1921

Are you tryin’ to call me a fool? Because – hey, Jimmie Johnson’s on TV! Grab me a Busch Light.

1922

Today there is news that Texas might consider the Big 10.

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6270202/20024025

Seems unlikely.

1923

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

Rimbo and I could have the most awesome discussions.

1924

Salt Lake (Utah, BYU) is a pretty big city, especially relative to Pullman, Eugene, and Corvallis. So is Denver (Colorado) or any of several California schools mentioned as possibilities.

The conference is also going to be big on academics/research. Every school in the Pac is a research institution in addition to academics. Cal/Stanford/UCLA/USC/and UW are either public ivies or very highly ranked private schools. They will have big issues with letting in, say, a Boise State. So any candidate would have to have both serious academic and research credentials.

Again, the Pac 10 already has a few schools that don’t rate well in that regard. Neither Oregon State or Washington State show up on “research university” rankings. Colorado and Utah do.

BYU is a no-go. Stirke One: Not a significant research institution. Strike Two: The big problem is that they won’t play sports on Sundays, and a lot of non-football sports (which the Pac-10 excels in and love) do. And the third strike is another biggie: the entire Mormon religious affiliation will rub the liberal (in both the classical and literal sense) schools the wrong way. Again, you just need one Pac-10 school saying no, and it’s not going to happen.

The only thing there that is even slightly relative is the Sunday issue. But the big sporst aren’t affected by that rule, and the various conferences that BYU has been part of have managed to deal with it. Sure, you can put it on the “downsides” list, but you are completely ignoring what BYU would bring into the conference, like its national following.

When you get down to it, there are only two or three schools that would barely make the cut, and the problem with those schools is that they’re not natural rivals on one another. Each Pac-10 school has its natural pair (UW/WSU, OU/OSU, Cal/Stanford, UCLA/USC, UA/ASU), and that’s going to rub traditionalists the wrong way.

Depends entirely on who gets brought in. Utah/BYU solves that problem nicely.

Finally, assuming you do find two schools, how you divide the conference is going to provoke a knife fight. Anyone who suggests a typical North/South split are idiots who don’t understand the West Coast. UW/Oregon/Oregon State/Washington State will vote no because that kind of split would cripple their presence and recruiting in Southern California, which has a larger population than Washington, Oregon, and Arizona. In other words: that’s where all the best talent is. Washington’s big recruiting class that was signed last week had 16 kids from California, most from SoCal. A North/South split would relegate the Pac-10 North into Big-12 North status, crippled from the main sources of talent and otherwise irrelevant.

That means an unorthodox split, which would be controversial. And everybody would be jockeying NOT to be in USC’s division. And, again, one school says no and it’s not happening, period.

It’s not like the divisions wouldn’t play each other. Right now Pac 10 football plays 9 conference games in a 12 game season. In a two division alignment, only 5 would be divisional games, meaning you could play 4/6 teams from the other division each year. Rotation would mean you’d only miss playing a given team in the other division maybe every other year. I don’t see that impacting recruiting as negatively as you seem to think.

The Pac-10 almost let Texas in, after the SEC formed up and sent Texas’ old conference into the dustbin. And Texas fits. Public ivy/massive research/huge TV audience. Stanford vetoed it and it was dead. So now you know why Pac-10 expansion is going to be a nightmare.

There are various reasons why Texas didn’t join the Pac 10 at that point. The big obvious one is that it isn’t a geographical fit. So it’s not a good example.

Under their previous commissioner the Pac 10 was extremely conservative. They made a choice to bring in someone with a different perspective and that means looking at all of this. There seems to be a serious willingness to look into moving to a “Pac 12,” even if that does mean thinking beyond the conservative viewpoints that have ruled the conference for the last 30 years.

1925

If it were up to me, all were available options and I had to choose just one, I’d choose, in order:

  1. Big 10
  2. Pac 10
  3. Go Indie
  4. Stay in Big XII

That’s about the looks of it.

1926

It’s not going to be BYU. Lets keep the death by a thousand cuts going. In addition to the thing on sports on Sunday and not being an elite research institution/medical school (the WSUs of the world were pretty much grandfathered in), BYU has at least two more big strikes.

From the Salt Lake paper

But BYU’s other issues, such as its owner’s highly publicized role in California’s Prop. 8 referendum, and its perceived crackdowns on academic freedom among its professors and students is said to not play well among the people who will be ultimately making the Pac-10’s decision – the presidents and chancellors of its 10 member schools.

Basically, Berekley and UCLA are going to be under huge amounts of internal and public pressure to vote no. The liberal factions in California haven’t forgiven the LDS church for intervening in the Prop 8 fight (most of the out-of-state money to the pro Prop 8 groups came from Utah), and they’re spoiling for payback.

The academic freedom issue will also make the liberal schools uneasy, and it’s pretty much guaranteed that Stanford is an automatic veto.

1927

You’ve made some excellent points, Sarkus. On this point, Woolen Horde is correct. The geographic consideration was not as big of a factor as Stanford’s opposition and that it was a package deal that included A&M. If Texas were to join the Pac 10 today, it would likely also be a package deal including A&M, and the money behind such a move would be beyond the dreams of avarice. Hell, the money behind UT alone is ridiculous on its own, which is why UT gets brought up in discussions in terms of both conferences and even as a possible Independent.

There is one thing that makes Texas leaving the Big XII unlikely – just one thing: There are Baylor and Tech grads in the state legislature who can threaten the school’s funding if they feel that UT sabotaged their conference. This was the primary reason why Tech and Baylor got into the Big XII in the first place. So Texas almost needs a team like Mizzou or Colorado to bolt first, so that they can say, “Hey, the conference was falling apart before WE left!”

Again, if I were in charge of the world and I could choose, the Big Ten would be my first choice, easily. All of the things the new Pac-10 commish is looking to establish, the Big Ten already has. Plus, there’s the benefit of research funding as a member. There’s a better TV deal (although granted, there are Division III conferences with better TV deals than the Big XII’s). And having annual games against the likes of tOSU, Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn State?* Plus the usual regular OOC game against OU? Ohhhhhhh… could you imagine the sheer awesome of it all? You either want to see that, or you don’t like football.

So… who do I have to kill to make this happen?

*Probably not all in the same year, but… still!

1928

Still think so?

1929

Not only that, but starting RB LaMichael James is changing his plea to no contest in his case (strangulation/assault/menacing)

Basically, the Ducks’ two Heissman candidates for next year are in legal trouble.

1930

Word is that Masoli is done as a Duck. News reports are that his fingerprints were all over the stolen laptop, and the rumor mill is going crazy that his locker has been emptied.

I feel bad for the kid, and also bewildered at how idiotic he could be. Seriously, with Masoli at QB and James at RB, they had a National Championship-caliber offense at Oregon. Masoli could have been a serious Heissman candidate. Hell, they were easily going to be Top 10 going into the season, maybe even Top 5.

Meanwhile, it’s sounding like James is going to have some kind of suspension. Chip is supposed to face the media on Friday to announce his decision. He’s only been “weighing the facts” for the past month. Not exactly decisive.

UW just had a player arrested for some serious assault. Lost his temper and allegedly fractured a guy’s face by stomping on it. The victim was a total bystander who was out walking when he came upon a fight and tried to break it up. Sark suspended the player indefinitely as soon as he heard, and if it’s true then the player is done. In this situation the authority figures on the team need to make it very clear who is in charge, and that doing illegal shit is going to be dealt with swiftly.

From everything I’ve heard, it’s really sounding like Oregon’s let an atmosphere where the inmates are running the asylum fester, and that’s how you get to a situation where five or six of your players get in trouble with the law seemingly ovenight.

1931

Well, the problem the Ducks have is what do you do now? I mean you can hold Chip Kelly responsible up to a point, but ultimately these are Bellotti’s recruits, and oh yeah, he’s the AD.

Unless the school president decides he’s had enough and fires them both, but that probably knocks Oregon off the football map (with all that lost exposure and revenue) for awhile.

Quite the mess in Eugene.

1932

Masoli plead guilty to his burglary (a misdemeanor) and he’s been suspended for the entire 2010 season, which in Oregon-speak probably means 6 games. (Remember Blount’s season suspension suddenly disappeared?). Masoli can still come back in 2011 as this would technically burn his redshirt.

James suspended for the opening game, as Chip is saying he “secretly suspended” him already, whatever the fuck that means.

Looks like Thomas is going to be the Ducks QB, but it looks like their Rose Bowl chances took a big hit with Masoli gone. Masoli ran that offense like a fine swiss watch, and when he wasn’t in the game they looked like total crap. They also have to break in a new quarterback and they play @USC this year.

Speaking of Blount, by the way, the guy totally skipped Oregon’s pro day this week, which isn’t going to help his stock. The dude already has two big red flags against him, and he was trying to work his way back into some NFL team’s good graces, but skipping pro day? That’s going to be worrisome considering how much baggage he has already.

1933

People! It’s 2010!

1934

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