Willis



  • Ryan Willis just led his team on a 10 play openening drive TD in a bowl game.

    This gives me hope that coaching can make a huge difference on the remaining roster.



  • Coaching is incredibly underrated in football. Especially relative to basketball. We should see immediate improvement in all 3 phases



  • Tom Herman is going to be a problem for a while a Texas. Sounds like OUs McVay may be as well after inking an extension.



  • @dylans The B12 is at it’s best when Texas is good. It’s not a coincidence that the B12’s on field decline coincided with Texas struggling, by Texas standards, for most of the past decade. Texas being good is good for the B12 because it’s easier to recruit in Texas when UT is good. The SEC has dominated Texas recruiting for awhile now because of UT’s struggles.

    The B12 needs UT to reclaim the DFW area in recruiting from the SEC and at least be 50/50 in Houston with the SEC.

    Even though UH isn’t getting a B12 invote anytime soon since they’re showing everyone how not to attract a P5 invite, I’ve always believed adding them would be big for the B12 for recruiting purposes because Houston is an SEC city and the SEC schools (mostly A&M and LSU) have dominated Houston recruiting for the better part of a decade. UH doesn’t change it overnight, but it gives other B12 schools a strong foothold in the city to build relationships with area coaches.


  • Banned

    Texas Hawk 10 said:

    @dylans The B12 is at it’s best when Texas is good. It’s not a coincidence that the B12’s on field decline coincided with Texas struggling, by Texas standards, for most of the past decade. Texas being good is good for the B12 because it’s easier to recruit in Texas when UT is good. The SEC has dominated Texas recruiting for awhile now because of UT’s struggles.

    The B12 needs UT to reclaim the DFW area in recruiting from the SEC and at least be 50/50 in Houston with the SEC.

    Even though UH isn’t getting a B12 invote anytime soon since they’re showing everyone how not to attract a P5 invite, I’ve always believed adding them would be big for the B12 for recruiting purposes because Houston is an SEC city and the SEC schools (mostly A&M and LSU) have dominated Houston recruiting for the better part of a decade. UH doesn’t change it overnight, but it gives other B12 schools a strong foothold in the city to build relationships with area coaches.

    Do you think the Big 12 would add schools? I’m just not seeing it. To be honest I think the Big 12 conference’s days are numbered. Could be wrong though.



  • DoubleDD said:

    Texas Hawk 10 said:

    @dylans The B12 is at it’s best when Texas is good. It’s not a coincidence that the B12’s on field decline coincided with Texas struggling, by Texas standards, for most of the past decade. Texas being good is good for the B12 because it’s easier to recruit in Texas when UT is good. The SEC has dominated Texas recruiting for awhile now because of UT’s struggles.

    The B12 needs UT to reclaim the DFW area in recruiting from the SEC and at least be 50/50 in Houston with the SEC.

    Even though UH isn’t getting a B12 invote anytime soon since they’re showing everyone how not to attract a P5 invite, I’ve always believed adding them would be big for the B12 for recruiting purposes because Houston is an SEC city and the SEC schools (mostly A&M and LSU) have dominated Houston recruiting for the better part of a decade. UH doesn’t change it overnight, but it gives other B12 schools a strong foothold in the city to build relationships with area coaches.

    Do you think the Big 12 would add schools? I’m just not seeing it. To be honest I think the Big 12 conference’s days are numbered. Could be wrong though.

    Not unless the PAC-12 becomes open for business and the Arizona’s, CU, and/or Utah want a new home. They’re in much worse financial shape than the Big 12.



  • @DoubleDD The B12 was actively seeking to add teams last year, but ESPN and Fox flat out told the B12 no because they wouldn’t modify the B12’s TV deal because none of the rumored schools added value. Those rumored schools were Houston, Memphis, Cincinnati, and UCF with Houston and Cincy being the two frontrunners.



  • I agree with @FarmerJayhawk . There’s no reason IMO to add non power 5 teams right now. They just don’t add anything. If the PAC 12 blows up then sure let’s add a couple of them, but outside of Houston those other schools don’t add much. In a article I posted on here a few days ago it doesn’t sound like the Big 12 has any interest in adding Houston. Although I will say with Kelvin Sampson and Holgo they now have a pretty salty 1-2 punch as far as coaches go in the 2 main sports.

    I also have never been worried about the Big 12 going anywhere. As long as Texas and OU are in it it will be fine. As @Texas-Hawk-10 said earlier today as much as people hate Texas them being good at football is only going to help the conference.



  • FarmerJayhawk said:

    DoubleDD said:

    Texas Hawk 10 said:

    @dylans The B12 is at it’s best when Texas is good. It’s not a coincidence that the B12’s on field decline coincided with Texas struggling, by Texas standards, for most of the past decade. Texas being good is good for the B12 because it’s easier to recruit in Texas when UT is good. The SEC has dominated Texas recruiting for awhile now because of UT’s struggles.

    The B12 needs UT to reclaim the DFW area in recruiting from the SEC and at least be 50/50 in Houston with the SEC.

    Even though UH isn’t getting a B12 invote anytime soon since they’re showing everyone how not to attract a P5 invite, I’ve always believed adding them would be big for the B12 for recruiting purposes because Houston is an SEC city and the SEC schools (mostly A&M and LSU) have dominated Houston recruiting for the better part of a decade. UH doesn’t change it overnight, but it gives other B12 schools a strong foothold in the city to build relationships with area coaches.

    Do you think the Big 12 would add schools? I’m just not seeing it. To be honest I think the Big 12 conference’s days are numbered. Could be wrong though.

    Not unless the PAC-12 becomes open for business and the Arizona’s, CU, and/or Utah want a new home. They’re in much worse financial shape than the Big 12.

    The P12 isn’t going to be the conference that disappears in the near future. It’s going to be the B12 because ESPN and Fox want to get down to 4 major conferences, which let’s them expand the playoffs to 8 with ease, which let’s them screw over the Group of 5 conferences.

    What’s going to end up happening is the B12 is going to get carved up with most teams going to B10, P12, and ACC. The goal for the networks is to have each conference have at least 16 teams because that sets up the conference title games as quarterfinal games. We’ll probably even see the SEC raid the ACC to get to 16.

    Fox already has the B10 and P12 title games while ESPN has the SEC and ACC which makes the TV side easy to set up as well. Fox would keep the B10 and P12 title games along with one of the semifinal games and ESPN would keep the SEC and ACC title games along with a semifinal game and they would alternate the national title game.

    Don’t be surprised to see something like this happen in the next 10-15 years as the B12’s TV deal expires in a few years and the CFP’s deal expires shortly after that. The B10 is already trying to expand to 8 teams and if that happens, one of the major conferences will disappear and it will the one based in flyover country, not the west coast.



  • @Woodrow The B12 will disappear before the P12 because Bob Bowlsby has been reactive instead of proactive in realignment talks. Larry Scott is at least actively trying to improve the league instead of waiting for others to make moves. The P12 did go big during that first round of realignment, but didn’t want to deal with the LHN. Longhorn Network is the only reason the B12 exists today, otherwise Texas, Texas Tech, and Kansas would be in the P12 today with Colorado and OU and OSU would be in the SEC along with A&M and Missouri. ISU probably would’ve ended up in the B10 along with Nebraska.

    Most people don’t realize how close the B12 was to being killed off in 2010 under Dan Bebee who was even more reactionary than Bowlsby is. Bowlsby blew expansion by only adding two programs instead of 4 or 6 and really blew it by ignoring a Louisville program that wanted to join the B12.

    Larry Scott is a much better leader than Bowlsby and that’s why the P12 will survive instead of the B12.

    The reason the Memorial Stadium renovation is such a priority now is because of the upcoming conference realignments that will happen as the B12’s grant of Rights deal nears expiration. If the B12 wasn’t in danger, KU wouldn’t be doing what they are to try and improve their football program top to bottom.



  • The problem is time zones. It’s virtually impossible to run a conference across three time zones. Expanding the Pac-12 would require three time zones.

    You can’t get TV schedules right to operate the conference if a mediocre Oregon State team is playing in Lawrence on a Friday evening/night because the game either has to tip early on the west coast (8PM here is still just 6PM there) or late here (9PM) and west coast viewers won’t tune in. That’s unworkable for basketball. Football would have to move everything to afternoons in the midwest (because of the cold) or early evenings out west (to make sure the midwest people tune in).

    There’s no good expansion solution for Pac-12 that doesn’t involve adding Nevada and UNLV. Just too much travel in other sports (the trip from Washington State to Austin would be brutal).



  • @justanotherfan Keep in mind, when a conference gets that big, you don’t play everyone every year in football because of the divisions.

    In P12 for example with 16 teams, you would have two 8 team divisions. Let’s say you keep the 9 game conference schedule, that’s 7 games in your division and two non division games. The divisions would be split between the Central and Mountain time zone schools and the other division would be the Pacific time zone schools. In a set up like that, you’re talking one game a year where the west coast teams leave their time zone.

    For the other sports, you could easily split into four divisions based on region and play your region twice home and away and the rest of the conference once. For example, you could put the 4 California schools into a region and they play each other twice and the rest of the 12 teams once. That gets you to 18 conference games where you play everyone at least once.

    In non revenue sports, keep the 4 team regional divisions, but you may not play every division every year depending on the number conference games that sport typically plays. In baseball or softball, you would only play 3 of the 4 divisions and rotate which one you don’t play.

    It’s a workable situation with proper planning to minimize stuff travel and time zone issues.



  • The PAC 12 is in such bad shape they are looking for someone to buy a 10% share for 500 million dollars. With the 25 members it works out to around $4.56 each after taxes. JJ but seriously how bad off is the PAC 12. Seems awfully desperate.



  • Texas Hawk 10 said:

    FarmerJayhawk said:

    DoubleDD said:

    Texas Hawk 10 said:

    @dylans The B12 is at it’s best when Texas is good. It’s not a coincidence that the B12’s on field decline coincided with Texas struggling, by Texas standards, for most of the past decade. Texas being good is good for the B12 because it’s easier to recruit in Texas when UT is good. The SEC has dominated Texas recruiting for awhile now because of UT’s struggles.

    The B12 needs UT to reclaim the DFW area in recruiting from the SEC and at least be 50/50 in Houston with the SEC.

    Even though UH isn’t getting a B12 invote anytime soon since they’re showing everyone how not to attract a P5 invite, I’ve always believed adding them would be big for the B12 for recruiting purposes because Houston is an SEC city and the SEC schools (mostly A&M and LSU) have dominated Houston recruiting for the better part of a decade. UH doesn’t change it overnight, but it gives other B12 schools a strong foothold in the city to build relationships with area coaches.

    Do you think the Big 12 would add schools? I’m just not seeing it. To be honest I think the Big 12 conference’s days are numbered. Could be wrong though.

    Not unless the PAC-12 becomes open for business and the Arizona’s, CU, and/or Utah want a new home. They’re in much worse financial shape than the Big 12.

    The P12 isn’t going to be the conference that disappears in the near future. It’s going to be the B12 because ESPN and Fox want to get down to 4 major conferences, which let’s them expand the playoffs to 8 with ease, which let’s them screw over the Group of 5 conferences.

    What’s going to end up happening is the B12 is going to get carved up with most teams going to B10, P12, and ACC. The goal for the networks is to have each conference have at least 16 teams because that sets up the conference title games as quarterfinal games. We’ll probably even see the SEC raid the ACC to get to 16.

    Fox already has the B10 and P12 title games while ESPN has the SEC and ACC which makes the TV side easy to set up as well. Fox would keep the B10 and P12 title games along with one of the semifinal games and ESPN would keep the SEC and ACC title games along with a semifinal game and they would alternate the national title game.

    Don’t be surprised to see something like this happen in the next 10-15 years as the B12’s TV deal expires in a few years and the CFP’s deal expires shortly after that. The B10 is already trying to expand to 8 teams and if that happens, one of the major conferences will disappear and it will the one based in flyover country, not the west coast.

    Right, I didn’t say they would disappear. I can see them contracting if the Big 12 gets a new TV deal, which is certainly possible. Cord cutting has opened up the market to new players. Disney, FOX, and CBS aren’t the only networks that are going to be interested in college football when the Big 12 GoR comes up in 2025 or whenever it is (pretty sure it’s close to then). Amazon and Twitter have already bought some NFL games to test the market, and they won’t be the last ones to make the leap. Google/YouTube are looking to add more original content, and what’s better than college sports? Would it surprise anyone if Google wanted a piece of the Big 12? The Big 12 footprint is very valuable, and it wouldn’t surprised me at all to see the conference end up dumping LHN and moving to a streaming service. 8 million households canceled cable in 2018, and it’s not likely they return. In sum, this isn’t 2010 anymore. The economics of TV and college football are much different than they were, and trends won’t change by 2025.

    In short, one conference doesn’t have to go away to get down to 4 power conferences. Could just as easily happen that the Big 12 or PAC-12 get demoted to G5 status, and the TV market is going to get increasingly fragmented as more actors enter the market for original content.



  • @Texas-Hawk-10

    Your idea is workable, but at that point, you’re almost talking about two separate conferences.



  • @FarmerJayhawk If TV value is the issue, then the B12 is the one that’s in trouble because there isn’t a top 30 TV market outside of Texas. The B12 has two top 30 TV markets in its footprint, while the P12 has 9 top 30 TV markets.

    Online distribution of games is still a long ways away from being the primary method of distribution. Even the NFL games are also still broadcast on major networks along with NFL Network.

    That’s more where online streaming of games is at now and that won’t change anytime in the near future. The P12 already has a conference network unlike the B12 which gives them a leg up on distribution of games over the B12.



  • @FarmerJayhawk Also keep in mind that most cord cutting options like Roku, PSVue, Sling and others are not true a la carte options yet, they offer different packages based on similar type of programs such as premium movie channels, sports, travel and cooking, and options like that. Getting a conference network into those line ups as part of a sports package is what each of the conferences needs to do. The B12 is out in the cold on this because they don’t have a conference network because of the Longhorn Network which ESPN doesn’t want to roll over into a B12 Network which would the smart move on their end since the LHN isn’t available everywhere because they won’t do a deal with Comcast. Make it a B12 Network and Comcast would pay the price ESPN wants.

    I really do believe one of the P5 conferences is going to die during the next round of realignment which is coming in the next 5 years and it’s going to be the B12 because the lack media markets outside of Texas that anyone cares about.


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