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Originally Posted by cartman
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Like I said, Mizzou has been far from perfect during this whole process, and they may crash and burn for it, but i just dont get how south schools(especially Texas) dont get that they have been just as guilty in killing this conference and what not. Now everybody has had their roles, i recognize that, my team played its cards in its own interest, but so did Texas and the others. Its that failure to recognize this was a result of the entire Big 12 failing to work together and exploring other options, not just one or two "sour grapes", that annoys me. Everyone involved had options, and we all chose to look after ourselves at various stages of the process instead of trying to find some acceptable middle ground for everyone involved.
Bring On the Cats, the SBnation blog for Kansas State, discussed Chip Browns tweets about Texas doing all it could to save the Big 12 (
http://twitter.com/ChipBrownOB/status/15804322156):
That last mention turns my attention to Texas. We really appreciate that you "did everything you could to save the Big 12" recently. Because it's obvious you were willing to go to any lengths necessary to save this conference, other than actually, you know, doing something. Texas was willing to do anything, as long as it still got a disproportionate share of the revenue. Texas was willing to do anything, as long as the conference changed an obscure tiebreaker rule that probably never would have affected it again. Texas was willing to do anything, so long as it was permitted to start up its own TV network, with no interference from a conference-wide network that would benefit all schools, or a new deal from FOX this week that might have saved the conference.
We shouldn't have been surprised. In the past 20 years, two major conferences have been relegated to the dustbins of history, and Texas was a member of both of them. It was tired of the cheating that went on in the SWC, and its perception that all the member schools were out to get the big, bad Longhorns. Despite running the show in the Big 12, getting more money from the conference than any other school, and bullying the conference into letting it explore its own network, Texas wasn't interested in going to the table with Nebraska to work this out. Instead, it backed a short-term ultimatum (along with the other schools, there's blame to share) and, when Nebraska unsurprisingly bolted for greener pastures when the offer arrived, threw up its hands and said "well, we tried!" as it sprinted off to the west coast for the promise of a new conference network, which will preclude it having its own network, and the promise of riches from a conference that currently hands out less money to its member institutions than does the Big 12. You were committed to the Big 12 from the beginning, you said. And it was true, except that your commitment was only valid so long as it didn't affect $0.01 of your bottom line. God forbid a conference work together to improve the standing of each of its schools.