Dallas Morning News argues for BYU invite to Big 12

[MikeWaters]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/col...ion=reregister

Here is an excerpt.

We are barely two weeks from the start of the Big 12’s first 10-team season. We feel slightly more certain now than we did 72 hours ago that it will not be the Big 12’s final 10-team season.
No one can say with any degree of certainty how long the Texas A&M Aggies will remain league members. Their flight to the Southeastern Conference, seemingly a done deal last weekend, could be on hold for a few weeks or months.
Or it may not happen at all.
Here’s what we do know. Just because the conference has survived another scare — maybe not as dramatic as last summer’s journey to the brink, but a scare nevertheless — it can’t sit back and assume life as a 10-team venture will go on indefinitely.
When you’re hanging by such a small thread that the Aggies’ threats to leave the table prompted such insecurity, there’s an obvious need to expand the field and make your existence less of a day-to-day proposition.
I have never understood the doom-and-gloom reports regarding the Big 12’s future. Many in the media will tell you it’s only a matter of time, that commissioner Dan Beebe is fighting an unwinnable battle to keep this thing alive.
That makes no sense to me whatsoever.
The Big 12 should be locking up Brigham Young and one other team right now. Assuming there’s no chance of getting TCU to escape its trip to the Big East, Houston, SMU and others would happily jump their contracts to gain admission.
And there’s no reason that shouldn’t be happening.
Even if you believe major college football is headed for four 16-team super conferences in the next decade (and I don’t buy that, but let’s say I’m wrong), the Big 12 should not be ripped apart in the process. It should provide the backbone for one of those super groups.
If we acknowledge that the SEC is the No. 1 football product in the land (no arguments from anybody on that one) and you want to make the Pac-12 and the Big Ten the next two building blocks for 16-team groups, for historical reasons if nothing else, where’s the foundation for the fourth?
The Atlantic Coast Conference ? I don’t think you can be serious on that one. The ACC thought it was becoming a superpower of sorts when it grabbed Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College in 2003. That hasn’t been the case and now, well, Miami has enough issues that it won’t be powerful again for a long time.
Then there’s the Big East. No ranked teams at the end of 2010. No top-25 teams at the start of 2011. Boy, does the Big East need the TCU Horned Frogs. That will at least give the basketball league one legitimate football power.
But a foundation for building one of the nation’s football giants? Not on your life.
The Big 12 should be doing all it can to secure BYU because, for one thing, the school already has its own deal with ESPN as a football independent. Suddenly the Longhorn Network wouldn’t look quite so much like the monster that the Aggies (wrongly) envision it to be.
And the school that should be doing all it can to lead the expansion of the Big 12 is Texas. Having demonstrated a poor ability to get along with others, the money-grabbers from Austin need to do whatever is within reason to maintain conference stability.
Some sort of minimal sharing in Longhorn Network revenues would be a start.
On top of that, showing BYU what a fun place Austin can be to visit on Sept. 10 would be the next step. Since the Mormons aren’t able to enjoy much of what our state capital has to offer — in particular Sixth Street (or Fourth Street for that matter) — a victorious visit to Royal Memorial Stadium might be called for.