Originally Posted by Wickedson
An article regarding KU ball
Pac-10 Merger: Bring Kansas Basketball, Colorado Football—Not Baylor...
by Reid Brooks
Emails from Baylor University regent and lobbyist Buddy Jones were obtained by the Dallas Morning News today (a great news source that has run with my articles before, so I'll give them a shameless plug) in which the Texas-based politician makes one of the most pathetic pleas I have ever seen.
He basically asks every Baylor graduate in the legislature to call every major Texas institution (that is going to receive a Pac-10 invite) and have the big players demand that Baylor comes along. This is a new low in the sports world.
Heck its a new low in the world in general, even for a Kenneth Starr headed team.
This isn't a political issue, its a business decision. Right now, Baylor is looking like the fat girl that no wing man wants to take down, no matter how hot the girl (Texas) his buddy is going to get with might be.
Scratch that, Baylor looks like Canada at a United Nations meeting in South Park: shouting very loudly about how they "need more money, guy" but not realizing that the rest of the world doesn't care.
The argument that Jones continues to make is that Baylor has a bunch of championships in other sports (despite being awful at football, making their addition to the Pac-10 horrible for everyone including their own student athletes who will get destroyed on an annual basis) and he also claims that Baylor is academically better than Colorado.
Memo for Buddy Jones: No. And to again reference South Park and their endless Canada jokes, I'm not your buddy, friend!
If Baylor was in the current Pac-10, they would be on the bottom of the scale academically as well as athletically. We don't need Baylor, and Baylor's student athletes are not going to compete at a level that would make being in the Pac-10 beneficial to their self esteem.
Also, well over half of the people on the west coast don't even know where/what Baylor is. Get over it. Baylor is embarrassing themselves and the Big 12 South by making this gigantic scene.
If there is one deserving school that is being left out of the whole equation, however, it is definitely Kansas.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the Jayhawks future is tied way too closely to their in state rival, Kansas State, who likely couldn't be brought into the Pac-10 unless they were replacing Texas Tech or Texas A&M (both schools actually are needed to bring Texas over, unlike that other school run by crybabies). Still, Kansas actually has something to offer in athletics.
Aside from their marginal (but improved) football program, Kansas has one of the greatest basketball programs in the country. In fact, it would be a total shame if that program was not in a major conference (Kansas will find a good home).
While their academics don't fit in perfectly with the Pac-10, neither do the academics of Texas Tech or Oklahoma State (both schools are better than people realize, but they still don't have the national reputation of Stanford, Cal, UCLA, or USC). And frankly, the prospect of watching a conference championship game between UCLA and Kansas basketball would be appealing enough to get the Pac-10 that international audience that commissioner Larry Scott has been talking about.
The concept of adding Kansas to the Pac-10 might not be as far fetched as a lot of people are thinking, particularly if the conference could get only Kansas basketball. Conference realignment for different sports is common place (see the Big East).
It might be possible to convince Colorado to bump out of the Pac-10 during basketball season in order to make way for the Jayhawks.
If Kansas doesn't have an offer for major conference representation on the line for its football team, how could they turn such an option down?
The Pac-10 would then get the best of both worlds.
In the winter months and March Madness, an allegiance with Kansas would bring nothing but pride. And money.
When the fall comes back around, having Colorado football makes the Pac-10 an academic, profitable, and proud conference of tradition.
Obviously Kansas football would really get the shaft in this deal, but could Kansas really afford to pass it up?
Their football program could likely participate in the MWC, which is where they are probably going to end up anyway, so is it really a loss for anyone?
OK, fine, it is still a loss for Baylor, but who can actually see them on the turf with USC or on the court with UCLA?
Anyone?
This idea should be given thorough examination. Kansas is deserving not only for having a great and historic program, but also for not creating a huge media distraction during the Big 12's messy divorce.
This move is win-win for the Pac-10; the question is, how clever is Larry Scott?
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