Think Big, Texas: Field Big 12 and Big Ten Teams!

If you pooh-poohed the idea of the University of Texas becoming the 12th Big Ten Conference member, you’re obviously not a Texas-sized thinker.

In fact, I’m wondering why billionaire Longhorns alumni, plus tens of thousands of transplanted Big Ten grads, can’t have their cake and eat it too. All they need to do is field two NCAA teams in any given sport. Their Burnt Orange versions could continue to play in the Big 12; their White, in the Big Ten.

They can start by duplicating their big revenue-generating football program, the one that last year poured $87.6 million into athletic department coffers, and can gradually expand to other sports.

You say that surely the NCAA prohibits self-duplication? Show me the regulations that would nix such a move. Explain why Notre Dame is allowed to play football as an independent but can field other sports in an organized conference. If anything, the NCAA’s lack of foresight on the subject doesn’t mean a school can’t field two teams in the same sport.

And if you’re still not convinced, show me the Texas country lawyer who can’t find a loophole. Even the NCAA scholarship restrictions are only on a college-by-college basis. Isn’t a university comprised of multiple colleges—any two of which could be the sponsors of a Texas tandem?

First off, a school like Texas, whose alumni fund more than a third of the nation’s largest ($127 million last year) athletic budget, would bring in another gusher as the state’s Big Ten loyalists bought ticket rights to their half of the Texas two-step. Even that would pale in comparison to a potential doubling of television/cable revenue.

There could be obvious economies of scale, so to speak, which would reduce expenses. For example, the football team could probably share the same stadium, practice facility, weight room and such.

Dualism at Texas would pacify the purists who want to annually thump Oklahoma and Nebraska, while attracting the wallets of hardcore Big Ten fanatics who want to see how a Texas squad would stack up against the rust belt’s best. That would play nicely with the new Big 12-Big Ten alignment for the Texas Bowl, and the fact that the Big Ten has sent member teams to post-season football games in Texas every year since 1995.

The additional 63 football scholarships for a second team would keep more of the state’s best players at home and attract more from the rest of the nation.

The biggest drawbacks: Finding a name and mascot for the additional squad.

Yes, there would have to be separate coaching staffs. But the upside is that if you can afford to pay a coach $5 million, you can afford to pay two coaches $10 million. The best and brightest BCS subdivision professionals would be beating a trail to Austin, a factor in ensuring that both squads are among Top 10 gridiron programs.

Texans not only have big wallets. They have big hearts. Perhaps financial arrangements could be made to justify transportation costs for poorer schools in such a far-flung league.

Eventually others might see the potential. Ohio State, second only to Texas in football revenue, could field Scarlet and Gray squads. Penn State could do the same.

Viola! There are your thirteenth and fourteenth Big Ten teams.