(07-21-2021 03:15 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  ... The real issue could be further poaching by the Pac12. I dont think anyone else would poach any of the remaining pieces if the Pac-12 takes out Tech and Oklahoma St.

If the PAC-12 turned down Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, I think we can be confident that are not going to "poach" Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.

(07-21-2021 03:28 PM)JRsec Wrote:  ... I've been telling folks for 9 years it was likely and all I ever got in return was fan think, UT will never follow Aggy. Texas hates the SEC. OU prefers the B1G, and you know a good bit of that was likely true, ...

But, to unravel those, OU can prefer the Big Ten all it wants, despite all of the booster side headaches it would bring ... but if the Big Ten says OU and Texas or no dice, and Texas says no, not enough games in Texas, then OU is not going to be the wallflower at the school dance, it's going to do down to the next preference on its list.

And as discussed just recently over on the P5 board, Texas cannot keep Oklahoma out of the SEC. It cannot "punish" Oklahoma by cancelling the RRR ... it would be cutting off its nose to spite its face.

As far as "never following Aggie", that is very much a booster kind of sentiment ... it seems like the higher tiers in the University of Texas could say with a straight face they are "we are not following anybody, we are going to the SEC with our rival Oklahoma."

As far as not wanting to go to the SEC ... I believe they probably don't. But by the same token, they also don't want to be in a conference seen as "the Little Ten". If Oklahoma is going to go with them or without them, it's up to them to decide whether going to the SEC or staying in the diminished Big 12 is the better option for them.

That said, the idea that this is something Texas A&M learned was going on, and knowing that they couldn't stop it on their own, they leaked it in hopes that someone else could put a stop to it ... there's a lot of plausibility there.

(07-21-2021 03:28 PM)Wedge Wrote:  ... So, *if* UT and OU jumped to the SEC, what would make the most sense is the Big 12 adding 2 or 4 teams out of the group of Air Force, Boise State, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, UCF, USF. Strategically, the Big 12's best move would be to add 4 from the AAC (or Boise plus 3 from the AAC) so that the football gap between the "new" Big 12 on the one hand and the MWC or the AAC remainders on the other hand is as large as possible. ...

However, commercially, the sensible move is to add two for the balance of the current contract, and only add two more going into the new contract if the media advice is that there are two that can be added that increases the average value of the inventory per school.

Do Texas Tech, TCU, and Baylor want a fourth Texas / former SWC school, or do the trio in the "Little Ten" can overshadow the Go5 school in Texas without any additional help. If they want a fourth Texas / former SWC school, it seems like Oklahoma State, Kansas and Kansas State would see a benefit in playing in Texas twice a season and would go along with it. So based on that, Houston is either in or out.

Then that decides whether there is one more immediate chair available or two, and the internal boardroom fight starts from there. The College Football News ranking of football programs in the AAC over 2017-2020 lists them as:
1. Memphis
2. Temple
3. Houston
4. UCF
5. Navy
6. UC
7. SMU
8. USF
9. Tulane
10. Tulsa
11. ECU

If anything like the 2020/21 NCAA NET is repeated this year, with Houston ending in the top 20 and Memphis ending in the top 40, it starts to look like Houston and Memphis as the natural picks for the two replacements, and Boise State, BYU, UC and UCF fighting over the last two spots if they should open up later.