Big 12 Media Days 2015: Biggest Quotes and Reaction from Day 1
DALLAS, Texas—Day 1 of Big 12 media days is all but officially in the books. As expected, there were no shortages of storylines to be told. From expansion and playoff conversations, to player safety and scheduling philosophies, the Big 12 state of the union was eventful.
So what caught our eye in Dallas? Here are a few of the major highlights, plus some odds and ends.
Expansion? What Expansion?
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Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby started the inevitable expansion question off with a joke.
"I lost the pool, by the way," he quipped. "I thought that would be the first question."
Bowlsby reiterated his previous stance on expansion, which was that "a majority of our presidents and chancellors believe ten is the right number." However, the money quote from Bowlsby was that there were about "four or five" presidents in the middle who were "persuadable one way or the other."
We know where Oklahoma president David Boren stands. He's wanted 12 teams from the get-go. But now that we know roughly half of the Big 12 presidents could be persuaded one way or the other, it makes for some interesting conversation. Boren is an influential individual, especially since there's a changing of the guard at Texas with a new president and athletic director, both of whom have been quiet on this topic lately.
If there is anyone in Boren's corner, it's Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder. "I favor a 12‑team conference, I favor two divisions, and I favor a championship game," Snyder said before adding, "I do the easy part of it. I can identify issues. Solution is another story."
Sorry, Memphis, BYU or Central Florida. Secretly, Snyder may be in your corner, but he's not saying so publicly.
But it's ultimately not Snyder's call, nor is it Bowlsby's. He's there to serve the best interests of the member presidents, whom he rightly calls "CEOs." It's going to take massive change for the Big 12 to seriously explore expansion targets. However, that doesn't appear imminent.
"At the present time, I don't think there's critical mass for expansion," Bowlsby said. "It will continue to be a topic about which we spend at least a little time at every meeting talking about it. But until that majority shifts, it's a purely academic conversation."
Finding the Path to the Playoff
Guerin Emig of the Tulsa World said it best on Twitter:
Much has been made about Boren calling the Big 12 "psychologically disadvantaged" because of its size. It is, after all, the only Power 5 conference without a conference championship game. Last year, it was the Big 12 that was left out of the College Football Playoff.
However, if the Big 12 is to change up its format, it would far more likely be with a deregulated conference championship game rather than expansion. This makes sense because legitimate expansion targets are, at best, few and far between.
"I don't think one year makes a trend," Bowlsby said about the Big 12 being left out of the playoff. "We were very close to having two teams in last year, and you really don't have to have much of an imagination to see how that might have worked out where we would have gotten one and maybe two without too much of a stretch."
So, as it is with expansion, the Big 12 is in a holding pattern with regards to a deregulated championship game. "We need to play better, and we need to do what we can to get better in every single way," Bowlsby said. At the absolute earliest, we could see one by 2016 if the conference decides after this season that it really is disadvantaged with its layout.
Bowlsby brought up the Big 12's previous track record with championship games, noting that the conference has oftentimes cannibalized itself with that extra game. "Fifty percent of the time our best team was eliminated from consideration by losing in the championship game," Bowlsby said.
While the past may not always indicate the future, it does at least give some reason for pause.
"For me, I think every year is different," said TCU coach Gary Patterson, whose team fell three spots in the final CFP standings and out of the playoff field. "I'm not a big believer that you have to have a conference championship. I thought the whole thing about going to a playoff was that they picked the four best teams. You didn't even have to have a championship game."
"That's what I was led to believe."
Patterson has been on the short end of the playoff stick already. With practically the same schedule and path to the playoff this year, it'll be interesting to see how the Frogs are viewed, provided they win enough games to be in the conversation. Is Patterson confident things will be different this time?
"After last year, I don't feel confident about anything," he said.
Focusing on Player Safety
One of the truly interesting nuggets from Day 1 was the reduction of the amount of live contact a player can participate in during a game week. According to the conference, "in-season live contact opportunities" will be limited to "no more than two times per week, including game day, per student-athlete."
This is a Big 12 rule and will take effect this season. The national rule allows three incidents of helmet-to-helmet contact during the week.
Here's Bowlsby's explanation:
"We have also taken another step because we don't think the national rule goes far enough. The national rule is three incidents of helmet‑to‑helmet full contact with live tackling and the like three times a week, including a game. Three times including the game, or a scrimmage if you didn't play in the game.
We have adopted—our ADs just adopted this, that we will go with a two‑contact‑per‑week rule that will be the game plus one other day of full contact, or a scrimmage for those that didn't play in the game and one other day of full contact.
We believe it's the right step, and we hope it will become the national rule. Even if it doesn't, we think that that's the right way to conduct our practices. It's another way in which we're a little different, but our ADs have felt strongly about it and our coaches have supported. That's our rule moving forward.
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Reducing the amount of live contact is something that Bowlsby hopes will improve overall player health during the second half of a season. But how much will this affect coaches and their game preparation?
Not as much as you'd think. In fact, Bowlsby said the rule was supported by the conference's coaches. The bottom line is, not too many coaches want their players to get too physical anyway during the season when health is at a premium. As a result, Bowlsby said the rule eliminates an unnecessary extra day of hitting.
All five coaches interviewed on Day 1—Patterson, Snyder, Kansas coach David Beaty, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen and Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury—were asked about this reduction. Not one complained about the move.
"We haven't had a two-a-day at West Virginia in four years," Holgorsen said. "The way the model is right now is something that I've supported and something that we've done at West Virginia since I got there."
"It's not going to change our approach just a whole lot," Beaty added. "Honestly, we adjust to the landscape pretty good."
Fresher bodies theoretically means healthier players in November and December. That's important to coaches.
"(With coaches) there's a false sense of we just try to bang our kids around, but I think all of us, we like keeping our jobs, and we want to keep our kids healthy," Patterson said.
Odds and Ends
— There's nothing close to official yet, but the Big 12 is keeping an eye on the strength of the out-of-conference schedules of its members. Currently, the conference doesn't have a mandatory standard, like scheduling at least one Power 5 opponent each year.
"Our athletic directors have not chosen to make it mandatory," Bowlsby said. "They have respected those prerogatives on an institutional basis. I think we will continue to have that conversation, and it's possible that we could get to a point where we need a little more structure around it."
— The Big 12 is taking a hands-off approach to field/court storming. "We are choosing to manage it rather than prohibit it," Bowlsby said. "We think that, properly managed, those kinds of celebrations can be a lot of fun."
This is a good policy. Fan safety is always a concern, but no two home atmospheres are the same. Bowlsby has a lot of trust in his membership, and he's clearly allowing them to handle things on their own.
— The Winner of Day 1? Beaty, by far. The first-year Jayhawks coach inherits a rough situation, made worse by the fact that his projected starting quarterback, Michael Cummings, sustained a knee injury during the spring game. However, it's easy to see why Beaty is such a regarded recruiter. He mentioned high school coaches at least a half-dozen times during his opening remarks and Q&A.
"One of the big things for me is we are located right now in one of the finest, most fertile grounds for high school athletes in the country, and those athletes are coached by some of the finest high school coaches in the country," Beaty said.
The guy knows to whom he's marketing himself. Beaty is energetic, optimistic and his personality is infectious. Those players will run through a wall for him, without a doubt. No lie, it felt like the press room was going to explode in applause when he finished his Q&A.
— Snyder said that Kansas State has not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six but seven quarterbacks on its roster. While that's a huge number on paper, Snyder noted that only four were really in consideration for the starting job. Still, that's as wide open as any quarterback battle you're going to find this time of year.
— Speaking of quarterback battles, Kingsbury has one going on at Tech between Patrick Mahomes and Davis Webb. Kingsbury feels confident that he can win with either player, but he still plans on having a starter named before the end of preseason camp so that team chemistry can be developed.
However, just because Kingsbury feels he can win with both players doesn't mean he plans to make them interchangeable. "It will be a feel situation because both—If we name a starter, we're going to ride with that guy knowing that we have a great insurance policy behind him, but I wouldn't expect a quick hook on whoever we name the starter," Kingsbury said.
— How's this for coachspeak hyperbole: Holgorsen said this year's defense "should be the best that I've had potentially since I started coaching 20-some years ago." The Mountaineers were historically bad on defense in 2012 because, in part, so many players were freshmen. Those freshmen are now seniors who have seen just about every possible scenario. Holgorsen also has a lot of faith in second-year coordinator Tony Gibson, who did a nice job in '14.
But the best defense he's ever coached? No pressure, guys.
They Said It
— What was the low point for the Mountaineers defensively? Baylor, 2013, when the Mountaineers lost 73-42. "That's when we knew it was going to be a long season," said linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski. Kwiatkoski, along with safety Karl Joseph, lead a far more veteran defense that could be asked to win games this season.
— Want to feel old? TCU center Joey Hunt said his favorite player in middle school was former Texas quarterback Vince Young.
— Kingsbury was asked whether he wanted to coach when he was in his 70s, like Snyder does. "I don't know about that," he laughed. "He (Snyder) still looks like he did when I was playing."
— Beaty had some high praise for Michael Cummings, who is back on the field throwing after having knee surgery this offseason. "He is only a better kid than he is a player," Beaty said. "If anybody can make it back this year, it would be him."
"Dana Holgorsen on Lincoln Riley: "Mike Leach saw something in him as a freshman QB. And what he saw was a s***ty player and a great mind."
— Jason Kersey (@jasonkersey) July 20, 2015"
Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All quotes obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise. You can follow Ben at Big 12 media days on Twitter @BenKercheval.
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