Texas had four head coaches from 2009-2021-one more than the number of people America elected to the White House in that stretch. It lost to Kansas, and nearly lost to the Jayhawks another time. Texas makes the most money in college sports. Instead, Texas had quite possibly the worst performance relative to resources in the history of college football. The decimated Big 12 didn’t preclude schools with fewer resources from winning. Since Texas won the Big 12 in 2009, Oklahoma (a bunch), Baylor (x2), TCU, Kansas State and Oklahoma State have won the league. Those four original members that left in the last round of realignment understood nothing can provide enough to satiate Texas’s ego.Įven with its attitude causing four original members to bolt, Texas still would be in the Big 12 had it just won enough. The Big 12 offered that it wasn’t enough for Texas. And no other league considered an uneven distribution of revenue. The Big 12 gave Texas the Longhorn Network. No other league countenances a school having its own network. Ohio State, USC and company don’t mandate the constraints Texas imposed on its conference brethren. But why did those schools leave? It’s not because Colorado’s culture just aligned more with Washington State. If those schools remained in the league, the Big 12 wouldn’t be so far behind in the conference race. Nebraska, Missouri, Texas A&M and Colorado elected to leave the Big 12 because of frustration with Texas. As wild as it seems now, Auburn went undefeated and didn’t make the national championship in 2004 because the PAC-10 and Big 12’s respective champions, USC and Oklahoma, were seen as better than the best in the SEC. The SEC pays more because it’s won the most games and has the most attractive brands. But that leads to two questions: Why does the SEC pay more, and why do those schools care about making more money? Texas and Oklahoma are officially heading to the SEC because the league will pay its schools more money. But one explanation suffices: Texas lost too many games and decided to head to the SEC to see if it could win more games than it did along I-35. And with the collapse of the Big 12, plenty of small factors caused the league’s demise.
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