POWERED UP: Calling the Bully's Bluff
Gabe DeArmond
PowerMizzou.com Publisher
Look up the word "bully" and here are the definitions you get:
--browbeat: discourage or frighten with threats or a domineering manner; intimidate
--strong-arm: be bossy towards
--a cruel and brutal fellow
If you're involved with the Big XII Conference, the word bully needs just one word to give you an accurate definition: Texas. Or Longhorn. Either one will work.
As the world of conference realignment turns, one thing is becoming crystal clear: The Texas Longhorns are big bullies. And the bully doesn't like it when someone questions his power.
Now, listen, Texas has power. Don't doubt that. The Longhorns make more money than any athletic department in America. Their football team is great. Their basketball team (last season notwithstanding) is very good. The softball and baseball teams are great. They have a virtual money printing machine down in Austin. They're the big boy on the block. I'm not questioning that.
But suddenly in the last few months, it hasn't been Texas holding every card in the Big XII deck. When talk of Big Ten expansion surfaced last December, Missouri and Nebraska suddenly found themselves sitting on a pretty nice hand. Texas doesn't like that. Not much at all. See, when you're Texas and you sit down at the table, you're supposed to know you're going to win. The deck is stacked, the dice are loaded, use any analogy you want. It's not gambling if you know you're going to win. And Texas has known for quite a few years that it was going to win. As a friend put it this morning, "Texas is like the kid who was born standing on third base and tells everyone he hit a triple."
I'm not saying it's impossible to fail at Texas. There are coaches who have done it. But it's a lot tougher to fail in Austin than it is at Missouri or Nebraska or Colorado or really just about anywhere else in college sports. Geographically, monetarily, and in just about any other manner you can find, the Longhorns have a head start on everyone else.
That is especially true in the current Big XII setup. When the old Southwest Conference broke up because they could hardly field a full league due to probation, Texas came into the Big XII. It took them a few years, but the planted the conference offices in Dallas, and they used their position inside the state that provides more than 50% of the league's football talent to take over. The Horns run the show in the Big XII. Anybody that says differently just doesn't pay much attention.
And suddenly, Missouri and Nebraska had some leverage. The rumors flew that the Big Ten was interested. Some will say the league has already offered the Tigers and Huskers behind the scenes (and I think it's very possible). Some will say the 12-to-18 month timetable holds true and no one is sure. But it doesn't much matter right now. The fact is, it appears that Missouri and Nebraska have options. Texas doesn't like that. The bully doesn't want the kid he picks on to have a chance to be friends with the strongest kid in the lunch line. Because then the bully might have to start paying for his own meals.
So what does the bully do? He starts kicking and screaming and yelling at everyone who will listen. In this case, he plants stories in the Lone Star State media insinuating that Missouri and Nebraska better do their business or vacate the pot. Thus the "ultimatum" that was supposedly thrown out at the Big XII meetings.
But I ask: What is an ultimatum without consequences? Let's say it's true Missouri and Nebraska have a week to pledge loyalty to the Big XII (and I'm not too sure it is). You then have to say, what are the consequences? According to reports, the consequences are that Texas takes its ball and five other schools to the PAC-10.
AND THE CONGREGATION SAID, "AMEN."
You ask me, that's the best possible scenario. The PAC-10 becomes a 16-team league. That means the Big Ten has to react and react big. So that league goes to 16 as well. And if that league goes to 16, Missouri and Nebraska will both be invited. Period. Don't let the press in Texas and Oklahoma convince you otherwise. If it goes to 16, it also very likely includes Notre Dame. Multiple sources have indicated to me that Notre Dame isn't likely to jump to the Big Ten if they're the only one jumping. The Irish only align themselves with a conference if they see that we're moving toward superconferences and remaining independent leaves them out in the cold. A 16-team PAC-10 and a 16-team Big Ten would certainly be an indication we're moving that way.
So, if the Big XII South becomes the PAC-10 East, then Missouri and Nebraska still land where they want to land: In a conference without a bully as powerful as Texas that pays them more money to be members. In addition, they get to say, "Hey, we didn't do this. We only left the Big XII when Texas broke it up and there was no more Big XII to join." Best case scenario in Columbia and Lincoln.
Texas is throwing down ultimatums and threatening to abandon ship (does anyone else see the irony of an ultimatum that basically says, "You better not look around because if you do, we're going to look around too?). But, really, leaving the Big XII is the last thing Texas should want. What other league offers them a front row seat to football talent that is far superior to the rest of the league? What other league will let them host the conference championship-and a chance to play for the national title-just a hop and a skip from their own campus? What other league is going to be run by a guy that has his nose so far up the Horns' hindquarters that he can't see he's pissing off the rest of the schools he is supposed to protect? What other league will allow the Longhorns not only to take the biggest slice of the conference revenue pie, but also openly explore getting their own television network. What other league? None.
No, make no mistake, the best thing for Texas is if the Big XII stays around. So the Longhorns throw around their weight. And, as I said, it's substantial weight. And they hope, as bullies do, that all the blustering and yelling and scare tactics work. They hope somebody in Columbia and Lincoln and Boulder looks around and says, "Uh-oh, we just made the big guy mad." And they hope those schools cave.
Maybe they will. But while Texas is busy leaking every possible armageddon possibility to the media, the people in Lincoln and Columbia remain oddly quiet. While everyone in the Lone Star State is trying to convince us the end of college sports as we know it is here, Tom Osborne and Harvey Perlman and Mike Alden and Brady Deaton have stood silently on the sidelines, offering up that they are "proud members of the Big XII" and other similarly non-revealing quotes. Despite everyone complaining that the Tigers and the Huskers aren't "on the plane" and one media member referencing "Missouri's undignified groveling and whining," the next quote I see from anyone associated with Missouri or Nebraska that they want out will be the first.
Maybe they know something we don't. Maybe they're content to sit back with the cards they have and let it play out. Hopefully, they are. It would be a shame to see the Tigers or the Huskers fold on a full house because Texas convinced everyone its pair of sevens could take the pot by yelling real loud.
At some point, you have to stand up to the bully. It's time for the other 11 schools in the Big XII to do just that. Let Friday at 5 p.m. pass without a single word. Let the PAC-10 offer Texas a spot. See what the bully does when the weaklings challenge him to throw the first punch.
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