The Longhorns and the SEC

My Texas Longhorn friend (he is referenced here  http://bleacherreport.com/articles/404461-bcs-changes-super-conferences-and-notre-dame ) is aghast that the Texas Aggies are not falling into line behind the lead of the Austin crowd. 

I had warned him that the little plan for Texas to lead five other Big 12 schools into the conference that defines the phrase Left Coast might blow up in Bevo's face, but the Longhorn arrogance prevented him from conceiving of any possible roadblocks.

Is it just me, or is there something necessarily suspicious about schools in the Pac, which tend to look on the folks of middle America as backward savages unfit for their company, being willing to add schools like Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State? 

Unless the aging cultural Marxists and hippies wielding power in Berkeley, Palo Alto, Westwood, Hollywood, Eugene, and Seattle have experienced a Road to Damascus conversion, the only reason they would stoop to allowing the cowboys and roughnecks, the perceived unwashed rednecks of Texas and Oklahoma, into their inner sanctum is if they are smart enough to realize they require a powerful dose of Middle America to save them.

The Aggies, I submit, are trying to avoid being sent to the Left Coast , not merely because they want to play SEC football, but because they sense that something is fishy about the whole deal. Nor is it just that they do not want the Aggie band to be a lightening rod to the self-professed tolerant. The Aggies know the numbers do not add up.

If the Pac-10 can only secure the nation's fifth best TV money, and the Big 12 could secure TV money significantly better than that, and the Big 12 schools moving to join the Pac schools do not include Missouri, the second largest Big 12 state, or Kansas, which easily has the biggest basketball drawing power of Big 12 schools, then how can the Pac-10 plus half of the Big 12 produce a TV deal twice as wealthy per league member as the current Big 12 deal?

The Aggies, common-sense, hard-headed realists, smell a flim-flam. They look at the SEC and see cold, hard cash, as well as the most intense football rivalries. They look at the Pac and see Hollywood promissory notes backed by a theatrical agent who lisps, trust me, while begging his creditors to give him more time.

If the Aggies refuse to be led to cloud-cuckoo lalaland, will the Longhorns persist? By now, many SEC people see Texas as the school that managed to play a major role in creating a division that would kill two major conferences: the SWC and the Big 12.

That, and the fact that SEC states are not going to care for adding a school with supporters in the media that see the SEC—not a few schools, but the league and its states—as academically far beneath Texas may mean that the Longhorns would have to sell themselves to the SEC.

Even if Texas can keep Oklahoma on its leash in the Pac, if A&M goes SEC, the Texas Longhorns will lose over time. More and more Texas high school players will choose A&M and the SEC over Texas and the Left Coast .

As Razorback Stadium has grown from 53,000 to 76,000 since Arkansas joined the SEC, it is reasonable to assume that Kyle Field would grow from 83,000 to 100,000 within 20 years in the SEC.

Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before the fall, some dead white male said. We'll see if Texas has learned the lesson.

And shedding half an haughty spirit is better than shedding none. Perhaps Texas needs to be looking to find a compromise conference that meets its academic desires that A&M will accept.

And the Big Ten will go over no better with Aggies than is the Pac.