Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are bound for the Pac-Integer. Probably. Unless they’re not. Texas is looking everywhere from the Big Ten to the ACC to independence. Unless they’re not. Florida State is setting up its own bunker. Missouri has plenty of options, says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A Kansas writer thinks the Jayhawks can look east or west.
An SI columnist wonders if everyone in the Big 12 has lost their minds, with a backhand at those who haven’t: “Iowa State and the Kansas schools would act out of self-interest, too, if they were allowed to act. Instead they are desperately putting frosting on cupcakes for their annual athletic department bake sales.”
Five Rivals.com writers were unanimous in kicking out Iowa State from the BCS, even in “blow it up and start over” mode. Three were quite frank about TV markets being the reason. One of the other two said of the remnants of the Big 12, “Kansas State’s the only team that has appeared in a BCS game. So the Wildcats survive, while Baylor and Iowa State are the last two cuts.”
I missed what Athlon Sports did a week ago – setting up a playoff through superconferences – but it was the same story: “Baylor, Kansas State, Iowa State, Boise State and BYU will all find themselves on the outside looking in.” Which is an interesting thing to say, considering that Boise State and BYU were never in in the first place. A more recent story from there focuses on the what-if scenarios.
ESPN’s Andy Katz focuses on the business angle, especially how it relates to the contract everyone thought the Big 8+4-2 was happy with last summer:
Iowa State went ahead with projects after the Fox contract was completed and took out $40 million in bonds based on the deal. Iowa State has invested $5 million in a new video board, $20 million in a football building and an estimated $15 million in a sports complex for track, soccer and softball. The video board project began in July for this football season and the other two projects are under construction.
“The taxpayers of Iowa can’t pay if those bonds fall through,” a source said Wednesday. “These are real questions, real situations. I’m not sure how (Iowa State) could waive those (legal) rights (to sue the SEC).”
This whole thing is so bad that a Texas fan is starting to have second thoughts.