Big 12 Football: What Texas A&M Wants from the Conference

As you may have heard, Texas A&M recently had a spitting match with Texas, and in a fit of jealous rage, made a run at switching from the Big 12 to the SEC.

This prompted college football pundits nationwide to grab their laptops and start spinning 30,456 zillion versions of the impact on conference alignments, the renewed necessity for a college football playoff and of course, grocery prices in the northern half of the Sun Belt.

Knowledgeable and ignorant sports writers alike across the country (I am a card-carrying member of the latter) started describing the SEC’s new Ultra Mega-Universe Conference and its influence on the college football landscape's power balance.

Insiders more knowledgeable about these matters mandated the additions of Florida State, Clemson and Missouri to bring the new Monster Gargantua Conference into spiritual alignment with the Grand Football Gods.

This is despite the fact that none of the presidents of any of those institutions had ever been asked if they were even interested.

When told about the pending transition to a new conference, Clemson President James F. Barker was quoted as saying, “Well, you’re the sportswriters, so it must be true, I just wish someone on my end would have told me about it.”

Needless to say, predictions for the as of yet non-existent Super-Dooper Enormo Conference are already out, with Alabama and Florida State the co-favorites in 2015.

For the more rabid in the A&M fan base, the Aggie faithful started a hate mail campaign against Alabama head coach Nick Saban just to beat the rush.

The Impact on the Midwest

As a Michigan resident and Notre Dame graduate, I don’t have a dog in the fight between Texas and Texas A&M.

From a political standpoint, I have trouble remembering the last three presidents and I often argue against the opinions of senators only to find out they’ve been out of office or dead for more than a decade.

As a potential sports guru, I am too simple to do math that involves carrying the five or moving decimal points in any organized fashion, so predicting restructured non-existent conference standings is not in my writing repertoire.

Not wanting to miss out on the heated Big 12 debate, however, something had to be done.

Confused and caught up in the hysteria, I mistakenly ran out and poisoned one of my own trees. That’s what happens when you’re an Independent like Notre Dame—there’s no one to blame but yourself.

As we all know, cooler heads have since prevailed, the SEC has passed on adding the Aggies (for now), and in the bloody aftermath, all I am left with is a dead maple tree and that age old question: Why?

I am No Expert

Before you read this, understand something.

I don’t pretend to know all of the underlying shiftless and greedy politicians and administrators behind all the backbiting and money grubbing that underlies college football in Texas.

I can’t even keep up with which shiftless and greedy Michigan legislator is stealing my food money, which you would think should be easy since I keep it in a jar on my kitchen counter.

I also am basically ignorant of the bitter rivalry that has pitted the Aggies against the Longhorns for more than a century.

I do know the rivalry started shortly after the automobile was invented.

There are also unconfirmed reports that right after that game a less-than dexterous and numerically challenged Longhorn fan flipped off a carload of Aggie fans, giving birth to the infamous Texas’ "Hook-em Horns" salute, simultaneously giving Texas A&M credit for inventing the hit and run accident.

After such amicable beginnings, the teams have slugged it out for well over a hundred times.

But I am not here to give you a history lesson. I am here to expose why Texas A&M made a run at the SEC and what will come of it.

And possibly to give some small meaning to the death of an innocent tree.

The Players

Yes, Texas A&M is a member of the Big 12, and yes, they did try to defect to the SEC, but we’re not talking about conference affiliations here.

Make no mistake, this is a pissing match between the Aggies and the Longhorns, and it’s far from over.

In this Corner—Texas

At the Bank

The University of Texas is the No. 1 athletic revenue producing program in the country. Numbers vary, but in 2008 it generated over $120 million. In 2009 it produced $32 million more than its closest Big 12 rival. I would update the figures but such ostentatious opulence sickens me.

FACT: If Texas took every dollar that it generated in 2008 and put them end to end it would stretch halfway around the world—so keep your eyes open, there’s a lot of money out there if Texas takes me up on this little gambit.

To try to put this into perspective, it is even more money than I have, by a lot.

As the biggest rainmaker in a conference with a hell of a lot of rain, Texas demands and gets a larger share of the revenue sharing within the conference, and has used its popularity to negotiate its own TV contract, independent of the conference.

On the Field

Although Texas was only 5-7 in 2010, it is the second winningest program in college football history. It has won 850 games and has a winning percentage of .723. Earl Campbell played at Texas, and he could run over a bull without slowing down. Against A&M, Texas has won roughly two out of every three over the past hundred years or so.

During the Bowl Championship era, Texas has played in four BCS games (3-1), including two BCS National Championship games, winning one.

The Longhorns know how to play football.

In That Corner—Texas A & M

At the Bank

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, in the 2008-09 school year, Texas A&M ranked third in the Big 12 and 22nd in the nation in athletic revenue with $73.4 million. That is also more money than I have, by a lot, but it is a barge full of Benjamins less than Texas.

The conference has revenue sharing and A&M gets a good bite of the pie, but the distribution is skewed toward the teams that have TV and major bowl appearances.

A&M has no independent TV contract.

On the Field

Texas A&M is no slouch on the gridiron. Historically, it has played in 32 bowl games, and has won 674 games with a winning percentage of .599. From 1991 to 1993 Coach R. C. Slocum and his wrecking crew defenses won three straight Southwest Conference Championships without losing a game, beating Texas all three years.

More recently, the Aggies finished the 2010 season 9–4, 6–2 in Big 12 play, and were South Division champions with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. In 2010 they beat Texas by a score of 24-17, and come into 2011 ranked in the Top 10 in most preseason polls. The Aggies also know how to play good football.

So what’s the bitch?

The Bitch

The problem is simple. Texas generates a boatload of revenue, and doesn’t want to share, at least not equally.

The Big 12 conference recognizes the value of the Texas brand and typically goes along with revenue sharing plans that skew a bigger piece of the pie to a never-ending convoy of cash-laden wheel barrows headed for Austin.

The revenue gap between Texas and the other Big 12 members will be getting a damn site bigger when Longhorn television kicks in.

After all, as any Longhorn fan in cowboy boots will tell you, Texas makes the rain, it damn well should be able to drink it.

Consequently, while Texas gets to swim in a pool full of bling, successful Big 12 programs like A&M get to roll around in baths full of coins, while teams like Baylor get a nice gold watch.

That’s as far as I got in College Football Economics 101.

The Current Status

I am a Finance major, and I read this somewhere. I also have an impressive resume with numerous stays at a Holiday Inn Express.

In a market economy, paying more to those that make more makes economic sense, up to the point that you create a monopoly and all of the competition dies off, then it’s not so good in an industry predicated on competition.

As a market moves towards a monopoly, the competitors tend to move toward other markets.

That’s where Texas A&M is right now.

Recently, the conference members had to zip it when Texas negotiated its own TV contract, leaving the rest of the conference to scramble for their own deals or just be happy with the reasonably ample share of the revenues that remains in the conference revenue sharing till.

For teams like Baylor and Iowa State, and for much of the conference in any given year, the payoff at the cashier window is likely much more than they would draw if they had to go at it on their own.

Since they are rarely competitive, getting their ass spanked every so often is little enough to endure for a much higher payout, and once every 10 years or so they stick a fairly competitive team on the field to make things look much more respectable than they really are.

For upper tier teams, it gets tougher. There’s a question of pride.

Teams like A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State (and to a big extent lately, Missouri) have a big following and could thrive in their own conference if push came to shove.

But nobody wants to do that, and they won’t. Unless Texas makes them.

What is Really Going On

Texas A&M has more than a century of tradition playing in the Southwest and has no real desire to take their show on the road to go home and home in Baton Rouge, Tuscaloosa, Columbia or South Carolina.

Then why the run on the SEC you ask?

It’s the first hand of Texas Hold ‘em.

A&M is posturing to stop Texas from using its financial leverage to bully the Big 12 both economically and competitively.

They don't want out, they just want a level playing field, and the attempted run at the SEC was to force Texas to recognize conference equality, or at a bare minimum, to force the conference to recognize conference equality.

For Baylor, an eternity as a conference bottom-feeder with an inflated paycheck for a marginal football product is a great deal. Texas and the added revenue they bring to the conference on their behalf is their biggest bestest friend.

But the price is much steeper for schools that want to compete for a conference and/or national title. For them, Texas’ economic policy is destroying the competitive balance in the conference.

If A&M lets Texas use a rake for all the money in the Southwest, the ability to compete on the field is also eventually going to vanish.

The Texas Longhorns already have a near monopoly on recruiting in talent rich Texas. Is that going to get any easier for its rivals when the Longhorn Network debuts?

You think when Billy Bob Bonecrusher is watching his older brother crush the Big 12 conference every week on Longhorn Television he isn’t going to want to be a TV star when he grows up and begins eating small to medium-sized trucks?

Imagine the already immaculate football facilities when Texas has enough money to add a disco, Olympic pool, mahogany locker rooms and a personal masseuse named Heidi for every player.

Ultimately, as it stands, Texas A&M is smart enough to know that the present conference structure and revenue sharing plan coupled with independent TV revenues will mean it will take an act of God to beat Texas once out of every five years.

That dog won’t hunt in College Station.

Nebraska Had an Epiphany

Nebraska was the first to recognize the growing financial and competitive inequalities of co-existing with Texas in the Big 12. When the Cornhusker faithful’s complaints were drowned out by a stampede of Longhorns, they took their Blackshirts and bolted for the Big Ten.

The move is a good geographic, economic and philosophical match to an even-revenue sharing conference. A conference that makes complete sense for a physical Midwest team that has expanded the Big Ten’s recruiting footprint as well as its own.

For their efforts Texas calls Nebraska sissies and traitors and denigrates the Big Ten as an inferior conference, but in reality the Big 12 lost a quality football program and a good revenue generator with a huge fan base to a rock solid conference, putting that much more pressure on Texas to ante up some of their ill-gotten gains.

Now the Aggies are also beginning to realize that life in the current Big 12 means doing whatever Texas wants, and they are Texans that don’t stand for that kind of treatment, wallet be damned.

The Solution

The Big 12 knows that, while they can be marginally profitable, they cannot be competitive within the conference in the long term without Texas making some major concessions to the rest of the conference, concessions that Texas has shown no inclination to give anytime in this lifetime.

So in the words of my great Aunt Melba Lou when my Uncle Zach lost the rent money playing poker, “This ain't over.”

So what happens next? There will be more hands of Texas Hold ‘em before this rodeo is done, and next time A&M will be all in, and they’ll probably have company.

Does A&M wait until the SEC gets their ducks in order, works on Florida State, Clemson and whomever and heads back to the bargaining table?

Do they grab Oklahoma and shuffle off to the Pac 12?

Do teams that have a big following like A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State romance a few more headliners and poach the subservient masses of the Big 12 to form their own Heartland Conference and Grain Cooperative?

How hard do you think it will be to get an Independent like BYU back in a conference fold along with a geographically disadvantaged TCU back from the Big East?

Two Choices

History often tells us what needs to happen.

The State of Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, declaring itself a free and independent state, but changed their mind when the civil war ended and there was much less to gripe about. Grudgingly, Texas decided to abide by the laws of the United States when they were in the mood.

Nothing much has changed in Texas since 1861 other than people shower a lot more often now.

Today, the University of Texas is faced with the same set of choices, independence or joining the conference they are already in.

If Texas continues as they have, the next round of Texas-imposed revenue restrictions coupled with the growing impact of Texas’ TV contract is going to make the exodus from the conference look like a Big 12 track meet.

To appease the Big 12 front runners, Texas must become an equal member of the Big 12 with full and equal revenue sharing, content with their share plus performance incentives and massive merchandise revenues.

This will never happen, as no Texas Longhorn is ever going to get the same serving as a Baylor Bear and be happy with the meal.

That leaves only one other realistic choice. 

Independence Day

While an Independent Texas may sound extreme, it actually is consistent with the economic and competitive model the Longhorns are already using.

Texas already dictates much of what the Big 12 Conference does, and would be relieved of the pretense of lobbying by just getting rid of the people they have to lobby.

Like Notre Dame, another Independent, Texas already has their own TV contract, so they don’t need revenue sharing within a conference to bolster their bank account.

The Texas Longhorn is already one of the most popular merchandising brands in the country—my daughter has one of their baseball caps, and she is a junior at the University of Michigan, has never been to Texas and hates baseball caps.

And while the logistics of scheduling for an Independent are burdensome and will be tougher as more teams continue to consolidate into larger conferences, no one is going to pass up the moolah magnamus the Texas Longhorns bring to town.

Even the disgruntled members of the Big 12 will eventually let bygones be bygones when they open their wallets and dust falls out, restoring a number of regional rivalries.

I will admit that the Southwest tends to hold a grudge and it is equally likely Texas will never play another Big 12 team this century, and in any event, Texas will find it best not to drive through any Big 12 town for at least a decade.

Most importantly, Texas’ issues with the Big 12 are primarily financial, and independence is a financial windfall for a team that can fill its stands and America’s couches without the crutch of conference affiliations.

Case in point, in 2008, 12-1 Texas and its Fiesta Bowl trophy was the highest revenue generating program in the country. With a much less competitive team and a lower tier bowl, 7-6 Notre Dame was seventh in revenues.

But the Irish were first in profit.

The reason is that Notre Dame is an Independent and thus keeps all of its revenue. As a member of the Big 12, schools like Texas have to share revenue with other members of its conference.

As an Independent, Texas wouldn’t have to share with anyone, which is what Texas is trying to do anyway.

Welcome to the free market 

Summary

Being Independent just makes it a lot easier for Texas to do what Texas is trying to do without pissing everyone else off.

And as for the Big 12?

Grab TCU, possibly expand with BYU (and maybe even Boise State if they get out of that high school stadium and get their other sports up to par) to broaden your fanbase, negotiate your own Big 12 Network to stabilize your revenue stream and compete for the BCS title every year with a much stronger conference from top to bottom.

Every few years I’m sure the BCS makes sure you get a shot at reminding Texas where they came from, and Texas gets an ND type deal with the BCS to keep its title hopes in play.

It’s a win win situation—college football keeps a great conference and gains a powerful new Independent, and I don’t have to watch a third place team in the Western Division of an 18 team conference.

I don’t know what you think, but this might actually work.