Big12 to David Boren:

[TexasExes98]

Times are hard at OU. And David Boren is not screwing around. Bottom line, OU absolutely must find a way to increase revenues to the University and improving our academics is the best long term way to do that. Athletics will play a big part too but stories like this illustrate how serious the situation is at OU. OU president to recommend pay cuts for himself, other top administrators

Joining another conference will not help in becoming an AAU member though. That has to be a complete effort by the university itself. Some of the criteria to receive an invite to the AAU is money spent on research. I was googling this regarding OU and really couldn't find much. Also, the AAU considers the amount of faculty who have received awards and are members of the National Academies. Again, that would be the responsibility of the university to hire these types of professors. If this is indeed Boren's goal, I think he needs to clean house within his university rather than worry about conference networks and joining other conferences.

 

[HuskerinBig10]

Texas doesn't lose a thing if the RRSO were to end. OU has everything to lose. Now as fans and alumni, both will be the major losers if that were to happen, as one of the best rivalries ever will come to an end.

Time to chime in.

OU will still get Texas recruits no matter what. Texas football players want to win, and any school that gives them a chance to win and go to the NFL, will be in their sites.

Texas would lose the only game that makes Texas relevant. What Texas game is going to move the needle? TCU and Baylor are just a head coach away from being what they were. Although, of the two I would say TCU has a good chance of staying relevant, unless oil remains under 30 bucks for a few years.

This is why in September 2011, William Powers and Deloss Dodds both got on a plane and went to Norman with bags of money to appease Oklahoma. More than likely, whatever promises were made by Powers and Dodds have been broken by the new admin(patterson and Fenves) at Texas, and Boren is pissed off about it. Yes, I know Patterson is gone, but he fucked up a lot of stuff at Texas while he was there.

No other team has TEXAS ever done that for. Not one. When the Big 12 was being formed, the Big 8 people had to go to Texas. Texas has always made other schools bend over and take it, Oklahoma is the one school that can make Texas bend over.

 

[Payton]

Because NOBODY wants Oklahoma's TV market and the smallish Oklahoma recruiting pipeline by itself.
The academics are not helping either.

1) The SEC already has the SEC NETWORK as "in market" for the greater OU fan base market.
It makes little sense for them to pick OU over the more lucrative options in North Carolina and Virginia/DC.
There are millions and millions better reason for the SEC to go NC and VA first.

2) The ACC makes zero sense for either side. It would actually lose money for OU.

3) The Big 10 will not take any non AAU schools.

4) So, the only option is for the Sooners to go West.
But, they need a TV market partner as well for the PAC-12. OKC is not enough for the PAC Network and travel.
Luckily for OU, the states of VA and NC are not competitors for the PAC-12.
So, the Sooners need to bring along Texas, Texas A&m, or maybe Kansas.
A&M - no chance
Kansas - who knows?? They seem more likely to be a Big 10 holdout eventually.
Texas - Only if the LHN doesn't exist.


Which brings us all the way back to the REAL reason Boren is on a one man crusade to get rid of the LHN.

The only thing that makes sense for the ACC is taking West Virginia... The conference got snooty about it back when it was on the table a few years back, but then went and grabbed Louisville who essentially has/had the same "issues" that many saw in West Virginia.

Hoping the conference realizes its mistake if/when the Big XII collapses and brings in WVU to even us out at 16 members (Of course that'd be for basketball and we'd still need to figure out WTF to do with Notre Dame...)

Anyway, beyond that... To respond to the rest of this post that pertains to the ACC... Who do you think the SEC would take from either Virginia or North Carolina that would be better than OU? I mean take UVA and UNC off the table. They are charter members of the conference that have large endowments and are in the cat bird's seat in the ACC... That is pie in the sky. They aren't leaving...

So then who? NC State? Virginia Tech? Sure, but better options than Oklahoma? I don't see it.

 

[Deep Creek]

unless oil remains under 30 bucks for a few years.

As someone that lives in the middle of the oil patch, this hurts OU (and other schools in oil producing states) as well as schools in Texas. Oklahoma has oil too.

However, from Gold's explanation, it sounds like there are more financial issues in play at OU than the price of oil. One being the lack of research grant dollars.

 

[sooner78wakeboard]

Basically, in a nut shell. This is the Big 12 Leadership, afraid to hurt Tejas feeling.

 

[Hornsstampede2.0]

TEXAS did not say a god damn thing.
OKLAHOMA had their dude running his mouth everywhere without running it past the league.

He has been in charge for way too long at OU...and assumed he had unchecked power to do anything.
It happens all the time when one guy just assumes it is lifetime appointment. Texas had it happen as well.
Texas has had a few geezers at times assume they were royalty not paid public servants.

The leadership of the Big 12 ( Kansas State leading the change) told OU to shut the fuck up.
OU got blasted and humiliated by the little guys. And now they are doubling down on butt-hurt.

TEXAS did not have anything to do with it despite all the husker efforts to blame TEXAS.
If OU wants to get into a brawl with Kansas State, leave Texas out of it. We are tired of getting blamed.

 

[occupant]

SEC took Mizzou.

Think about that.

^^^^^^^^^^^
...to anyone that thinks OU is going to have to jump through hoops to get an invite to another conference,

 

[Goldbug]

Joining another conference will not help in becoming an AAU member though. That has to be a complete effort by the university itself. Some of the criteria to receive an invite to the AAU is money spent on research. I was googling this regarding OU and really couldn't find much. Also, the AAU considers the amount of faculty who have received awards and are members of the National Academies. Again, that would be the responsibility of the university to hire these types of professors. If this is indeed Boren's goal, I think he needs to clean house within his university rather than worry about conference networks and joining other conferences.

Exes, I can only speak for myself and the other donors I have talked to over the past couple of years. Donations have leveled off and in some cases have actually dropped significantly. I'm talking about academic donations, not athletic donations which have also had a hard time due to the oil bust and Stoops' spastic coaching record the past few years. Again, I am referring to the academic side of things. People are turned off by OU seemingly stuck in a rut. The Big 12 is going no place academically and may even fail athletically. The Alums and donors want OU to find a way, damn near ANY way, to break out of the pack academically and improve our national image. We do great in some areas (#1 in the number of National Merit Scholars and Top 10 in Rhodes Scholars) but the overall picture has not improved. The general consensus is OU has to do something dramatic in order to turn things around (a) to increase the amount of donor money, (b) to improve its ability to attract better professors, etc. and (c) to kick start a move toward eventual AAU membership. Texas is extremely rich and can not easily identify with OU's problems. And some of the other schools in the conference are scared shitless if OU bolts. OU/Boren isn't making any friends right now but we either improve our situation or we accept our fate and gradually see our opportunity to improve our situation go right down the toilet.

 

[GoldRusher]

^^^^^^^^^^^
...to anyone that thinks OU is going to have to jump through hoops to get an invite to another conference,

GOR is a pretty big hoop, one OU or any other member will be able to go through. May as well have Boren take his seat, watch Bowlsby do his thing and enjoy the ride til 2025 at the earliest.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

Exes, I can only speak for myself and the other donors I have talked to over the past couple of years. Donations have leveled off and in some cases have actually dropped significantly. I'm talking about academic donations, not athletic donations which have also had a hard time due to the oil bust and Stoops' spastic coaching record the past few years. Again, I am referring to the academic side of things. People are turned off by OU seemingly stuck in a rut. The Big 12 is going no place academically and may even fail athletically. The Alums and donors want OU to find a way, damn near ANY way, to break out of the pack academically and improve our national image. We do great in some areas (#1 in the number of National Merit Scholars and Top 10 in Rhodes Scholars) but the overall picture has not improved. The general consensus is OU has to do something dramatic in order to turn things around (a) to increase the amount of donor money, (b) to improve its ability to attract better professors, etc. and (c) to kick start a move toward eventual AAU membership. Texas is extremely rich and can not easily identify with OU's problems. And some of the other schools in the conference are scared shitless if OU bolts. OU/Boren isn't making any friends right now but we either improve our situation or we accept our fate and gradually see our opportunity to improve our situation go right down the toilet.

We get all that, but moving athletic conferences seems like the least of your worries. You actually lose money going to the pac, their network only pays 1mil per school. The Big ten would be ideal academically, but then your athletics suffer. You'd make more money probably, but recruiting would be a nightmare. I guess pick your poison, and choose wisely.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

^^^^^^^^^^^
...to anyone that thinks OU is going to have to jump through hoops to get an invite to another conference,

Mizzou has St louis and Kansas city to help with the SEC network, not sure how much okc and tulsa would help. An auburn fan posted an article, the only way the SEC makes more money on expansion is by adding a school in virginia and north carolina.

 

[Tharvot]

GOR is a pretty big hoop, one OU or any other member will be able to go through. May as well have Boren take his seat, watch Bowlsby do his thing and enjoy the ride til 2025 at the earliest.

GOR is relatively unenforcable though. If OU wanted to leave, they would pay a penalty and be gone. The new conference would have to be accommodating to OU's cash needs the first few years since they have to pay the exit penalty, but otherwise it probably won't be a big deal. Maryland went through a similar deal when they left the ACC for the B1G

 

[Goldbug]

We get all that, but moving athletic conferences seems like the least of your worries. You actually lose money going to the pac, their network only pays 1mil per school. The Big ten would be ideal academically, but then your athletics suffer. You'd make more money probably, but recruiting would be a nightmare. I guess pick your poison, and choose wisely.

We are in a tough situation. Pac 12 for football/sports. OU Alums and donors don't want the B1G because football would get hurt. But there are other issues to consider too if we jumped to the Pac12. Or just stay where we are now and that's not great either.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

We are in a tough situation. Pac 12 for football/sports. OU Alums and donors don't want the B1G because football would get hurt. But there are other issues to consider too if we jumped to the Pac12. Or just stay where we are now and that's not great either.

For your "needs" you'll have to go to the big ten. Otherwise you're losing money, plus i'd think the big ten would be more help getting into the AAU.

 

[occupant]

Funny watching all the donghorns in this thread...

 

[Lance Armstrong]

Funny watching all the donghorns in this thread...

It's a big 12 thread.

 

[occupant]

yep.

 

[TexasExes98]

It's a big 12 thread.

Forgive Occupant. He hasn't had his daily dose of meth just yet......

 

[GoldRusher]

GOR is relatively unenforcable though. If OU wanted to leave, they would pay a penalty and be gone. The new conference would have to be accommodating to OU's cash needs the first few years since they have to pay the exit penalty, but otherwise it probably won't be a big deal. Maryland went through a similar deal when they left the ACC for the B1G

No Maryland paid a portion of an exit fee, not a GOR situation. OU's RIGHTS belong to the Big12 therefore OU's ARSE belongs to the Big12. If breaking GOR's were as easy as people think then the ACC would have been raised by now by the Big12 and other conferences.
There is no breaking a GOR you can go but all of your tv stays with us so... Not gonna happen.

 

[Hornsstampede2.0]

The SEC earns a lot more for "IN MARKET" fees. Sometimes nearly 8 times the going rate.
TEXAS A&M already delivers most of the Sooner market overlap which is heavy in North Texas/Dallas.

North Carolina and Virginia are still "OUT OF MARKET".
Adding them produces millions more in SEC revenue. Adding Oklahoma might actually reduce the SEC revenue.

VA and NC will happen long before the SEC looks at the Sooners.
They would not pick Texas, TCU, Baylor, OSU, or Houston either for the same reasons.

And frankly, Bob Stoops has waged a one man campaign of scorched earth tactics versus the SEC.
Stoops has attacked and belittled the SEC every chance he can. He is the public face of Oklahoma.

OU would have to fire Stoops first....if they ever were to remotely consider any possibility of SEC membership.
Stoops has been way too much of an outspoken and purposeful critic of the SEC.

.