Big 12 conference realignment: It’s time to pull the plug on the Big 12

A few days ago, I wrote that the only hope for Texas Tech to remain nationally relevant in the face of the impending conference realignment brought on by OU and Texas’ desire to join the SEC is to hope for a bid from the PAC 12.  However, in the days since, it is being reported that a last-ditch effort to save the Big 12 and keep its two marquee programs in the fold has been discussed.

The problem is that the plan is ill-advised and should it come to fruition (which doesn’t seem likely), it would only serve to exacerbate the issues that have plagued the conference since the last round of conference realignment a decade ago.  The proposed solution?  Give Texas and OU even more of an unfair share of the conference revenue than they already have.  That’s stunningly nearsighted and almost comical.

In fact, Dennis Dodd of CBS is reporting that the proposal being considered would give both Texas and OU a 1.5 share of the conference revenue while forcing the other schools in the league to take less in order to make up the difference.  If that’s the only way to save the Big 12, then it’s time to send the conference off into the afterlife with a Viking funeral and watch it burn out from the shoreline.

The truth is that most associated with the other eight schools in the conference would prefer to see the conference stay as presently constructed.  However, there is already an unfair power structure among this conference’s member schools, one that already gives the Longhorns and Sooners a financial advantage and that has led to an imbalance of power and quite a few hard feelings from the other eight schools.

We’ve already seen this strategy applied in order to appease UT and OU and it ultimately wasn’t enough.  UT was allowed to have the Longhorn network and the $15 million that it annually provides while OU was allowed extra revenue from media partners as well.

So why even think about going back to that dry well once again and creating an even more disproportionate caste system within the conference?  The answer: because Big 12 officials know that their jobs are on the line.

Should the conference dissolve, as would be best for all involved, the conference leadership will suddenly find itself without the high-paying jobs that have become so comfortable to them.  And even if the Big 12 were to try to survive by bringing in new schools like BYU or Central Florida, it would take such a massive hit to its prestige that it would be on par with the Mountain West or the American Athletic Conference and that would kill any negotiating power the league would have when the next round of television rights are signed (the current Big 12 media deal runs through the 2024-25 academic year).

Should Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and his henchmen have to slink to the negotiating table with FOX or ESPN or CBS and try to sell a league without Texas and OU, they will be laughed out of the building and the league’s revenue would fall to a level so low that it would cripple both the schools in the league and the conference executives who have made quite the living on the viability of the Big 12 over the past 25 years.

Thus, there seems no way to save this conference.  UT and OU are dead set on heading to the SEC.  We all know that truth now.  And even the thought of a 1.5 share of the league’s revenue isn’t going to be likely to change their minds given that such a structure would almost certainly have other Big 12 programs searching for more equitable situations thus continuing to make this conference the Jenga puzzle of the NCAA, always one brick away from collapse.

Therefore, the best way to proceed is to simply let natural selection take over and bid the Big 12 adieu.  It’s been a fun ride with some great memories along the way but just like the old Southwest Conference was put out of its mystery by the Big 12 in the mid-90s, it’s time for this cancerous conference to have its plug pulled for the good of all involved.

That’s especially true if the only way to save the league from falling to the level of a mid-major conference is to double-down on a tactic that has already caused so many problems to begin with.  Sure, we wish that this league could continue in its current iteration but Texas and OU don’t and that should be the death knell for the league, not a reason to keep it on life support.