The Big 12 Was Doomed From The Start
Posted on June 14, 2010 by Jacob Bunn
On February 25, 1994, the Big Eight Conference merged with four Texas teams from the Southwest Conference and together formed what was to become known as the Big 12 Conference.
During the course of two days, the once powerful Big 12 collegiate athletic conference lost two of its members, Nebraska and Colorado. Colorado went west to the Pac 10 (soon to be the Pac ‘insert quantity here’), and Nebraska packed its bags and headed for the Big Ten. Neither team has had a ton of success of late in the Big 12, but both were part of the tapestry of the conference. The Big 12 may yet survive the blows it took last week. But if it does not, a couple of initial decisions may point to its failure.
When it was formed the conference split into two divisions, North and South. The North was made up of Iowa State, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, and Nebraska. The South was comprised of Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, and Oklahoma State. This arrangement has proven over time to be an imbalance of power. The Big 12 South has, for the most part, dominated the league. Now, of course, we are speaking only of football here because it drives the ship.
The inequality of the divisions is exposed by the number of conference championships each has. The Big 12 North champion has won the championship game only four times in fourteen years. Furthermore, the Big 12 North has but one champion during the entire 2000 decade, Kansas State in 2003. Aside from winning the last six Big 12 championships, the Big 12 South has had one of its teams represented in the BCS National Championship Game five of the last seven years, and Texas won it all in 2005. At one point in 2008, there were three legitimate national title contenders in the Big 12 South alone.
It seemed like every year in the Big 12 Championship Game you saw the national championship contender, (Texas or Oklahoma) representing the South, going up against the potential spoiler with three or more losses from the Northern division.
Nebraska and to some degree Colorado are the only consistently decent teams year in and year out in the Big 12 North. Missouri, Kansas, and Kansas State can sometimes be a threat but most of the time are nothing to be concerned about. And Iowa State is just happy to be there. In contrast, the Big 12 South has Texas and Oklahoma. Those two teams alone have accounted for nine conference championships in fourteen years (pretty stellar) and six BCS Championship appearances.
Another flawed decision that was made at the outset was the method for distribution of revenue. The Big 12 decided to evenly distribute half of the revenue each year and the other half would be dealt according to television appearances. That is great for the Texases or Oklahomas who have ten out of their twelve games nationally televised. But it really leaves the lower end of the pack in the dust each year.
Clearly, the Big 12 South has had a decided advantage over the Big 12 North during the fourteen seasons of the conference. That is why current Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe will, more than likely, soon be thumbing through the classifieds.
It was said innumerable times by national ‘experts’ during last season that the Big 12 was second to the SEC. Well, Texas and Oklahoma may have been as good as the best teams in other leagues. But top to bottom, does anyone think the Big 12 was even close?
Contact Jacob Bunn at Jacob@bunnsports.com
