The (Not So) Big 12

As an opponent to the relocation of the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City, Mark Cuban said, “My prejudice is against having a Dust Bowl Division in this part of the country. I don’t think in the big picture that helps the NBA. I think a bigger market helps the NBA.”

Indeed, Cuban ended up being one of only two NBA owners to vote against the Sonics move. Cuban’s characterization of a “Dust Bowl Division” made such an impact that I began to revisit it during the recent conference realignment talk. I have no allegiance to any Big XII school, but I enjoy watching Texas and Texas A&M play. When the chatter surrounding their possible departure for the West Coast began to build, I felt a sense of joy watching the NCAA’s “Dust Bowl Division” fall apart at the seams.

Since its inception, the Big XII conference lacked the natural rivalries of the old Southwest Conference, failed to capture the pageantry of the SEC and, with the exception of Dallas and Houston, lacked major media markets of the coastal conferences. Try as I might, I could not pump myself up for Texas/Iowa State or A&M/Kansas.

Say what you want about the history of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, but watching them play the Aggies failed to capture the excitement of A&M/Arkansas or even the longstanding non-conference rivalry of A&M/LSU.

Okie State has played Texas tough a couple of times over the past decade, but the series lacks the history that a Texas/TCU series could provide (I’ll see your Barry Sanders, raise you a Davey O’Brien, Sammy Baugh and L.T.).

Growing up in the Ark-La-Tex area, I watched a lot of SEC football. I dreamed of one day seeing both Texas and A&M making the move East and joining THE ultimate football conference, getting a chance to expose Texas-style football to homes in Nashville, Jacksonville and Atlanta. The Pac-16 story broke and I recognized that it lacked the appeal of a jump to the SEC, but it definitely seemed better than staying put. Goodbye cornfields and grain, hello Hollywood and beaches!

Fans expressed fear of rivalries being destroyed, but Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech would have remained together. Would people really miss Kansas State/Oklahoma State that much?

Fans expressed fear of late start times, even though ABC traditionally shows the Pac-10 game of the week in prime-time at the exact same time as the Big XII game of the week.

Some fans even expressed concerns over the cultural differences between the Big XII South schools and some of the West Coast schools, asking what the reception for the Corps of Cadets would be like in Berkeley.

As the cards began to fall last week, first with Colorado bolting to the Pac-10 and then with Nebraska leaving for the Big 10, news began to leak that A&M might break from the herd and head to the SEC. I recognized this would be a much tougher road for the Aggies, but also provided long-term potential and viability for a program in desperate need of revival.

Now it appears that Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have decided to put all their cards into the Dust Bowl Conference.  Simply put, this conference sucks!

The four Texas schools of the Big XII South would have been better served to take the “f you, we’re from Texas” route and brought the band back together–the old Southwest Conference. TCU, SMU and Houston are vastly improved from the last days of the Southwest Conference. TCU would battle for third place in the Big XII as presently constructed. Both SMU and Houston are headed in an upward direction, while Iowa State, Kansas and Kansas State appear headed downwards. Rice has always been the sickly brother of the group, but that doesn’t stop Texas from padding their stats against them every season. The newly formed Southwest Conference could even extend invitations to North Texas and UTEP to make it a truly Texas conference and to give you the magic “10″ number.

However, it appears that the geniuses in Austin feared losing the Topeka and Ames television markets and feared a generation of children growing up without the great Baylor/Missouri rivalry, so we’re stuck watching Texas and Oklahoma dominate the regular season, only to lose to a SEC school in the BCS. Eventually, the ‘Horned Hubris will catch up with the conference and it’s relevancy will be like dust in the wind.

Top 5 Sports Moments from Weekend

I realize that I’ve been on a top 5 kick lately, but it’s just the mood I’m in. Let’s keep it rolling with the Top 5 moments from a busy sports weekend:

1.) SMU Becomes Bowl Eligible – For whatever reason, I’ve been a SMU fan from my earliest days. I have never attended school there and they haven’t had the on field success that elicits t-shirt fans, but I’m a fan of the Pony Express. I went to several SMU games as a kid, pre-death penalty, and I was at the first post-death penalty game, a win over UConn. To see this team rise from the depths, become bowl eligible and sit in the driver seats for the Conference USA title is great indeed.

2.) TCU Sends a Message – There are two legitimate national title contenders in Texas–the one in Austin everyone expected and then the one in Fort Worth that’s been battling for national respect for a decade.  While it will still take a miracle for TCU to earn a spot in the BCS National Championship Game, if they run the table and win their BCS bowl game they will provide yet another example of how the BCS is the biggest fraud in all of sports.

3.) Mavs Continue to Play Strong – In spite of a recent rash of injuries and illnesses, the Dallas Mavericks continue to play as well as anyone in the NBA. Over the weekend, they took games at Minnesota and Detroit and tonight won on a last second, OT buzzer beater in Milwaukee. While this may not be the Lakers, Celtics & Cavaliers, three straight road wins is always a feat in the NBA. Plus, the Mavs got these 3 wins without Josh Howard, Tim Thomas, Erick Dampier and Shaw Marion.

4.) Colts beat the Patriots – I’ve always said, every time the Patriots win, somewhere a little puppy dies. To see the look of failure and utter dejection on the face of Bill Belichick walking off the field last night actually helped ease the pain of the Cowboys loss (see #5).

5.) Wade Phillips is one step closer to being fired – In the “desperately-seeking-a-rainbow-after-the-storm” category, the Cowboys loss to Green Bay on Sunday means this franchise is one step closer to ridding itself of its final obstacle in the race to win a Super Bowl–Wade Phillips. I’m convinced that if this team does not make it to the NFC Championship game this year, Jerry Jones will fire Wade. While I will always support fellow Texans, Wade is just not the right fit in Dallas. In keeping with the “support my fellow Texans” theme, I’m also glad that the Packers win ensures that their GM, and former Atlanta Rabbit great, Ted Thompson’s job is safe for at least another week.

The Perversion of Football

The word “football” invokes many powerful images.  Think back to watching NFL films, the voice of John Facenda narrating the action—breathing life into the games of old.  The “voice of god” set to images of big burly men with dirt stained, tattered uniforms crashing into each other as the diminutive backs would cut in and out seeking breathing room, while the trenches filled up with blood and sweat.  On numerous occasions Facenda would make references and allusions to the gladiators of ancient Rome.  These images helped foster an appreciation for the game of football and engendered an affinity for the sport in my life that has not wavered, but recently it felt something had changed.

Recently, a new trend has set upon the football world—the spread offense.  This disease first took hold on the high school and collegiate levels, as a means for less athletic teams to compete with teams with more speed, size and strength. Now even athletic teams like Michigan and Florida have abandoned their proud football past and caved into the latest fad.

The spread offense annoys me. In effect, it transforms the game into a glorified version of seven-on-seven, awarding finesse over athleticism.

The spread brand of football is void of physicality.  In essence, the team that runs the spread says via their actions that they don’t have the athletes to match-up man-to-man so they must resort to “spreading” men out in order to find a hole.  Think back to the “great teams” of yesteryear.  They lined up with the mentality “you know what we are going to do, now try and stop us.”

Isn’t that what makes football great?  The battle in the trenches, running backs fighting for yardage, and quick, aggressive defenses swarming to the ball.

This doesn’t even take into account the limitations the spread place on your play calling ability.  The spread works fine within the 20’s, but deep inside the red zone or deep inside your own territory, where a power running game is beneficial, the spread is actually a liability. Nothing irks me more than to see a team drive the ball to their opponent’s 3 yard line, only to line up in a shot gun formation. Some college quarterbacks play their entire career without ever taken a snap from under center and then wonder why NFL teams skip over them in spite of gaudy statistics.

A pure form of football features a sort of fluidity that is not found with the spread attack.  Players awkwardly stand in formation as the coach signals in the play.  The quarterback anxiously reads the defense trying to spot some weakness to exploit.  The ball is moved horizontally and instead of harmony, dissonance radiates.

Perhaps John Facenda is best remembered for his description of the 1967 “Ice Bowl” at the “frozen tundra of Lambeau Field,” which makes one wonder could a “spread attack” have accomplished the comeback Bart Starr engineered?  Even as a die-hard Cowboy’s fan born 11 years after it was played, I acknowledge that the “Ice Bowl” embodies everything that is great and pure about our game of football and sadly I fear that game has been taken over by the disease we now know as the “spread offense”, destroying all the images that made this game great.

Five college football questions the other guys are afraid to ask…

We at Geoausch.Com feel that “sports experts” do not exist! However, every blogger, every writer, every loud mouth radio guy feels like they can accurately pick the winner of every FBS conference and accurately predict the winner of every game on the 2009 schedule. We’re not that generic. Sure, we could predict Texas to win the national championship and for Colt McCoy to win the Heisman, but if those scenarios were to come to fruition it wouldn’t make us experts, nor would it make us original. Instead, I thought it would be interesting to examine five questions I haven’t seen asked about the upcoming college football season.

1. Will teams finally figure out Florida the third time through? Everyone, from USA Today to the Cass County Sun predicts that Florida will repeat as national champions. This seems like a logical decision, especially with Tim Tebow leading the offensive attack for a third straight year. However, what people have failed to discuss is the gimmicky nature of the Florida offensive scheme. The reason gimmick offenses work is that they keep the defense guessing. The Wishbone was successful because the defense had three different backs to constantly key on, eventually defensive coordinators developed schemes to shut the offense down and teams stopped using it.  I think after three years of watching Tebow run this offense, defensive coordinators SEC will figure out a way to shut down the Florida attack. I don’t think the Gators will have a losing season, but is a 3 loss season out of the question?

2. Will anyone emerge to join the Heisman race? Please? It’s hard not like Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow, all three are upstanding young men with bright futures. However, it’s getting really old to see the same three faces on the cover of every magazine and college football website.

West Virginia running back, Noel Devine, was more visible in the media as a high school phenom than he has been in college. He put up solid numbers last year and could run his way into Heisman talk by season’s end, especially considering that he will be the Mountaineers primary offensive threat this season.

A lot of attention was placed on the bevy of quarterbacks in the Big XII last season: Graham Harrell, Chase Daniel, McCoy and Bradford wowed viewers and pundits from coast-to-coast.  With so many great quarterbacks in one conference, it’s no wonder that Kansas’ Todd Reesing slipped under the radar for most of the season. While McCoy and Bradord are back for another season, Harrell and Daniel have moved on, clearing room on the big stage for Reesing to show he belongs with the big boys.

Another Big XII offensive firecracker who should make a splash on the nation stage is Oklahoma State receiver, Dez Bryant. The Cowboys could probably win a couple of the other BCS conferences, but in the Big XII they are the third best team in their division. However, they feature an explosive offense and Bryant is the leader. He could be this year’s  Michael Crabtree.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention at least one defensive player. They don’t get much better than USC safety, Taylor Mays. Mays led the Trojans last year with 53 tackles and should be even better this year. The Trojan defense will depend on Mays to be a leader for some of their youth and if this defense puts up some numbers, Mays deserves to be in the talks for player of the year.

3. Will Rich Rodriguez or Charlie Weis be fired first? Notre Dame and Michigan are both learning that finesse football isn’t as valuable as it once was. Scandals have rocked the Michigan program and Notre Dame simply lacks athletes. As a result, neither fan base is too happy with their current coaching situation and both coaches enter the season on the hot seat.  The Irish have a relatively easy schedule this season and anything less than a 9 win season will probably result in Weiss’ early dismissal. If the Irish struggle early, lose a couple early, Weiss might not be around for the USC game in October.

Michigan opens with a favorable schedule early, but there is no room for hiccups. If they lose more than one game to another team from Michigan, Rodriguez is gone. Other wise, Rodriguez should make it to at least November and needs a 9 win season himself to save his job.

4. Will Texas A&M win a conference game this season? Throughout the 80′s and 90′s the Aggies were a perennial Top 10 team and for a short period of time were the premier college football program in the state. The last decade has been one of mediocrity for the Aggies and this year things could hit an all time low. Entering the season, the Aggies will be favored to win only one conference game, a Halloween home game against Iowa State. If the Aggies lose that one, there is not another favorable game on their schedule. If that happens, look for Mike Sherman to join Charlie Weis and Rich Rodriguez in the unemployment lines.

5. Will this be the season that the Big XII passes the SEC? Several experts feel that the Big XII may be a better conference than the SEC, from top to bottom, this season. Big XII fans have felt this for years, even though head-to-head results (see last year’s bowl games) seem to prove otherwise. It comes down to the age old adage, “offense wins games, but defense wins championship.” Simply put, they do not play defense like they do in the SEC anywhere else in the country. Combine that with explosive athleticism and you have the recipe for the best college football conference in the land. The Big XII is good, but at the end of the season, SEC will still be the king.