Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

So by the conventional doomsday clock, we were probably at 11:59, if not 11:59:15, and by my “Titanic clock” as I was using in my Night to Remember snippets we were at about 2:17:30 (right before/at the breakup). Either way, it was close, assuming nothing worse happens.

Unlike the Titanic, though, we’re throwing the captain overboard before the ship sinks (again)(ish). But that’s long after making the fans exhausted and concerned about the whole thing, as the Kansas City Star also reports.

Showing how fluid the situation has been, the Kansas Board of Regents moved its emergency meeting up from Thursday to Wednesday, and still was a little late. The board wants Kansas and Kansas State to stick together in the Big 12. Continue reading →

From the Atlantic, but possibly written before Tuesday night’s events:

Saving the Big 12 would help him in Iowa. Among the biggest losers of Big 12 disintegration would be Iowa State. The Cyclones haven’t been very good at football since the 1990s rushing heydays of Troy and Darren Davis.* They appeal to no major TV markets. If the Big 12 folds, Iowa State will probably end up in the Mountain West — a step down that will only lead to suffering and mockery at the hands of Iowa Hawkeyes fans.

If Perry tries to keep the Big 12 together, he will win the gratitude of every Iowa State fan on the planet. It’ll make for great stump material. Nobody will care about Social Security anymore. But as far as a political windfall goes, that’s about it.

Read the whole thing, although with the current state of things Perry might just have avoided the situation entirely.

*Actually, we weren’t very good at it then, either.

But it’s not really alive yet, either.

The Pac-12 is staying put, shutting down that escape hatch. Both the Longhorn Network and the academics of Oklahoma State and Texas Tech appear to have been issues. But the AP article also says “A person familiar with the schools’ discussions said Texas and Oklahoma officials are expected to meet in the next few days to negotiate an agreement to keep the universities in the league for at least the next five years.”

The Big 12 and Fox set up a 13-year deal last year. The ABC/ESPN contract expires in five. This could happen all over again in half a decade. (Assuming, that is, we get through this first.)

Oklahoma now says it’s committed to the Big 12.

Before the Pac-12’s announcement late Tuesday, the Mountain West reportedly reached out to Iowa State among others. Even if all other factors were equal, the nearest MW team to ISU is Wyoming, 579 miles away.

(A side travel note: Ames and Columbia are both closer to Morgantown WV than Austin or College Station.)

End result as of the noon hour Wednesday: We can breathe. Slightly.

By the way, if you parse the SEC’s statement Monday, there was nothing in there that didn’t say “…but we will be more than willing to look at Missouri if and when the Big 12 collapses.”
— Me, September 14

I hate it when I’m right.

The Southeastern Conference has an offer on the table for Missouri to join its league, and SEC officials are willing to wait for an answer from Missouri until the future of the Big 12 is decided.

UPDATE: The SEC denies this.

I was going to write something about Missouri, and it looks like my hand has been forced. But instead of just looking at the past 18 months or so, here’s a more inclusive timeline: (EDIT: Broke this up and added a “jumpline.”) Continue reading →

On the football field, the Big 12 Conference is a combined 23-2. In fact, by one metric right now it’s the nation’s best conference. Iowa State is undefeated after three fourth-quarter comebacks and will face undefeated Texas in a game on FX that might be called by Gus Johnson. Iowa State got more votes in the AP poll than Ohio State or Notre Dame, and even got one from Mike Hlas.

And nobody is talking about it. The joyful air of football season has been sucked out of the room by one dreadful word, almost a euphemism really – “realignment”. Forces from within and without are picking at the Big 12 like a wounded buffalo on the Great Plains. (OK, enough with the tortured metaphors.)

In retrospect, we should have known the whole thing was doomed when it was based on something that historically has been very difficult: Getting Texans to show humility. Continue reading →

Seen and unseen, the great and unknown tumbled together in a writhing heap as the bow plunged deeper and the stern rose higher… . The muffled thuds and tinkle of breaking glass grew louder. A steady roar thundered across the water as everything movable broke loose.
— Walter Lord, A Night to Remember

The Oklahoma State University Board of Regents is meeting Wednesday. Can’t be good. (I was mistaken in thinking that OU and OSU had the same board.)

Here’s a reminder that the NCAA has no control over any of this. There is no commissioner of college football.

Post-Dispatch: Is Missouri-Oklahoma the beginning of the end? Missouri coach Gary Pinkel says it’s “naive” to think about saving the Big 12. Continue reading →

Things fall apart, the center cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
— W.B. Yeats

Yeah, it’s like this, only a thousand times worse.

To all of you who stumbled here after reading my column in the Des Moines Register: Hi. Take a look around. Main site link is under the title picture.

Stuff is going to happen today. The board of regents for the state University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas board of regents both have “conference alignment” on their agendas. The Austin American-Statesman says a Pac-16 format is already being hammered out. See also this story from the Register about ISU and the Big East.

I’m a pessimist at heart, and with everything I’ve read about this situation, it’s hard not to be. Unless the University of Iowa has a change of heart and tells the Big Ten “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother,” Iowa State is at serious risk of being swallowed up by the shifting tectonic plates of the college sports world. As someone who bleeds cardinal and gold (see bottom), it’s hard to think positive after repeatedly reading stuff like this:

Unfortunately, a few others like Iowa State and Baylor will be looking for someone to take them into the fold and may find that the WAC, MWC, or Conference USA will be their only options. Continue reading →

Buzz: This is not the time to panic.
Woody: This is the perfect time to panic!
— Toy Story

Pete Thamel of the New York Times talked to a representative “from a state with a university potentially negatively impacted,” who said “I think the situation is rising to a level where getting Congress engaged may be unavoidable.”

There are only so many states that fit that category. Right up until yesterday, in fact, there were arguably only three: Iowa (Iowa State), Kansas (Kansas/Kansas State), and Texas (Baylor). Missouri could be added in there, but of the Forgotten Five Mizzou has the best chance of survival.

Pitt and Syracuse, as it happens, are the only two members of the Big East that are AAU schools. Only four AAU universities are left in the lurch, all in the Big 12: ISU, Kansas, Missouri, and Texas. (A&M also became an AAU member in 2001.)

And there are rumblings that the ACC could go after UConn and Rutgers next, making the Big East even more feeble. (There goes the idea of regular-season ISU-UConn men’s and women’s basketball, which wouldn’t have been a great consolation prize, but something.) Continue reading →

So to all of you out there dreaming up the next big conference shakeup … do yourself a favor and take a couple of deep breaths. The seas of change have calmed for the foreseeable future, which is probably for the best.
— Stewart Mandel, Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls (2007)

So much for that prognostication, Mr. Mandel.

The Big East commissioner found out about Pittsburgh and Syracuse’s defection to the ACC while in the press box for the Maryland-West Virginia game. (Pitt celebrated this development by blowing a 21-point lead against Iowa.) Somehow lost or immaterial in this so far is the conference bylaw requiring 27 months’ notice.

The NBC article linked above — read the whole thing, and hey, someone else went to the apocalypse metaphor! — also says this:

Should the Big 12 get whittled down to four members, which is certainly a very real possibility depending on how many dominoes fall, the Big East would be in prime position to pluck that conference’s carcass by adding some combination of Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Baylor.  In fact, the latter two schools have already reportedly made overtures to that conference in case the Big 12′s demise is not exaggerated this time around. Continue reading →