alternatehistory.com
2011-12
2011-12
By March of 2011, 6 of the Big 12 schools (Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas A+M) had announced plans to leave the conference. Colorado would be playing in the PAC for the 2011 season and Nebraska the Big 10 (now with 12 schools). The other 4 schools would have liked to leave immediately and they could have forced it with the mess that was the Big 12, but their new conferences simply weren't ready scheduling wise, so they would have one more season in the Big 12. For 2011 the Big 12 was set with 10 schools, a round-robin schedule, and no title game (due to an NCAA rule that mandated 12 teams for a conference to have a title game).
The problem was of course for the 2012 season when there would only be 6 schools in the Big 12. Texas' insistence on the Longhorn Network and it's split with Oklahoma had put the conference in danger of an outright collapse. However with the guarantee Fiesta Bowl spot, and TV money still willing to approach something similar to what they had before as long as Texas was there, the conference would survive by gaining new schools. TCU, just coming off a title game appearance, was an obvious choice.
Houston was a candidate for a spot, but neither the non-Texas schools (not wanting to be too Texas heavy) nor the Texas schools (not wanting yet another conference competitor besides TCU) were particularly interested and adding another Texas school. BYU and Boise St were considered, but BYU had just became independent and was reluctant to give that up (and Big 12 schools were concerned about scheduling issues with them), and Big 12 school's presidents balked at inviting a school with as lowly an academic reputation as Boise St.
The Big 12 badly wanted to secure that 8th team as quickly as possible however. The previous year, FedEx CEO Fred Smith had made an offer of 10 million a year to any BCS conference that would take Memphis. The Big 12 decided to take the offer. (Technically Memphis will forgo $10 million dollar in conference TV money payout for the next 15 years and expect to make up the difference with a FedEx sponsorship).
The End of a Classic
With all of the realignment a much grieved casualty would be the Texas/Oklahoma Red River Shootout, which had been played yearly in Dallas at the Texas State Fair. With OU's move to the Big 10 they would be playing 9 conference games and it was deemed politically impossible to not play Oklahoma St, which was enough games against how level opponents as it was, without having another one locked in against Texas. As well the relationship between the schools had been burnt, similarly as had happened between Texas and Texas A+M.
The last game promised to be a good one with both schools entering the game 4-0 and with OU ranked #1 and Texas ranked #6. But it was not to be as the Longhorn defense had no answers for OU QB Laundry and wideouts Ryan Broyles and Kenny Stills, Oklahoma won going away, 55-17. It was the high point of the season for Oklahoma who would go on to finish a disappointing 9-3, though that was better than Texas' fall to 7-5.
BCS BOWLS
autobid teams in italics
Rose Bowl: (5) Oregon over (7) Wisconsin, 45-38
Cotton Bowl: (19) West Virginia over (11) TCU, 52-28
Fiesta Bowl: (2) Alabama over (3) Oklahoma St, 34-27
Sugar Bowl: (4) Stanford over (1) LSU, 17-13
Orange Bowl: (12) Michigan over (16) Clemson, 41-17
#8 Arkansas and #10 South Carolina left out due to 2 teams per conference rule.
#6 Boise St, #9 Kansas St, and #11 Virginia Tech passed over by Orange bowl in favor of Michigan (TCU won the Mt West and got the non AQ conference champion spot).
The bowls, by luck of the bowl selection order, produced a de facto 4 team playoff. Some said this showed their was no need for a formal playoff, others argued instead that they should make things so it always worked this way. The title game featured (1) Alabama against (2) Stanford without much national controversy. Saban won a title with his 2nd team, as Alabama prevailed in the title game 17-10.
Notes:
So I'm going with minimum butterflies cause it's easier. Though this will increase a little with the different schedules. Bowl games (unless they actually played) decided by their bowl game performance and RNG. Fate wanted this one for Bama.
OTL the FedEx president's offer was real and the Big East probably would have gone for it had they not collapsed. Even if Memphis doesn't get FedEx money their TV payout will be higher with the Big 12 - $10 million than they would get in Conference USA. Their academic reputation isn't great but it's better than Boise's.
Moving to the Big 10 is likely a bad move for OU long term since they rely super heavily on Texas for recruiting. That's why they didn't try harder to leave OTL, here of course their relationship with UT went seriously bad so they left anyways.
By March of 2011, 6 of the Big 12 schools (Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas A+M) had announced plans to leave the conference. Colorado would be playing in the PAC for the 2011 season and Nebraska the Big 10 (now with 12 schools). The other 4 schools would have liked to leave immediately and they could have forced it with the mess that was the Big 12, but their new conferences simply weren't ready scheduling wise, so they would have one more season in the Big 12. For 2011 the Big 12 was set with 10 schools, a round-robin schedule, and no title game (due to an NCAA rule that mandated 12 teams for a conference to have a title game).
The problem was of course for the 2012 season when there would only be 6 schools in the Big 12. Texas' insistence on the Longhorn Network and it's split with Oklahoma had put the conference in danger of an outright collapse. However with the guarantee Fiesta Bowl spot, and TV money still willing to approach something similar to what they had before as long as Texas was there, the conference would survive by gaining new schools. TCU, just coming off a title game appearance, was an obvious choice.
Houston was a candidate for a spot, but neither the non-Texas schools (not wanting to be too Texas heavy) nor the Texas schools (not wanting yet another conference competitor besides TCU) were particularly interested and adding another Texas school. BYU and Boise St were considered, but BYU had just became independent and was reluctant to give that up (and Big 12 schools were concerned about scheduling issues with them), and Big 12 school's presidents balked at inviting a school with as lowly an academic reputation as Boise St.
The Big 12 badly wanted to secure that 8th team as quickly as possible however. The previous year, FedEx CEO Fred Smith had made an offer of 10 million a year to any BCS conference that would take Memphis. The Big 12 decided to take the offer. (Technically Memphis will forgo $10 million dollar in conference TV money payout for the next 15 years and expect to make up the difference with a FedEx sponsorship).
The End of a Classic
With all of the realignment a much grieved casualty would be the Texas/Oklahoma Red River Shootout, which had been played yearly in Dallas at the Texas State Fair. With OU's move to the Big 10 they would be playing 9 conference games and it was deemed politically impossible to not play Oklahoma St, which was enough games against how level opponents as it was, without having another one locked in against Texas. As well the relationship between the schools had been burnt, similarly as had happened between Texas and Texas A+M.
The last game promised to be a good one with both schools entering the game 4-0 and with OU ranked #1 and Texas ranked #6. But it was not to be as the Longhorn defense had no answers for OU QB Laundry and wideouts Ryan Broyles and Kenny Stills, Oklahoma won going away, 55-17. It was the high point of the season for Oklahoma who would go on to finish a disappointing 9-3, though that was better than Texas' fall to 7-5.
BCS BOWLS
autobid teams in italics
Rose Bowl: (5) Oregon over (7) Wisconsin, 45-38
Cotton Bowl: (19) West Virginia over (11) TCU, 52-28
Fiesta Bowl: (2) Alabama over (3) Oklahoma St, 34-27
Sugar Bowl: (4) Stanford over (1) LSU, 17-13
Orange Bowl: (12) Michigan over (16) Clemson, 41-17
#8 Arkansas and #10 South Carolina left out due to 2 teams per conference rule.
#6 Boise St, #9 Kansas St, and #11 Virginia Tech passed over by Orange bowl in favor of Michigan (TCU won the Mt West and got the non AQ conference champion spot).
The bowls, by luck of the bowl selection order, produced a de facto 4 team playoff. Some said this showed their was no need for a formal playoff, others argued instead that they should make things so it always worked this way. The title game featured (1) Alabama against (2) Stanford without much national controversy. Saban won a title with his 2nd team, as Alabama prevailed in the title game 17-10.
Notes:
So I'm going with minimum butterflies cause it's easier. Though this will increase a little with the different schedules. Bowl games (unless they actually played) decided by their bowl game performance and RNG. Fate wanted this one for Bama.
OTL the FedEx president's offer was real and the Big East probably would have gone for it had they not collapsed. Even if Memphis doesn't get FedEx money their TV payout will be higher with the Big 12 - $10 million than they would get in Conference USA. Their academic reputation isn't great but it's better than Boise's.
Moving to the Big 10 is likely a bad move for OU long term since they rely super heavily on Texas for recruiting. That's why they didn't try harder to leave OTL, here of course their relationship with UT went seriously bad so they left anyways.
- Jasen777
- Word Count: 880