Big 12 football: Baylor ultimatum could backfire

You’ve sort of got to admire little ol’ Baylor. The Baptists have risen up on the football field and no longer are anyone’s punching bag. Now Baylor is fighting back in the boardroom.

Baylor refuses to waive its right to sue the Southeastern Conference, should the SEC admit Texas A&M and put the Big 12 in danger of dissolving. But Baylor also appears to be in the business of alienating OU, and by extension, OSU. Reports out of Waco, Texas, on Wednesday said six schools — Baylor, Missouri, Texas Tech, Iowa State, Kansas State and Kansas — had vowed that they would let A&M leave the Big 12 with a promise of no lawsuit, provided the Sooners re-committed to the conference. By Wednesday night, espn.com was reporting that all eight schools in the conference other than A&M and OU had resolved to issue the same deal. No lawsuit, if the Sooners stayed.

It was a bogus report. Texas Tech denied the original Waco Tribune report, and OSU officials vehemently denied the espn.com report, saying they would never put OU in such a compromising position. The Sooners were supporters of the 10-team Big 12, but after A&M’s stated desire to leave the conference, OU began considering its options.

Some within the league believe the reports stem from Baylor president Kenneth Starr and his last-ditch efforts to save the Big 12 for the Bears, who could be left with no good options if the Big 12 crumbles.

But even should the Big 12 be saved, this time, what has this kind of deal-making wrought?

If A&M is forced to stay in the league, and it continues at 10 teams, what kind of environment would ensue? It would be a pirate ship of a conference. A virtual prison, with every school sleeping with one eye open, because it trusts no one. Do you think OU, much less A&M, wants to be in a league with Baylor after Wednesday?

You talk about planning an exit strategy.

Or let’s say the threat would work — a far-fetched idea; when did anyone ever get ahead in life threatening David Boren? OK, so OU’s back in, with no A&M, and the league needs a 10th team, which everyone agrees would, best-case scenario, be Brigham Young. BYU has been waffling on its interest in the Big 12. Some in Provo believe independence works better for the Cougars.

Now, those BYU skeptics have to grow, don’t they? Does a Big 12 held together by desperation and threats, still with widespread resent of Texas, sound like something anyone would want to join if they don’t have to? Not even the lure of a possible BCS bid would make that palatable to BYU.

Lose BYU and you’ve lost the last school that could pull its weight in television prowess. Then the Big 12 would be back to Air Force or old Southwest Conference leftovers, and that’s the last thing OU wants, and you’ve got a mess far worse than the current anarchy.

It’s possible that Wednesday was the darkest day in Big 12 history, other than the days Nebraska and Colorado left. The league disintegrated into mass chaos.

There have been valid reasons for OU and OSU to remain in the Big 12. Regional rivalries. Long-term associations. Familiarity. But there are fewer reasons today to stay in the Big 12 than there were yesterday. Some have told the Sooners to get away from the Longhorns.

Get away from Texas? How about getting away from Baylor?

109 Show / Hide Archive Comments

The following comments are archived from the original publication of this post

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• Mike on Sep 17, 2011 @ 4:05 pm
  You are obviously a writer for a reason. You couldn't find a real job! You are as dumb as a brick!
• Jerry on Sep 15, 2011 @ 3:55 pm
  Besides thinking that Baylor belongs in a WAC-like conference anyway, BU's actions in threatening legal action just make the Bears look like whinny losers. Do something positive, go beg the Big East or something. BU blackmailed itself into the B12 years back and now is at it again. Conference realignment isn't about a single school or Waco's economy. Texas made the mistake of not going west when there appeared an opportunity - even traveling to Corvallis or Eastern Washington during the rainy season is better than going to Waco at anytime! I do not comprehend where BU gets the idea that they can hold other schools captive. Does BU really what to play with schools that do not want to play with them? To borrow from an old phrase from a great football coach: "Does BU wish to force someone to take her to the dance?" It is time for BU to develop a rivalry with Texas State in the WAC!
• JFreeze on Sep 10, 2011 @ 5:57 am
  @David - Iowa State is also an AAU Member. KU, Mizzou, Iowa State, Texas, and Texas A&M are all members of the AAU.
• football junkie on Sep 10, 2011 @ 3:34 am
  HOPE YOU GET LEFT OUT OF ALL CONF. CRY BABY BAYLOR ,YOU SUCK AND ALWAYS WILL.
• DJ Drummond on Sep 09, 2011 @ 7:24 pm
  Really 'see gul'? You went to grad school at Baylor? I'd bet money that's a lie. I figure you cant't even tell me whose statue is on the Quadrangle over by Pat Neff Hall.
• Daily Bullets – 9.9 | Pistols Firing on Sep 09, 2011 @ 5:50 pm
  [...] So now Baylor is fabricating things to throw OSU under the bus? (NewsOK) [...]
• Mike on Sep 09, 2011 @ 2:51 pm
  Gee, I guess you were wrong again Berrylicious. All media outlets including ESPN now reporting on the "bogus report" as you termed it. Before you fire off another hack job, how about you actually do the research first?
• larrichan on Sep 09, 2011 @ 5:31 am
  Texas destroyed the old Southwest Conference. Now, Texas has destroyed the Big 12. What conference in its right mind would bring Texas in? I'm surprised that the Big 10 isn't jumping in on the opportunity. If they could get Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, and their choice of Kansas or Missouri, they'd regain elite status among conferences. OU-Nebraska, Missouri-Illinois, Kansas basketball, and Boone Pickens money! Of course, the SEC and Pac 12 could also nab those schools. Who wouldn't want them? But, who's foolish enough to take Texas?
• husker fan on Sep 09, 2011 @ 12:54 am
  I sure am glad that my huskers got out of this joke of a conference. should have stayed the big eight. Texas always screws up the conferences they are in.
• see gul on Sep 08, 2011 @ 10:49 pm
  I am going to enjoy seeing Baylor flushed by the athletic community. And to think I went to grad school there and thought it was a good school. I will have to stop admitting that.
• Honest Aggie on Sep 08, 2011 @ 10:20 pm
  Great article. Baylor can slow this process down a little, but the end result of the Big 12 ending is inevitable. Whether it is good or bad for this to happen in irrelevant at this point.
• dman on Sep 08, 2011 @ 10:12 pm
  Gerald, You ignorant man. It really has nothing to do with wins, as much as it has to do with revenue generated. Baylor has the lowest attendance in the Big12 and that is never going to change. A&M regularly draws over 80,000 even when they sucked. Now that they are good again they have already sold out all of their games. Baylor couldn't even sell out the TCU game the other night, lots of empty seats. That is why Baylor does not belong in big time football, they make no$$$$$$! Period. Get all high and mighty but if not for football revenue then non revenue sports like track, and all womens sports would suffer greatly. Football pays ALL the bills.
• Gerald on Sep 08, 2011 @ 9:17 pm
  Gig'em: Wrong. Nebraska and Colorado left last year when there was no TV contract. That is why Texas, Texas Tech, A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State tried to leave then too. And yes, it is about the money. Just like it is with A&M, your team and everybody else. You want Baylor to accept something that you never would for yourself. And the exit penalty is one thing. The $1.17 billion contract with ESPN and Fox is another. THAT is the basis for Baylor's lawsuit. Dman: The SWC did go bankrupt. When you have a league where all but one of the schools is in Texas, when the sole non-Texas school (Arkansas) splits, most of the rest of the schools are tiny private schools, and also several are suffering from very serious probation (SMU, Houston, etc.), and several more are perennial losers, and you don't have a lucrative national TV deal, then wow ... your conference tends to go bankrupt. What a surprise. "Another fact is that Baylor is a second tier school and should have never been allowed in the Big12." The same could be said about A&M and the SEC. Last conference title: 1998. Last national title: 1939. I still remember when your program was being led by Jackie Sherrill and R.C. Slocum (let alone Dennis Franchione) so you might want to be careful about the "second tier who doesn't belong" stuff. If it weren't for access to the Texas TV sets and recruiting markets, the SEC would have no interest in A&M. Tracy: A&M didn't give plenty of notice. This whole thing began a couple of months ago. In what universe is a few weeks "plenty of notice"? And what "mark" has A&M made? A&M hasn't won a conference title since 1998, and even that was due to meltdowns by Michael Bishop and Bill Snyder under the pressure.
• MoneyCounter on Sep 08, 2011 @ 9:14 pm
  The Future: OU, OSU, Texas, and Tech to the Pac-16 A&M (and three ACC/Big East teams) to the SEC. Kansas and Missouri (and Notre Dame and Pitt) to the Big 10/Big 16. Baylor winds up in a "Texas 8" of Baylor, Houston, UNT, Rice, SMU, Texas State, UTEP, and UTSA, which becomes moderately prosperous for a non-AQ conference running a TV network picked up by most cable systems in Texas. Iowa State and Kansas State wind up in the MAC or C-USA. After being raided by the Big Ten and SEC building up to 16 teams, the remaining football teams of the ACC and Big East are pieced together into a single 16-team conference. The four surviving BCS "AQ" conferences (Pac-16, Big 16, Atlantic-16, and SEC) create their own Bowl Championship Playoff. Each of the four have a conference championship, followed by a paired-off bowl game semifinal (Rose Bowl for Pac/Big 16, Orange Bowl for Atlantic/SEC), the winners of the two bowl games playing what the four conferences call the National Championship Game at the Superdome a week later. Teams not in the 4 power conferences complain bitterly of exclusion from the national championship.
• spanielboy on Sep 08, 2011 @ 9:06 pm
  "Who is the one trying to nullify the contract (or just plain breach it)? The ags." Yes, the Aggies are trying to leave the conference. In doing so, they are going to pay penalty fees. A&M asked the Big12 what the fees were and what the process was to get out. Baylor is saying it is "trying to save collegiate athletics" and "Texas rivalries" by looking out for their own pocketbooks.
• Chuck on Sep 08, 2011 @ 8:49 pm
  Nice try, Tracy. TAMU tucked tail and ran like cowards. Typical for them. All they do is whine about being in the UT shadow. At least they have now proven they are too weak to fight for themselves. They didn't stand up and fight, they left. Baylor is standing up and fighting for itself - not whimpering away to another conference. It would be weak to just leave. Instead, they decided to man-up and use their leverage to try and change the outcome? Don't blame Baylor for making a great business decision (lose $100 mill by walking away, or use legal leverage and not sign the waiver), blame the SEC for requiring the waiver. If they REALLY wanted TAMU, they wouldn't have required the waiver. Infact, no waiver was needed when the Buffs or the Huskers left. But, then again, those conferences actually wanted them.
• Tracy on Sep 08, 2011 @ 8:15 pm
  You know, there is a difference between the two purported 'looking out for themselves' sides here. A&M stood up like a man and said they were dissatisfied with the conference and we are looking elsewhere. Gave people plenty of notice. Baylor jumped out of their high chair pulling on Beebee's apron strings telling him, "Mommy, I don't want to go!" and threw this BS out at the last minute. They were fine with A&M was going to leave, but not when OU was leaving. Is it A&M's fault that Baylor can't take care of their own business? Should A&M suffer because Baylor doesn't have the pull necessary to get into an AQ conference? A&M made their mark. So did UT. So did OU. It's no one's fault but your own that Baylor isn't playing on the level that the rest of them are. This reaction just makes Baylor look like a petulant child. An SEC fan. And no worries - we'll get A&M eventually. Baylor will still be left in the dust.
• DJ Drummond on Sep 08, 2011 @ 8:12 pm
  You know 'Gig'Em', when I was growing up, I always heard how Texas A&M stood for honor, integrity, keeping your word and standing by your neighbors. Sad, truly, how they chose to throw that away.
• Gig'em on Sep 08, 2011 @ 7:11 pm
  Guys, forget about this "honoring commitment" crap. Every team to ever switch conference has done so in the middle of a contract. Same goes for the business world. The Big 12 is a business agreement. The Big 12's by-laws legally allows schools to leave the conference (Nebraska and Colorado). That is what the exit penalty is for. But Bailure hypocrits can continue to convince themselves that they are "fighting the good fight" for some higher calling. Baylor could join Conference USA and still play football. But no, it's about the money, the Big 12 money. You never belonged in the Big 12 Baylor. You had to weasle your way in and leave your "friends" behind: Rice, SMU, TCU, UH.
• DJ Drummond on Sep 08, 2011 @ 6:56 pm
  "Welfare"? Really dman, that's all you have? Talk about weak.
• DJ Drummond on Sep 08, 2011 @ 6:55 pm
  Sure, Keith. That's gotta be it. Couldn't be greed on the part of some mega-school that confuses itself with an NFL franchise, couldn't be conferences that break deals as soon as they see something bigger, couldn't be media that thinks there's no place for student-athletes who really are students first. Nope, gotta blame the religious schools. Lord knows we can't expect quality athletes from Baylor, BYU, or Notre Dame, right? ** rolls eyes **
• dman on Sep 08, 2011 @ 6:25 pm
  Keith you are wrong about Baptist, quit watching MSNBC. Baylor is ok, just does not belong in big time college football. They need to know their place, and just accept their fate.
• Keith on Sep 08, 2011 @ 6:15 pm
  one word...Baptist...and there you have it. They constantly spew hate and discontent everywhere they go.
• dman on Sep 08, 2011 @ 6:13 pm
  Gerald the SWC did not go bankrupt. Texas and A&M wanted out and politics allowed tech and Baylor to come along. That is a fact. Another fact is that Baylor is a second tier school and should have never been allowed in the Big12. They are nothing more than welfare recipients, and the time has come for welfare reform. This is the future of big time college football and Baylor does not belong.
• Gerald on Sep 08, 2011 @ 5:56 pm
  Brad: Yes, they would. And they are ignoring the fact that they are walking away from a $1.17 billion TV contract that they signed. (Well, A&M isn't. A&M could leave and the Big 12 could easily replace them with BYU. It is Oklahoma and Texas that would be walking away.) Like Baylor and company are simply supposed to allow all that money to go out the window without a fight! Wouldn't you do the same?
• Brad on Sep 08, 2011 @ 5:42 pm
  I see what you're gettin' at, and I would rather see this just be over with, but can you really fault Baylor for trying to protect its brand? Wouldn't you do the same?
• Kyle Field on Sep 08, 2011 @ 5:37 pm
  I think there is some new DNA stains on Ken Star's blue dress - and it is orange.
• Gerald on Sep 08, 2011 @ 5:35 pm
  Kyle Field: Oh please. The Aggies would be in the Pac-16 right now had Baylor not opposed the deal last year and bought the Aggies time to run begging to the SEC. Texas and Oklahoma were cracking their whips, and the Aggies were following whimpering and simpering along to a conference that they never wanted to go, and Texas tried to get the legislature to withhold funding from the Aggies unless they joined the Longhorns in the Pac-16. So now all of a sudden Baylor is the bad guys? Or has everyone forgotten that? And this very columnist trashed A&M for "disloyalty" and "casting aside tradition" in trying to leave the Pac-16 and go to the SEC. Or have we not forgotten that also?
• Big time fan on Sep 08, 2011 @ 5:34 pm
  Man! What a bunch of hysteria! Some of you need to read what okla said last year to the effect that "ou will follow what TEXAS does" in regard to leaving the Big 12 or staying. When TEXAS decided to stay, SO DID ou!!!!! That is a FACT and it's in print for those of you that can read. The Ag's are just now getting good, beating okla and the cornholers both last year. And they have a top 10 ranking this year, so the move doesn't make sense from a football perspective, just one of hatred and jealousy.

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  Berry Tramel, a lifelong Oklahoman, sports fan and newspaper reader, joined The Oklahoman in 1991 and has served as beat writer, assistant...

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  Berry Tramel, a lifelong Oklahoman, sports fan and newspaper reader, joined The Oklahoman in 1991 and has served as beat writer, assistant sports editor, sports editor and columnist.
  
  Tramel grew up reading four daily newspapers — The Oklahoman, the Oklahoma City Times, the Norman Transcript and the Oklahoma Journal — and entered the newspaper business at the age of 17, with the Transcript in 1978. His first game assignment was the Lexington-Elmore City high school football game, and he has enjoyed the journey ever since, from high school wrestling duals and regional track meets to Orange Bowls and the NBA playoffs.
  
  Tramel was born and raised in Norman, Okla. He and his wife, Tricia, were married in 1980 and live in Norman near their daughter, son-in-law and three granddaughters.

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