Need proof of how dire the straits are in Lawrence?
Kansas' president is flat out asking Missouri and Nebraska to look out for them.
Kansas begs Nebraska to save the Big 12, for old time's sake
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footbal...n=ncaaf,246370
Even from afar, the ongoing, existential psychodrama in the Big 12 makes for fascinating viewing. Nebraska and Missouri must choose between an opportunity for a more lucrative future in the Big Ten and the stability of 100-year-old rivalries in the current Big 12; they must weigh that against Texas' incentives to either maintain its dominant status in the current alignment or take flight with the entire South Division en tow to the Pac-10. All of which must be sorted through and settled in a matter of days as the conference hangs in the balance.
Then there's Kansas, most prominent of the three North Division schools (along with Kansas State and Iowa State) virtually helpless to influence the chaos that threatens to cut them out of the most competitive, influential and profitable circles. Where most of the conference has options beyond a defunct Big 12 by virtue of their association with Texas or interest from other major leagues, the Jayhawks are a basketball power staring at a sobering future in the Mountain West.
In five years, that may not look as depressing from a football standpoint if the MWC is successful in parlaying the (still very hypothetical) additions of Boise State and a handful of Big 12 remainders into an automatic BCS bid of its own. At the moment, though, it seems clear to the KU brass that there is only one appropriate course of action, and that course is begging your friends to keep the band together:
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)—Kansas chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little urged her Nebraska counterpart Monday to remain in the Big 12 and help avoid a potential calamity for the Jayhawks.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Gray-Little said she got no indication of what Harvey Perlman might recommend when he meets with Nebraska regents on Friday. She said she also planned to call Missouri chancellor Brady J. Deaton with the same message.
[...]
"There are some universities that survive and thrive without a large athletic program," said Gray-Little. "I hope we don't have to test that out. ... Obviously, that would be a serious disappointment to our community."
Last week, in response to reporters wondering where a Big Ten offensive would leave KU, athletic director Lew Perkins asked them, "How do you know they [the Big Ten] haven't called us?" I believe Gray-Little has answered his question. (This couldn't have at a worse times for Perkins, the highest-pade AD in the country, who over the last six months has overseen a series of on-campus confrontations between the KU football and basketball teams; fired a winning football coach in controversial circumstances; a sprawling ticket-scalping scandal involving athletic department employees; a seven-month blackmail attempt by a former employee; and now, if things break against him, the loss of Kansas' BCS status – a significant factor, I presume, in underwriting his $4 million salary.)
Just to throw the contrast between the spheres of influence in the North and South divisions into stark relief, compare Kansas' resigned groveling to the aggressive politicking at Baylor to keep the Lone Star Four together at all costs, characterized publicly by new president Kenneth Starr and privately by university regent and Austin lobbyist Buddy Jones, who's lent his considerable skills on the effort to use Texas as leverage to displace Colorado from the Pac-10 short list in favor of his beloved Bears. The Dallas Morning News released excerpts of e-mails between Jones and Baylor supporters in the Texas legislature late Sunday night; it released a fuller version this afternoon that clearly demonstrates Jones and Co. have no intention of kissing any Big Red honches (emphasis added):
Wrote Jones: "We cannot let the other schools in Texas (A&M, U.T., Tech) leave the Big XII WITHOUT BAYLOR BEING INCLUDED IN THE PACKAGE. Long and short – if U.T., A&M and Tech demand that any move to any other conference include ALL TEXAS BASED TEAMS from the Big XII, we are golden. We need to be in a PACKAGE DEAL!"
[...]
Jones also points to Nebraska as being a key to the conference realignment. He opines that: "It's hard enough get the home teams to stick tight. But harder still to influence a bunch of corn shuckers."
That's Baylor talking, which just goes to show how little the relationships and influences have managed to cross divisional lines in the Big 12's 15-year existence. The only difference: Baylor's patron in the South likely has enough pull to bring the Bears along wherever it goes, however hapless they may be on the field, where Kansas' old Big Eight partner in the North may barely get into the Big Ten by itself, regardless of the Jayhawks' success on the hardwood. In conference expansion as in everything else, you know what they say: Location, location, location.
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Gray-Little planned to call Missouri too
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/...e=NCFHeadlines