What’s going on in the Big 12 and beyond? I expand and explain every Sunday in Postscripts at Heartland College Sports, your home for independent Big 12 coverage.
This week, the Big Ten is losing its mind and links to some of our best stories of the week. Plus, the only thing I care about when it comes to Turner’s new Big 12 studio show for football.
THE BIG TEN REALLY IS THE BAD GUY
The Big Ten Conference is the oldest conference in college sports and is steeped in tradition. But for a conference that has clung to its tradition for generations, it sure is trying its damnedest to destroy the regular season of college football.
I was in Nacogdoches, Texas, this weekend for my Fantasy Football League draft but when I opened up my phone Friday morning, I found that one of my colleagues, Joe Tillery, had dropped in a report from Pete Thamel at ESPN saying that the Big Ten was considering proposing a 24- or 28-team playoff.
Joe though it was coming from a parody account. Then I opened the link and found that, indeed, it is for real. This is a real idea being considered by commissioner Tony Petitti. The idea would do away with conference championship games but offer a wealth of automatic bids to the power conferences. How many? The Big Ten and the SEC get seven each. The Big 12 and the ACC get five each. The Group of Five schools get two. At-large gets the rest.
I’ve had a couple of days to ponder this and it’s one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard. College football drug its feet for generations because it was worried a playoff would cheapen the regular season. Well, guess what? The BCS didn’t cheapen it. The four-team College Football Playoff didn’t cheapen it. The 12-team CFP didn’t cheapen it. And, the proposed 14- or 16-team CFP wouldn’t cheapen it.
But this? It would destroy the regular season. It would give fans little to be interested in when November rolls around. Are you getting up for Vandy and Mizzou for seventh place in the SEC and a trip to the playoffs? Well, maybe their fans are. But the rest us? Gross. I wouldn’t even watch the fifth-place Big 12 game if I didn’t have to because I worked for this site.
It should be of no surprise that Petitti, who has never worked in college sports or for a college athletic department, would come up with this idea. It’s cheap. It does no service to the game. It does no service to the fan. It basically turns college football’s postseason into the NBA playoffs and allows teams in that have no business being there.
Wanna game it out? Last year’s seventh place team in the Big Ten was a tie between Michigan and Minnesota who were 5-4 in conference. The SEC would have had to break a tie between six 5-3 teams — and two would get left out. That’s not a quality playoff. You want to absolutely destroy the regular season of college football? Do this. Implement this kind of playoff.
We still have a playoff system built around automatic bids to conference champions. We’ve been told conference titles still matter. They do and they should. Those champions should get an automatic bid and a bye in the first round. You play a power conference schedule, and you’ve earned that right. Doesn’t matter which league. It’s hard to win those titles.
Petitti’s system would strip the game of earning it. Mediocre teams would get in the postseason. This is an idea proposed by someone who doesn’t understand college sports and is trying to cheapen it. It should give more heft and support to the proposal supported by Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and ACC Jim Phillips.
If Petitti’s proposal ever reaches the voting stage should be a no-brainer for the rest of college football’s brain trust. Just say no. And by the way, Big Ten, get a new commissioner. This guy ain’t it.
A DREAM BIG 12 ROAD TRIP
Our site owner, Pete Mundo, put a dream 2025 Big 12 football road trip together. Fourteen games, 14 weeks no repeats. Obviously, you’ll have opinions. Frankly, we’re already getting FOMO with Iowa State and Kansas State being in Dublin without us.
As he likes to say, “Watch and Subscribe.” Great content is coming for football season.
Pete also ranked the Top 5 non-conference games of the season.
Plus, Pete’s winners and losers this week (he did this before I drafted my fantasy football team, thank goodness).
FIGURING OUT STARTING QUARTERBACKS
Two Big 12 programs may be on the verge. First, BYU.
Then, West Virginia.
MEANWHILE IN LUBBOCK …
They’re coming for the tortillas, namely the ones Tech throws on the field early in games, as is tradition.
Look, this one’s easy. Just throw the tortilla. Don’t put anything in it. Don’t try to hurt someone. Just throw it once, enjoy the tradition and then lock in for the game. No one must get penalized — and there’s enough wiggle room to avoid penalties.
FRITZ IN YEAR TWO
Wanna know why many folks are high on Houston this year (I mean, to improve and make a bowl game), here’s a good synopsis of why.
AND FINALLY
Turner announced its broadcast crews for the Big 12 games that will be sub-licensed this season and it seemed to strike fans the wrong way that none of them had Big 12 connections.
I don’t believe the CBS Sports Network basketball studio crew had any commentators with Big 12 connections last season and that group was terrific and took great care to talk about the conference thoroughly and knowledgably.
Which brings me to my take on it.
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