Texas Big 12 Conference: Hate On Texas All You Want, But They Played Cards Right

Conference realignment became the story that everyone wanted to talk about. This was something that a lot of college football fans had been waiting for because it was a shakeup that would eventually lead to a playoff system.

It became a game of poker, everyone had their hands, everyone made their bets, and the Texas Longhorns came out on top.

If you've ever watched The World Series of Poker often showed on ESPN, you know that players don't like to be bluffed or they don't like to be beaten because they guessed wrong.

Unfortunately for the Pac-10, that's exactly what happened. What they did wrong was they showed their hand before all the bets had been placed. Texas saw the hand that the Pac-10 was playing, they bluffed, and they took all the money in the pot, and then some.

As I drove home on Tuesday afternoon, all of the callers on the radio show, plus a few of the hosts, were upset at how Texas played this. They even went as far as to call them slimy and underhanded.

The Pac-10 officials are pissed and maybe rightly so. They thought they had a deal, they thought they had Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State in the bag as the newly added members of their conference. They thought wrong.

At the 11th hour, Texas made a request of the Pac-10 they knew would be rejected and they were right. Texas threw out the bet they wanted, the Pac-10 called it thinking they had everything in their corner. Except they forgot one important piece of information, there was still one player left in the game that was not ready to fold, the Big 12 conference.

At this point, the Pac-10 was already showing their cards but the Big 12 had only shown what they wanted to show. They weren't quite sure what they wanted to do.

Then, at the last second, the Big 12 went all-in and played an all or nothing game of chance.

Texas knew the Pac-10 wasn't going to budge on what they were willing to give Texas but the Longhorns knew that they were about to get exactly what they wanted from the Big 12, the conference they were about to divorce.

Not only did Texas get exactly what they wanted, they got more. What they also did was bluffed out Colorado and Nebraska and now you have to wonder if they regret the decision they made?

According to Dan Beebe, the Big 12 commissioner, there will be a new television deal in the conference that will pay each remaining member upwards of $17M and possibly more. Texas, however, will receive somewhere around $25M and has been given the consent to start their own television network.

So, not only does Texas receive the profits from the new Big 12 television deal, but they'll also be receiving the profits from their own television network which will push their dollar amount even higher.

The other conference that might be a little miffed, though not nearly as much as the Pac-10, is the SEC who was close to stealing Texas A&M away from the Big 12.

From everything I've heard on the radio airwaves, they're not so much upset that they didn't land the Aggies, but they're upset that Texas won't accept the invitation to play in their conference.

While those in the SEC might believe that Texas is "scared" or "yellow," which are two words I heard a lot of Tuesday afternoon, but think of this as a business and not something that's personal.

Let's be honest for a second, this is all about money is it not? College football is a business. Schools want more revenue for recruiting, upgrades of their facilities, and anything else you can spend the money on.

This isn't about running scared from you, SEC. This isn't about whether Texas can survive an SEC schedule and regardless of anyone's opinion, it remains just that, an opinion. Texas has never played a full SEC schedule so how they'd do is just a matter of opinion and nothing more.

Be that as it may, back to this being a business. Texas may be hated for what they did, but Texas played the game, played it well, and they came out on top.

College football is a business, it's why the BCS is still in existence regardless of most people's hatred for it. When you're in a business, you make business decisions that bring you the greatest profit.

Unfortunately, in this day in age, business has little or nothing to do with loyalty. It's a fend for yourself, all-for-me, mentality.

Do I feel for the Pac-10? Sure I do. I'm one that wanted this move to go through. I wanted to see Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State jump ship to the Pac-10 and I wanted to see Texas A&M go to the SEC and part ways with their big brother (Texas).

Unfortunately for us fans, we'll have to wait another day for a huge realignment to take place. Whether or not there are more moves to be made is yet to be seen.

There are rumors about the Mountain West adding one or two teams, the Big Ten could still be looking around, and the Pac-10 has been rumored to have an invitation out to the University of Utah to join their conference.

Whether any of those moves happen is a wait and see game. For now, the dust has settled and all is quiet on the western front.