastly different football cultures into conference bedfellows?
It just gives me the heebie jeebies.
Maybe in another 10 or 15 years we’ll look back on this day as the start of a great era in college football. The start of the super conferences. The move to the future of the sport.
Then again, maybe we’ll look back on it as the muddying of football cultures, the day the identities of programs started to blend together, the day the things that made programs different and special started to be diluted.
I hope the latter isn’t the case, but I fear it will be.
Super conferences?
I’m not sure they’re such a super idea.
Statement from the Big 12 on Texas A&M
The Big 12 Conference just released the following statement about Texas A&M’s decision to leave the conference:
Statements from the Big 12 Conference on Texas A&M Withdrawal
Board of Directors Chairman and University of Missouri Chancellor Brady Deaton: “The chancellors and presidents of the Big 12 are committed to keeping our conference competitively and academically strong. We have a process in place that enables us to move aggressively regarding the possible expansion of the conference and to assure our members and student-athletes that we will take advantage of the most productive opportunities in the best interests of all.”
Commissioner Dan Beebe : “Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin has notified the Conference of his decision to withdraw the university from the Big 12 effective June 30, 2012. The presidents and chancellors of the nine remaining member institutions are steadfast in their commitment to the Big 12. As previously stated, the Conference will move forward aggressively exploring its membership options.”
OU and OSU Fans: What’s Next for Big 12?
Texas A&M is a goner.
The Aggies made official Wednesday morning what had been speculation for weeks — they are planning to leave the Big 12.
So, what’s next?
We want to hear from you, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State fans. We want to know what you want to see happen and why.
Should the Big 12 try to remain a nine-team league? Should it add more schools, and if so, who should it add? Should the Sooners and the Cowboys bolt for a different conference, and if so, which one? Should the state schools stay together or split up? Should it be every man for himself?
Or should something else happen?
We want to know.
Post your comments below, or you can email me at jcarlson@opubco.com. Be sure to include your full name and your city or town of residence; we might include some of your comments in The Oklahoman or on NewsOK.com.
And who knows? Maybe we’ll figure out how to fix this mess.
Barry Switzer: Never at Loss for Words
Linda Robertson, a friend of mine in the sports writing biz, emailed me the other day.
She wanted to talk to veterans of scandal.
Robertson, you see, works for the Miami Herald, and these days, that means wall-to-wall coverage of the scandal surrounding the University of Miami’s football team. Nevin Shapiro. Improper benefits. Six dozen former and current Canes involved.
Big ‘ol mess.
There’s little doubt that the NCAA is going to bonk Miami pretty good when all is said and done, so Robertson was looking for folks who’d been in football programs that had gone through NCAA sanctions. Unfortunately for our fair state, we have several candidates. Barry Switzer and Pat Jones were both contacted for and quoted in the story. Most of it was stuff we’d heard before.
Switzer reflected on the mess that erupted at Oklahoma right before he was forced to resign. The gang rape. The teammate who shot another teammate. The FBI cocaine sting. But the most interesting things the coaching legend had to say were reserved for Shapiro, the Ponzi schemer who appears to have caused all the troubles at Miami.
“He had that little-guy mentality,” Switzer said of the 5-5 Shapiro. “You’re going to have these rogue boosters because their egos need to be massaged, and they need to feel accepted.”
He also took aim at the guilty athletes.
“The athletes know the rules and know they are jeopardizing their eligibility and they must be held accountable or they’re out,” Switzer said. “Unfortunately, they will take whatever is offered to them, nine kids out of 10.”
I agree that Shapiro is to blame, and I understand that many college athletes knowingly break the rules when they accept improper benefits, but I think one large group that is at fault is being overlooked.
The adults who were supposed to be in charge.
Coaches. Administrators. University leaders. These are the folks who promised moms and dads that if they sent their sons to Miami that they would look over them, would make sure they were all right. Where were they when all of this was going down?
And please, don’t try to tell me that no one had any idea of what was going on. The alleged indiscretions went on for too long and involved too many players for there to have been no red flags.
Listen, I’m not suggesting that dirty boosters and cheating players don’t deserve blame. They do. They know the rules, and if they break them, they deserve to face the consequences.
(Leave the argument about whether college athletes at big-time programs are properly compensated for another day.)
But the adults in charge deserve to be held to the highest standard. They’re the ones who are supposed to be teaching and monitoring and watching out for the best interest of their school, their program and their players. Fall down on the job like the folks at Miami seem to have done, and you deserve whatever fate befalls you.
Switzer was right about Shapiro. He was right about athletes, too. But don’t forgot those adults who were supposed to know better. The fire that their feet are held to should be the hottest.
Power Lunch: Chat with columnist Jenni Carlson
Power Lunch: Chat with Jenni Carlson
No surprise: Kendrick Perkins is fighting
I hope Kendrick Perkins is right.
Our man Darnell Mayberry received an email earlier this week from the Thunder center’s publicist indicating that Perkins is trying to clear his name after a weekend arrest back home in Beaumont, Texas. He has hired an attorney. He insists he’s innocent of the complaints of public intoxication and disorderly conduct. He believes the police got out of hand in their handling of the situation.
My fingers are crossed.
The complaints that led to Perkins’ arrest early Saturday morning aren’t all that serious. Class C misdemeanors. Fines of no more than $500.
The whole thing isn’t going to grind the justice system in Texas to a halt.
But this is about image. Perkins was home for events that are part of his foundation, a foundation that tries to teach kids the importance of life skills and drug awareness. Then for him to be arrested for disorderly conduct (hello, life skills) and drug awareness (um, public intoxication), it just looked ridiculous and stupid.
Perkins never struck me as either.
(Of course, if this whole fight to clear his name turns up ugly details instead — 911 calls and police communications could be part of the legal maneuverings — that could open a new can of ugly worms for Perkins.)
Honestly, if you’d have given me the details of this past weekend’s incident, then told me to pick which Thunder player had been the on involved with it, I guarantee that Perkins wouldn’t have been among the first five guys that I picked. Heck, he might not have been in the first eight or nine. I would’ve probably lumped him into the no-way-they’d-do-that group of Nick Collison, Nazr Mohammed and Kevin Durant.
What happened in Beaumont just seems out of character for Perkins.
I hope that it was.
Maybe it was so out of character that it didn’t actually go down the way the police reported. Maybe it is all just a big misunderstanding. Maybe all of those indications that Perkins is really a good guy, a solid character, a part of the Thunder’s DNA are right after all.
Fingers crossed.
Big 12 Talk: Interview from ESPN Radio
The future of the Big 12 isn’t just news around here.
ESPN Radio’s national show SportsCenter Saturday asked me to come on and talk about it. Everyone wants to know what’s up with the Big 12 and what sort of long-term ramifications the departure of Texas A&M will have on the league.
The show’s host, Evan Cohen, asked an interesting question about how all of this might impact Bob Stoops’ future at Oklahoma. Would he be likely to leave if the Big 12 went to nine or even eight teams?
As I said during the interview, it would probably depend what schools were left. Obviously, the Big 12 is losing one of its marquee football programs with A&M bolting for the SEC. But that still leaves the conference with four top-25 programs — OU, Oklahoma State, Missouri and Texas — and Texas Tech and Baylor has both been ranked at some point in the past few years. That’s a high percentage of top-25-type teams in the league.
But if the team lost another one of those top powers?
I could see Stoops taking a long, hard look at things.
Granted, I don’t see OU taking football any less seriously than it does now. Stoops and his program are still going to have the best of the best regardless of the conference situation.
And even if the Big 12 gets downgraded to the point that it’s a non-automatic-qualifier conference in terms of the BCS, the Sooners won’t have to fight the perception problems that a program like Boise State or Utah or TCU has. Those programs have emerged as powers and have had to prove themselves worthy of top billing. OU has decades of history and excellence on its side already. It wouldn’t have to prove anything.
But would a decimated Big 12 force Stoops out the door?
I say no.
Even with everything that’s changed in recent days, I still believe the job that is most likely to lure Stoops away from Norman is one in the NFL. That’s the ultimate challenge for any coach. That’s the only mountain Stoops has not conquered. Even then, I could see Stoops retiring at OU before I could see him leaving for the NFL.
The uncertain future of the Big 12 hasn’t changed that.
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Kendrick Perkins: Altar Boy No More
We knew Kendrick Perkins was no longer an altar boy.
All the mf bombs gave it away.
Still, we didn’t take the Thunder big man for a knucklehead.
Perkins, who served as an altar boy as a kid, went home to Beaumont, Texas, this week for his annual youth camp and foundation fundraiser. His foundation aims to help children learn life skills and drug awareness, and Perkins once told me that his youth camp in Beaumont is one of the most important things that he does, paying for much of it out of his own pocket.
But early Saturday morning, Perkins was arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct.
The details?
He was arrested after an altercation at a nightclub. When police arrived, they observed about 50 people around Perkins, who was attempting to fight the manager of the club. Perkins had to be pushed out the back door to defuse the situation, but according to reports, he was yelling obscenities and fighting others in the crowd as he was being ushered from the club.
OK, that in and of itself is embarrassing for a guy who’s supposed to be in town raising funds for a foundation aimed at teaching kids life skills and drug awareness.
But there’s more to the story.
The night before, Perkins was in nearby Port Arthur, Texas, at the home of fellow NBA player Stephen Jackson. According to a local television report, the fire department was called to the house when Perkins had some sort of seizure and fell onto concrete. He was taken to the hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.
There were various reports of what caused the problem — intoxication, dehydration and food poisoning among them — but whatever the case, Perk attended neither his charity game Friday nor his camp banquet.
According to a spokesperson, he was ordered by a doctor to rest.
But apparently he rested up so he could go to a club, get drunk and start a fight.
Listen, I’m not here to say that people shouldn’t be allowed to have a good time. Drink with your friends. Go to a club. Whatever. There’s no harm in any of that. But to be in your hometown doing a youth camp and raising money for life-skills and drug-awareness training for kids, to be arrested less than 24 hours after going to the hospital and being told to rest, to blow off a charity game and a camp banquet to then go out to a club, that is plain dumb.
Clearly, Perkins’ altar boy status was gone long ago. It’s all because of his on-court persona, though. Perkins has never been a guy who’s had run-ins with the law or gotten his name on the police blotter. His bad-boy image has been all about his style of play, and frankly, the Thunder is OK with that. This is a team that needs the grittiness and the nasty that Perkins brings to the court.
But there’s never been a time that I thought Perk was a knucklehead. Truth be told, he’s one of the more thoughtful, intelligent interviews on the team. He sees situations for what they are, then he tells it like it is.
I’m going to follow his lead.
Perk was a bonehead this weekend. The Thunder expects better from him. Ditto for Oklahoma City.
Kevin Wilson: Don’t Make Him Mad
Kevin Wilson has never lacked for words.
Good to know that hasn’t changed.
The former Oklahoma offensive coordinator turned Indiana head coach sparred with a pair of sports talk radio hosts Thursday morning, and it was classic Kevin Wilson. He was a guest on the Zakk and Jack Show, a national show on FOX Sports that originates out of Indianapolis, and in introducing Wilson, the show’s hosts had some not-all-that-witty banter about how bad Indiana football has been.
Kevin Wilson, outgoing offensive coordinator of Oklahoma, is the new college football head coach of Indiana University, press conference at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, Tuesday, December 07, 2010. Robert Scheer/The Star
And let’s be honest — it has been bad.
But when you’ve got the head coach of the program on hold and said head coach has bristled quite a bit at talk of past Hoosier woes, making light of those struggles isn’t exactly the best idea.
At one point in the intro, Jack Trudeau, the Jack part of the show and the former Illinois quarterback who played in the NFL, poked fun at the Indiana fight song playing in the background. He said he didn’t get to hear it much when the Illini played the Hoosiers because Indiana didn’t score very much.
Is it any wonder that the first few moments of the interview went something like this?
Dominic Zaccagnini a.k.a. Zakk: “Kevin, congratulations, and thanks for joining us. How are ya?”
Wilson: “Not doing as good as you guys. You guys gotta bunch of jokes this morning. What’s happening?”
(Uncomfortable laughter from the hosts)
Zakk: “You sound like you’ve been doing some screaming at practice, coach. Yelling at the players already?
Wilson: “No, we’re yelling at media guys because they don’t have a clue. But anyway, it’s cool. What’s up, guys?”
Jack: “You’re not referring to us, are ya coach?”
Zakk: “No, lemme ask, though, I gotta know … ”
Wilson: “That fight song, I remember putting 61 on the Illini a few years back too when I was at Northwestern and they kinda stunk at the time, too. Anyway, I got some things to do, guys. Waddya guys need?”
Zakk: “You already to get rid of us, coach?”
Wilson: “Very much so.”
Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson talks with the media during Big Ten Football Media Day in Chicago, Thursday, July 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
If it’s possible, it only got worse from there.
Zakk and Jack hung up on Wilson, then proceeded to skewer him. Trudeau called Wilson an ass, said he was going to be around a lot of Indiana people today and planned to tell them how bad their coach had been, said he planned to call Illinois coach Ron Zook and tell him to run the score up on Illinois.
Hey, I don’t have a dog in the Illinois-Indiana fight, but all of a sudden, I’m hoping Indiana throttles them.
There’s no doubt that Wilson could’ve played nicer with these guys, but he has never been a guy who cowered to anyone. He didn’t do it at Northwestern. He didn’t do it at OU. He wasn’t about to do it this morning. And when Zakk and Jack decided to hang up on him, then tear him down, it turned them from unknowing buffoons to shady bullies.
It’s real easy to shout a guy down when he’s no longer on the line.
And frankly, these two could stand to get a clue about more than how to set up an interview. They talked in their post-hang-up conversation about how no kid would want to go play for Wilson after hearing that interview. Honestly, the exact opposite might be true. Wilson has to convince kids that they can come to Indiana and win, and what he showed Thursday morning is that he absolutely believes what he’s selling. He believes it so much that he’s willing to go toe-to-toe with a couple national radio hosts.
Wilson could’ve come off better, but he came off passionate about Indiana football, and frankly, for him, I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.
