Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The Big 12 Conference Soap Opera Never Ends

I couldn’t believe my eyes or ears over the Labor Day weekend when I learned Oklahoma is exploring departure from the Big 12 Conference.

But in retrospect, why was I really surprised? The conference is in a terrible mess and its days are obviously numbered.

At last count, we had Nebraska and Colorado taking up residence in the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences respectively. Texas A&M wants to bolt and desires a membership offer from the Southeastern Conference. And now Oklahoma says it has received numerous interest from other conferences. Plus, there is no truth to the rumors that Kansas State, Iowa State and Baylor will leave and form the Big 3 Conference (for my foreign readers this is my poor attempt of making a joke).

Simply, many members (or former members) of the Big 12 exhibit the strong characteristics of the Me-First Generation. Whatever happened to one-for-all and all-for-one? You cannot have a successful partnership if some schools are always looking for a better deal. The Big 12 acts like one big dysfunctional family. The emotions of anger and sadness are both in play here.

Trust is gone in the conference. Everyone is looking over their shoulder. Teams either want something to happen or waiting for the worst to happen and you cannot run a league with those attitudes.

The Big 12 is a poster child for greed in college athletics.

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