The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

This will be so much more fun

July 21, 2016 by Mike Casazza

I think it’s fair to say some of you — fine, some of us — have in the past suffered from conference expansion fatigue. And it was transcendent. For a time, it directly affected West Virginia, and then later in involved the Mountaineers, but has it ever stopped? It hasn’t.

What expansion did in its past was give birth to a new subsection of sports writing, but look at what it did for social media. It was a huge accelerator for the evolution of Twitter. But, to me, the reason behind all of that was how much of expansion was done in secrecy. And you know how people are. They want to know things they aren’t supposed to know. The surreptitious nature of expansion drove people to great lengths to discover (and report) and learn more about the topic.

And so it is that you might sigh and/or roll your eyes when you come to realize expansion is back. It is. It won’t happen quickly this time, but it won’t happen the way you’re used to, either.

That’s going to be great. Allow me to present Exhibit A from Tuesday, not even an hour after the Big 12 concluded a conference call that fast-tracked expansion.

That’s tame, Caz. Why are you so smitten?

That’s fair. He compliments the Big 12. He brags on BYU. I see what you’re saying, but you’ve only seen half the story.

Here’s David Boren, the president at Oklahoma and the chairperson of the Big 12’s board of directors:

Obviously we’re look at the strength of the athletic programs, their competitiveness. We’re looking at the fan base; we’re looking at access to media markets. And also we’re very much looking at the reputations of these institutions for integrity. We’re looking at the academic standards of these universities, the level of research and teaching at

So we’re looking at a whole composite of factors not just any one factor. So it’s really impossible to single out any one. All of those things will come into play and we’ll be able to look at, say, a range of how these universities compare, those that have expressed interest to us, how they compare with each other in all of those categories.

And we’re very seriously concerned about all those categories, because we obviously stand for athletic competitiveness, winning in the right way.

We also stand for academic excellence. When we use the term student-athlete, we use that very seriously and that’s just not a slogan.

I believe we’ve been over this, but there are no coincidences. Holmoe mentions academic excellence and an exceptional athletic department … and now go look at BYU’s subsequent tweets.

Eh, one example. That’s not much beyond BYU’s bravado.

Hey, you’re not wrong. Again. But did you see the Houston last night? The Cougars saw BYU’s boasts and raised the stakes. There was a statement from the athletic director and the president.

Academics. Research. Population. That’s three check marks.

And here comes the athletic director to close the ball game.

He hits the same spots, but he also makes mention of a “reinvigorated spirit in Athletics” and returning Houston to “the national spotlight.” That looks good. It looks even better when you put it next to the words of commissioner Bob Bowlsby when he added to Boren’s list of desired traits.

Remember, this preceded the tweets by BYU and Houston:

And the other thing I would add to that is that we — I would say that we are looking for members that will grow over time as we grow, that will bring stability to the conference and that have a high top end, will benefit from an affiliation with the schools that are currently in our conference. And I think those that will — you know, they’re going to join a family. And it’s important that they strengthen the family and we strengthen them.

All of that is and ought to be overshadowed by this: Champions for Life. I know you’ve heard that before.

You see a theme, right? BYU is “excited” the Big 12 is looking to grow. Houston’s president is “thrilled to have this opportunity to showcase” his school. The athletic director is quoting Big 12 slogans. They’re speaking to their strengths as they relate to the Big 12’s requirements.

They’re openly auditioning for the Big 12.

Remember, in the past we wanted to know who the conferences were talking to. Now we’re seeing the schools talk to the conferences. This is a major change, and it’s going to be defining quality of the latest and maybe greatest fit of expansion.