Mizzou needs to understand its place.
Posted: 07 Jun 2010 16:14 pm
As the saying in Texas goes…… (Could it be that) Mizzou is more hat than cattle? Athletically and academically speaking, Mizzou’s performance is average at best so it’s hard to understand what they are waiting for (if in fact they have an offer on the table from the Big 10). My guess is that the Big 12 is calling their hand.
Mizzou should understand its place.
If there is an offer….Mizzou should declare for the Big 10 immediately and have iron clad legal assurances of inclusion before they do. If Mizzou doesn’t have an offer from the Big 10 by now, they should declare they are staying put in the Big 12. The new TV deal that the Big 12 would get in place next year might not bring in 20 million per team, but it would be significantly higher than it is today.
It’s all about the money…or is it? : The Big 10 and Big 12 covet Nebraska more than Mizzou despite the fact that Missouri has more than 3x the population as Nebraska. Why? Yes they are steeped in football tradition and they do sell out the 80,000 seat stadium 6 to 7 times a year, but their TV market is much smaller and that is where the revenue is. So why would the Big 10 or Big 12 want them over Mizzou? Mizzou needs to understand this dynamic.
Academic fit? Please!: The "academic card" is one that Mizzou should NOT play....Mizzou ranks 48th of the top national public universities according to US News and World report.
In the Big 12 North, Mizzou ranks 5th (that’s right…5th) behind Colorado at 34, Iowa State at 39,Nebraska at 43 and KU at 46. (Where would Mizzou rank without its journalism school?) No Big 10 team ranks lower than 29.
I thought, after reading this blog and noting the care in which many Mizzou Grads take pleasure in correcting the slightest of grammatical errors…that Mizzou thought of itself as a much better fit academically in the Big 10 than the Big 12. In the Big 12 we would rank 8th or 9th (Baylor is private), in the Big 10, Mizzou would be dead last….by a large margin. How’s that for a recruiting pitch?
Leverage: Mizzou’s only leverage is its Market Share: Missouri (not to be confused with Mizzou) is attractive to the Big 10 for one reason only....Market share. The Big 10 wants Mizzou because of the nearly 6 million people that live in the state and not because of its athletic and academic standing. They should be playing this card as aggressively as they can because it appears to be the only card they have.
Supporting data:
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best -colleges/national-top-public
Mizzou ranks dead last by a large margin of number of Big 12 championships won since the league’s inception.
We have approximately more than 3 times the population of any state in the Big 12 other than Texas. If we were to join the Big 10, only Wisconsin and Iowa have smaller populations.