I’ve owned Heartland College Sports for over 10 years. And I’ve written thousands and thousands of stories for the website. However, I’ve never had a dedicated Monday column for you. It only seems appropriate to start now and play off of Monday, Mundo and Musings. So here we go with the first-ever, Mundo’s Monday Big 12 Musings: Edition 1.
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Will SEC Football Hurt Itself like the NBA?
The NBA Playoff are underway, and there’s no doubt it’s been a success for the league. Ratings are up so far over last year’s playoffs, and there have been multiple exciting games and comebacks.
But the NBA still has a huge problem: It’s regular season stinks.
And as we enter a world where the College Football Playoff might expand, and the SEC and Big Ten are angling for several automatic bids, the Power 2 conferences might need to be careful what they wish for.
There’s no doubt that getting more teams guaranteed into the Playoff will result in more national championships to continue the narrative that they are the superior conferences. But college football’s best selling point has always been its incredible, and very important, regular season.
College football’s regular season has historically been the most important regular season in major American sports.
It still is, but the SEC could destroy itself if the conference is angling for at least four, or as many as seven, teams from the conference making the Playoff. Suddenly, why are you watching a Top 10 match up between Ole Miss and Alabama on a Saturday in November if both are guaranteed a spot in the Playoff?
This can hurt the regular season ratings in a big way. And while the Playoff is important, a healthy regular season is incredibly important to the sport and for TV partners. And if the SEC and Big Ten aren’t careful in managing their greed, they create a problem that they will regret. The Big 12 and ACC could end up with all the regular season juice due to having fewer bids, while the SEC and Big Ten will be just waiting for the postseason.
That’s not a good spot to be in.
Turnover with College Football Coaches
Rich Rodriguez said the other day that college football is the NFL on steroids.
He’s not wrong. Of course this can’t last forever, but for the time being, everyone is wondering what exactly the future of this sport is going to look like based on its current trajectory.
It does make me wonder if we will see more burnout from college football coaches than ever before, and that’s saying something. It’s a young man’s game. And we’ve seen some legendary coaches step away in recent years. Something tells me that the trend might continue, and the trend to younger coaches getting their shot will also continue.
Exhibit A in the Big 12: Kenny Dillingham. He’s 35 years old.
Granted, older coaches in the Big 12 like Lance Leipold have certainly adapted, and then some, to the new world order, being a college coach is arguably more time consuming than the NFL now with the non-stop recruiting. How many coaches will want to sign up for that for several decades?
NCAA Softball Tournament Begins
The Big 12 Softball Tournament wrapped up this past weekend in Oklahoma City with Texas Tech beating Arizona in the finals, and now our attention turns to the NCAA Softball Tournament.
I admit I’m not the biggest softball fan, that’s our managing editor Bryan Clinton. He ranked the toughest paths for the Big 12 programs starting this week in Regionals.
But I will say that this weekend is when I can start ramping up my interest. The high-stakes drama in the Regionals, Super Regionals and World Series is fantastic. And we have five Big 12 teams to root for starting this week: Arizona, Texas Tech, Arizona State, Oklahoma State and UCF.
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