(08-22-2016 12:06 PM)HuskyHawk Wrote:  I agree with you on this. I don't see them going that far west and east at the same time. People keep underestimating just how far BYU is from most of the Big 12. It's nearly as far as UConn.

Flight from OKC to Cincinnati = 2:15
Flight from OKC to SLC = 2:20
Flight from OKC to Hartford (NYC) = 3:25

Flight from DFW to Cincinnati = 2:10
Flight from DFW to SLC = 2:30
Flight from DFW to Hartford = 3:25

Flight from Austin to Cincinnati = 2:30
Flight from Austin to SLC = 2:45
Flight from Austin to Hartford (NYC) = 3:40

Flight from Kansas City to Cincinnati = 1:40
Flight from Kansas City to SLC = 2:30
Flight from Kansas City to Hartford (NYC) = 2:45

Flight from Des Moines to Cincinnati = 1:40
Flight from Des Moines to SLC = 2:25
Flight from Des Moines to Hartford (NYC) = 2:40

(08-22-2016 12:06 PM)HuskyHawk Wrote:  Mountain time zone programming is also relatively undesirable to the TV networks.
47.1% of the U.S. is in the eastern time zone
29% central
6.7% mountain
16.6% Pacific

Mountain and Pacific time zones are lumped together by the TV networks. Per the above numbers, Mountain plus Pacific time zones = 23.3%

Only 12 of the 65 P5 programs reside in the Pacific and Mountain time zones, or about 18%. So, based on these numbers, the P5 under-delivers for the TV networks in the Mountain/Pacific region by about 5% of the total, or 3 too few schools (this may provide part of the motivation for ESPN's special TV arrangements with BYU and Boise St.). AND, the PAC has recently declared that it will decrease the number of games available to FOX and ESPN for the West Coast prime time TV time slot (ie, 10pm ET).

FWIW, the breakdown of BYU's 400K+ living alumni (and 6.5 million LDS US population) by time zone looks like this:

Pacific/Mountain = 80% (71%)
Central/Eastern = 18.5% (27%)
Other = 1.5% (2%)

The 20-25% of the BYU fan base in the Central/Eastern region dislike the late kickoffs, but BYU delivers solid TV ratings in the West Coast prime time slot (10pm ET).

(08-22-2016 01:28 PM)YNot Wrote:  

(08-22-2016 12:06 PM)HuskyHawk Wrote:  I agree with you on this. I don't see them going that far west and east at the same time. People keep underestimating just how far BYU is from most of the Big 12. It's nearly as far as UConn.

Flight from OKC to Cincinnati = 2:15
Flight from OKC to SLC = 2:20
Flight from OKC to Hartford (NYC) = 3:25

Flight from DFW to Cincinnati = 2:10
Flight from DFW to SLC = 2:30
Flight from DFW to Hartford = 3:25

Flight from Austin to Cincinnati = 2:30
Flight from Austin to SLC = 2:45
Flight from Austin to Hartford (NYC) = 3:40

Flight from Kansas City to Cincinnati = 1:40
Flight from Kansas City to SLC = 2:30
Flight from Kansas City to Hartford (NYC) = 2:45

Flight from Des Moines to Cincinnati = 1:40
Flight from Des Moines to SLC = 2:25
Flight from Des Moines to Hartford (NYC) = 2:40

(08-22-2016 12:06 PM)HuskyHawk Wrote:  Mountain time zone programming is also relatively undesirable to the TV networks.
47.1% of the U.S. is in the eastern time zone
29% central
6.7% mountain
16.6% Pacific

Mountain and Pacific time zones are lumped together by the TV networks. Per the above numbers, Mountain plus Pacific time zones = 23.3%

Only 12 of the 65 P5 programs reside in the Pacific and Mountain time zones, or about 18%. So, based on these numbers, the P5 under-delivers for the TV networks in the Mountain/Pacific region by about 5% of the total, or 3 too few schools (this may provide part of the motivation for ESPN's special TV arrangements with BYU and Boise St.). AND, the PAC has recently declared that it will decrease the number of games available to FOX and ESPN for the West Coast prime time TV time slot (ie, 10pm ET).

FWIW, the breakdown of BYU's 400K+ living alumni (and 6.5 million LDS US population) by time zone looks like this:

Pacific/Mountain = 80% (71%)
Central/Eastern = 18.5% (27%)
Other = 1.5% (2%)

The 20-25% of the BYU fan base in the Central/Eastern region dislike the late kickoffs, but BYU delivers solid TV ratings in the West Coast prime time slot (10pm ET).

If there is no direct flight to Hartford, you'll be way better off flying to Boston than to NYC for a game at Storrs.

(08-22-2016 01:44 PM)orangefan Wrote:  

(08-22-2016 01:28 PM)YNot Wrote:  Flight from OKC to Cincinnati = 2:15
Flight from OKC to SLC = 2:20
Flight from OKC to Hartford (NYC) = 3:25

Flight from DFW to Cincinnati = 2:10
Flight from DFW to SLC = 2:30
Flight from DFW to Hartford = 3:25

Flight from Austin to Cincinnati = 2:30
Flight from Austin to SLC = 2:45
Flight from Austin to Hartford (NYC) = 3:40

Flight from Kansas City to Cincinnati = 1:40
Flight from Kansas City to SLC = 2:30
Flight from Kansas City to Hartford (NYC) = 2:45

Flight from Des Moines to Cincinnati = 1:40
Flight from Des Moines to SLC = 2:25
Flight from Des Moines to Hartford (NYC) = 2:40

If there is no direct flight to Hartford, you'll be way better off flying to Boston than to NYC for a game at Storrs.

I couldn't find direct flights from OKC or Des Moines to Boston; otherwise, it only added about 10-15 minutes flight time from DFW, Austin and Kansas City.

(08-22-2016 01:28 PM)YNot Wrote:  Mountain and Pacific time zones are lumped together by the TV networks. Per the above numbers, Mountain plus Pacific time zones = 23.3%

Only 12 of the 65 P5 programs reside in the Pacific and Mountain time zones, or about 18%. So, based on these numbers, the P5 under-delivers for the TV networks in the Mountain/Pacific region by about 5% of the total, or 3 too few schools (this may provide part of the motivation for ESPN's special TV arrangements with BYU and Boise St.). AND, the PAC has recently declared that it will decrease the number of games available to FOX and ESPN for the West Coast prime time TV time slot (ie, 10pm ET).

FWIW, the breakdown of BYU's 400K+ living alumni (and 6.5 million LDS US population) by time zone looks like this:

Pacific/Mountain = 80% (71%)
Central/Eastern = 18.5% (27%)
Other = 1.5% (2%)

The 20-25% of the BYU fan base in the Central/Eastern region dislike the late kickoffs, but BYU delivers solid TV ratings in the West Coast prime time slot (10pm ET).

Underserving the Mountain and Pacific times zones?.....

I would say the Pacific is more than covered so lets look at Mountain.

Looking at whole states and not partials that fall into MST you have Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah.

Combined these states have a population of 18.724 million. Now I am not saying BYU wouldn't make a good choice but to say that the Mountain time zone is underserved is a joke.......

There are 4 P5 teams there now Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah. I would say per million the MST is over served.

One benefit to BYU/UConn, besides the perception of taking the two strongest brands on the board, is that there will be minimal disruption to the other conferences. ESPN won't have that big headache to deal with.

(08-22-2016 01:28 PM)YNot Wrote:  

(08-22-2016 12:06 PM)HuskyHawk Wrote:  I agree with you on this. I don't see them going that far west and east at the same time. People keep underestimating just how far BYU is from most of the Big 12. It's nearly as far as UConn.

Flight from OKC to Cincinnati = 2:15
Flight from OKC to SLC = 2:20
Flight from OKC to Hartford (NYC) = 3:25

Flight from DFW to Cincinnati = 2:10
Flight from DFW to SLC = 2:30
Flight from DFW to Hartford = 3:25

Flight from Austin to Cincinnati = 2:30
Flight from Austin to SLC = 2:45
Flight from Austin to Hartford (NYC) = 3:40

Flight from Kansas City to Cincinnati = 1:40
Flight from Kansas City to SLC = 2:30
Flight from Kansas City to Hartford (NYC) = 2:45

Flight from Des Moines to Cincinnati = 1:40
Flight from Des Moines to SLC = 2:25
Flight from Des Moines to Hartford (NYC) = 2:40

(08-22-2016 12:06 PM)HuskyHawk Wrote:  Mountain time zone programming is also relatively undesirable to the TV networks.
47.1% of the U.S. is in the eastern time zone
29% central
6.7% mountain
16.6% Pacific

Mountain and Pacific time zones are lumped together by the TV networks. Per the above numbers, Mountain plus Pacific time zones = 23.3%

Only 12 of the 65 P5 programs reside in the Pacific and Mountain time zones, or about 18%. So, based on these numbers, the P5 under-delivers for the TV networks in the Mountain/Pacific region by about 5% of the total, or 3 too few schools (this may provide part of the motivation for ESPN's special TV arrangements with BYU and Boise St.). AND, the PAC has recently declared that it will decrease the number of games available to FOX and ESPN for the West Coast prime time TV time slot (ie, 10pm ET).

FWIW, the breakdown of BYU's 400K+ living alumni (and 6.5 million LDS US population) by time zone looks like this:

Pacific/Mountain = 80% (71%)
Central/Eastern = 18.5% (27%)
Other = 1.5% (2%)

The 20-25% of the BYU fan base in the Central/Eastern region dislike the late kickoffs, but BYU delivers solid TV ratings in the West Coast prime time slot (10pm ET).

How about from WVU? Or Orlando or Tampa if they are added? An extra bit of flight time is nothing really. The point is that none of these schools except Houston and maybe Memphis are within a reasonable driving radius. Once you are flying you are flying. UConn is closer its airport than either Kansas School (not by much for KU), Iowa State or WVU (usually Pittsburgh) are. How easy is it to fly to Lubbock?

(08-22-2016 02:16 PM)HuskyHawk Wrote:  Once you are flying you are flying. UConn is closer its airport than either Kansas School (not by much for KU), Iowa State or WVU (usually Pittsburgh) are. How easy is it to fly to Lubbock?

Hobby Airport is an 8.4 mile (15 min drive) away from UH. Just sayin.......

(08-21-2016 08:41 PM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(08-21-2016 12:24 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  "Starting with this. UConn and BYU should be encouraged to drop some of the sports that require round-robin schedules. Sports like baseball, softball, women's volleyball and women's soccer conduct weekly conference competition. Sports like tennis, golf, track and swimming don't. ..."

When an online commentator spouting his own opinion gets to the point of requiring a substantial change in the status quo way that things are done in order to reinforce his picks ... that's often when I think that he's gone off the deep end into "Fantasy Conference Realignment Risk" territory.

I don't really see any reason to treat Tramel's piece differently, since it's just an opinion piece, and not actual reporting.

Why invite BYU as an "all sports" conference ... and then proceed to antagonize all of the supporters of every non-revenue team sport that is dropped?. If you don't want the travel cost and logistical complexities (given the no-Sunday-games issue) of adding BYU all-sports, it would be far simpler to extend a FB-only invitation.

That would also give the talking point to hand to the LGBT activists: "look, they are just affiliate members, they don't get a vote on Big12 policy." If enough can be made to think that their activism "kept BYU out of all-sports status", that might placate them enough to avoid action that would hurt corporate sponsors on their bottom line.

That wouldn't stop the problem. FBS jobs, Athletic Department jobs, and P5 athletic slot availability for LGBT coaches, staff and athletes would still be diminished and discrimination furthered by the action of the Big XII presidents. They will have to live with that decision for a looong time and we don't forget.

This isn't about symbolism. Its about access. Jobs. Salaries. P5 Slots. And in order to add BYU, the Big XII would still have to ignore its bylaw prohibiting discrimination.

(08-22-2016 02:10 PM)GO Coogs GO!!! Wrote:  

(08-22-2016 01:28 PM)YNot Wrote:  Mountain and Pacific time zones are lumped together by the TV networks. Per the above numbers, Mountain plus Pacific time zones = 23.3%

Only 12 of the 65 P5 programs reside in the Pacific and Mountain time zones, or about 18%. So, based on these numbers, the P5 under-delivers for the TV networks in the Mountain/Pacific region by about 5% of the total, or 3 too few schools (this may provide part of the motivation for ESPN's special TV arrangements with BYU and Boise St.). AND, the PAC has recently declared that it will decrease the number of games available to FOX and ESPN for the West Coast prime time TV time slot (ie, 10pm ET).

FWIW, the breakdown of BYU's 400K+ living alumni (and 6.5 million LDS US population) by time zone looks like this:

Pacific/Mountain = 80% (71%)
Central/Eastern = 18.5% (27%)
Other = 1.5% (2%)

The 20-25% of the BYU fan base in the Central/Eastern region dislike the late kickoffs, but BYU delivers solid TV ratings in the West Coast prime time slot (10pm ET).

Underserving the Mountain and Pacific times zones?.....

I would say the Pacific is more than covered so lets look at Mountain.

Looking at whole states and not partials that fall into MST you have Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah.

Combined these states have a population of 18.724 million. Now I am not saying BYU wouldn't make a good choice but to say that the Mountain time zone is underserved is a joke.......

There are 4 P5 teams there now Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah. I would say per million the MST is over served.

4 P5 programs in the Mountain time zone, which is 6% of the P5 total, exactly the percentage that was quoted as the Mountain's portion of the market (ignoring that Arizona is in the Pacific time zone for 2/3 of the football season).

However, TV networks group the Pacific and Mountain time zones together, so it doesn't really matter. On a college football Saturday, you see the 10pm ET kickoff time slot, which is West Coast prime time. Rarely does a nationally-televised Western game kickoff at 6pm PT/7pm MT - it's 5pm PT/6pm MT/8pm ET (East Coast prime time) or 7pm PT/8pm MT...or later.

Only 18% of the current P5 makeup is in the West region (Pacific/Mountain time zones), but the West region constitutes 23% of the market. So based on comparing the P5 membership makeup to the percentage of population, the West is under-served by the P5.

The West is not "more than covered." This is exactly why BYU and Boise St. have special deals with ESPN and have a high number of 8pm MT kickoffs...to provide the Western markets with sufficient inventory of quality evening games.

Look at first 3 weeks of the 2016 season:

Week 1
ABC-8pm ET: USC at Alabama
FOX: [Nothing]
ESPN-9pm ET: Clemson at Auburn
FS1-10:30pm ET: Arizona v. BYU*
*other WEST options: UC Davis at Oregon; SUU at Utah; EWU at WSU; NAU at ASU; NIU at Wyoming

Week 2
ESPN-7pm ET: South Carolina at MSU
ESPN2-7pm ET: Arkansas at TCU
FOX-7:30pm ET: BYU at Utah*
ABC-8pm ET: Virginia Tech v. Tennessee
FS1-10pm ET: Texas Tech at Arizona St.*
ESPN/2-10:15pm ET: Washington St. at Boise St.*
ESPN/2-10:30pm ET: Virginia at Oregon*
*other WEST options: Utah St. at USC, UNLV at UCLA, Idaho at Washington, Idaho St. at Colorado, Grambling St. at ASU

Week 3
ESPN-7pm ET: Texas A&M at Auburn
ESPN2-7pm ET: MSU at LSU
FOX-7:30pm ET: Ohio St. at Oklahoma
ABC-8pm ET: USC at Stanford*
ESPN/2-10:15pm ET: UCLA at BYU*
ESPN/2-10:30pm ET: Texas at California*
*other WEST options: Hawaii at Arizona, Utah at SJSU, Idaho at WSU, Portland St. at Washington, Idaho St. at OSU

(08-22-2016 03:43 PM)YNot Wrote:  

(08-22-2016 02:10 PM)GO Coogs GO!!! Wrote:  Underserving the Mountain and Pacific times zones?.....

I would say the Pacific is more than covered so lets look at Mountain.

Looking at whole states and not partials that fall into MST you have Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah.

Combined these states have a population of 18.724 million. Now I am not saying BYU wouldn't make a good choice but to say that the Mountain time zone is underserved is a joke.......

There are 4 P5 teams there now Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah. I would say per million the MST is over served.

4 P5 programs in the Mountain time zone, which is 6% of the P5 total, exactly the percentage that was quoted as the Mountain's portion of the market (ignoring that Arizona is in the Pacific time zone for 2/3 of the football season).

However, TV networks group the Pacific and Mountain time zones together, so it doesn't really matter. On a college football Saturday, you see the 10pm ET kickoff time slot, which is West Coast prime time. Rarely does a nationally-televised Western game kickoff at 6pm PT/7pm MT - it's 5pm PT/6pm MT/8pm ET (East Coast prime time) or 7pm PT/8pm MT...or later.

Only 18% of the current P5 makeup is in the West region (Pacific/Mountain time zones), but the West region constitutes 23% of the market. So based on comparing the P5 membership makeup to the percentage of population, the West is under-served by the P5.

The West is not "more than covered." This is exactly why BYU and Boise St. have special deals with ESPN and have a high number of 8pm MT kickoffs...to provide the Western markets with sufficient inventory of quality evening games.

Look at first 3 weeks of the 2016 season:

Week 1
ABC-8pm ET: USC at Alabama
FOX: [Nothing]
ESPN-9pm ET: Clemson at Auburn
FS1-10:30pm ET: Arizona v. BYU*
*other WEST options: UC Davis at Oregon; SUU at Utah; EWU at WSU; NAU at ASU; NIU at Wyoming

Week 2
ESPN-7pm ET: South Carolina at MSU
ESPN2-7pm ET: Arkansas at TCU
FOX-7:30pm ET: BYU at Utah*
ABC-8pm ET: Virginia Tech v. Tennessee
FS1-10pm ET: Texas Tech at Arizona St.*
ESPN/2-10:15pm ET: Washington St. at Boise St.*
ESPN/2-10:30pm ET: Virginia at Oregon*
*other WEST options: Utah St. at USC, UNLV at UCLA, Idaho at Washington, Idaho St. at Colorado, Grambling St. at ASU

Week 3
ESPN-7pm ET: Texas A&M at Auburn
ESPN2-7pm ET: MSU at LSU
FOX-7:30pm ET: Ohio St. at Oklahoma
ABC-8pm ET: USC at Stanford*
ESPN/2-10:15pm ET: UCLA at BYU*
ESPN/2-10:30pm ET: Texas at California*
*other WEST options: Hawaii at Arizona, Utah at SJSU, Idaho at WSU, Portland St. at Washington, Idaho St. at OSU

You're missing the point at 6.1% you are exceeding the 5.8% that the MST represents of the total US population.

Again not saying BYU wouldn't be a good add it's just that your logic is flawed.

(08-22-2016 03:43 PM)YNot Wrote:  4 P5 programs in the Mountain time zone, which is 6% of the P5 total, exactly the percentage that was quoted as the Mountain's portion of the market (ignoring that Arizona is in the Pacific time zone for 2/3 of the football season).

Ok I have a little time here to address this in more detail. First off Daylight savings is 11/6 this year and the first game for the Arizona schools is Labor Day weekend so that's half of the season at worst.....

If you really want to play this game then eliminate the AZ schools from my argument and it becomes even more of a dead zone. Minus Arizona the population falls to 11.993 million but you still have Utah and Colorado still putting you at 6 mil per school (5.9965 to be precise).

11.993 million or 1.8% of the US population.

(08-22-2016 03:43 PM)YNot Wrote:  However, TV networks group the Pacific and Mountain time zones together, so it doesn't really matter. On a college football Saturday, you see the 10pm ET kickoff time slot, which is West Coast prime time. Rarely does a nationally-televised Western game kickoff at 6pm PT/7pm MT - it's 5pm PT/6pm MT/8pm ET (East Coast prime time) or 7pm PT/8pm MT...or later.

You are so quick to pull this card. So what if TV "groups" PST and MST together does that change the times in the zones because TV says so? In the end so what?.... Not trying to be rude but even if BYU was in the B12 do you expect this to change?

(08-22-2016 03:43 PM)YNot Wrote:  Only 18% of the current P5 makeup is in the West region (Pacific/Mountain time zones), but the West region constitutes 23% of the market. So based on comparing the P5 membership makeup to the percentage of population, the West is under-served by the P5.

Ok, and the CST is 33% of the "market" but represents 31.95% of the US population.

(08-22-2016 03:43 PM)YNot Wrote:  The West is not "more than covered." This is exactly why BYU and Boise St. have special deals with ESPN and have a high number of 8pm MT kickoffs...to provide the Western markets with sufficient inventory of quality evening games.

I think I have made my point here but we can agree to disagree. "Special" is one way of putting it. It might have nothing to do with the quality of the Boise State football program or the nationwide LDS following for BYU..... But lets pretend the MST and PST are undervalued and underrepresented.

A second pro-UCONN Thamel article in 2 days. At some point it becomes reasonable to believe that OU is feeding him an agenda. Plus, he has been on CT sports radio 3-4 times over the past few weeks.

http://m.newsok.com/uconns-athletic-budg...e/5514851.

With BYU and UConn getting all of this attention, this leads me to believe that for now, the presidents are following the media consultants.

If Boren is backing UConn and BYU, that is a far different pair than Cincy/Memphis,or Houston/Memphis, or Cincy/Houston.

Boren seems to be going after media penetration and brands.

Somewhat of an aside, but the UConn supporter Upstater has for years extolled UConn's reach and penetration. He has consistently laid out in very factual terms how UConn has a quantifiable value with their SNY deal. Reporters like Tramel that dig for facts sounds like he has bought in to that poster's argument.

(08-22-2016 08:42 PM)BE4evah Wrote:  With BYU and UConn getting all of this attention, this leads me to believe that for now, the presidents are following the media consultants.

If Boren is backing UConn and BYU, that is a far different pair than Cincy/Memphis,or Houston/Memphis, or Cincy/Houston.

Boren seems to be going after media penetration and brands.

Somewhat of an aside, but the UConn supporter Upstater has for years extolled UConn's reach and penetration. He has consistently laid out in very factual terms how UConn has a quantifiable value with their SNY deal. Reporters like Tramel that dig for facts sounds like he has bought in to that poster's argument.

None of what Tramel is saying is new or news. It's all information that is and has been readily available for a long time.

Go back and look at Boren's comments last winter. He's very clearly looking to stabilize the B12, but also to upgrade the academic profile of the conference and open new recruiting grounds for (non athlete) undergrads to OU. He talks a lot about the inadequacy of the footprint of the Big 12. He wants to upgrade the profile of OU as an academic institution. CT is a very wealthy state with among the top school systems in the country.

Well, if they simply take the top two budget schools -- using the assumed $57M number for BYU -- then that would put BYU and UConn at the top.

I still don't think any expansion can happen without Houston, per Texas mandate. But maybe, just maybe, they would add Houston and UConn. It would give WV an old Big East game (not sure if they were much of rivals) and certainly expand the Big 12 somewhat into the northeast.

(08-22-2016 02:22 PM)GO Coogs GO!!! Wrote:  

(08-22-2016 02:16 PM)HuskyHawk Wrote:  Once you are flying you are flying. UConn is closer its airport than either Kansas School (not by much for KU), Iowa State or WVU (usually Pittsburgh) are. How easy is it to fly to Lubbock?

Hobby Airport is an 8.4 mile (15 min drive) away from UH. Just sayin.......

You guys have the ease of travel crown sewn up for sure (unless they actually consider SMU or some other crazy ****).

I honestly hope they go to 14 and include UConn, Cinci and Houston.

can't get much easier than being located in the same city as the Big12 HQ

Isn't Tramel basically a OU talking point. (much like Orangeblood is Texas's)

I think there's definitely some lines being drawn.

OU wants Uconn and BYU.
Texas needs Houston to be included for expansion for expansion to be even considered.

The rest of the schools at this point are iffy both ways some want expansion, some don't. Some don't want another Texas school, some will do whatever Texas ask. Lots of conflicts here, but at the end of the day if OU and UT are willing to extend the GOR they will do whatever OU and UT wants.

ESPN don't want expansion at all since they basically have to pay to lose content to Fox.
Fox wants expansion as long as its toward the East and expand their supply of content.

My prediction? No expansion because UT and OU aren't aligns and can't herd the rest of the 8 to vote in a bloc.

Uconn, byu, col state and Houston could work with the 5 Texas schools and wvu + uconn in a division.

(08-21-2016 03:41 PM)BE4evah Wrote:  It sounds like most think that the reporter conveys tge thinking of David Boren. So that sets up a likely battle between Texas and Texas Tech versus Oklahoms as the texas schools are demanding Houston.

While David Boren is a gifted politician, I don't see how he can overcome the athletic powerhouse of Texas Tech, as well as the University of Texas.

UConn and Houston is a real possibility. Boren has always liked us and phrased his words re expansion in our favor (academics matter, athletic excellence matters, location nbd). If Texas has a say after landing UH and it is down to UConn and Cincy, I like our chances...we play UT a ton in hoops and nearly scheduled a 2-1 with them in football during the Edsall era. We have a good relationship, although I recognize UT would prefer UH + BYU.

UConn is a near lock if the Big 12 expands by 4, and I want as many G5 programs given life rafts as possible. Uc, UConn, BYU and UH sounds good to me, with UM and UCF being possibilities.