The Big Twelve displayed its inherent weakness Saturday as the 5th best of the Power conferences. In truth sports fans, the short and long term outlook for the Big Twelve is at best iffy.
There are plenty of reasons for the deficiency of this league, but he most glaring one would be the lack of talent for it’s marque teams, Oklahoma and Texas. These two programs are not keeping pace with the best programs in the country. As last night showed, Ohio State lives in a different world when it comes to football players. The glaring difference in talent was three touchdowns, but it was really a game where the Buckeyes could have named the score. As for Texas, as is with many if not all Big Twelve teams, a lack of really good defensive players proved that the Horns are closer to the Rice’s and SMU’s than they want to be. Yes, they best Notre Dame, but Ohio State would rip them another one like the Buckeyes did to OU last night. And that should not be for the Horns and Sooners. Their programs are better than that and the Big Twelve is taking them to places that they should not go.
Signing players that are not as good as other schools is key, as the coaching difference of the Big Twelve and the other Power Five is more of a recruiting problem than an on-field one. Do not tell me that a Bob Stoops or a Charlie Strong are not quality coaches. They are. And other Big Twelve schools such as Oklahoma State with Mike Gundy, TCU with Gary Patterson, and Kansas State with Bill Snyder are top tier head coaches. Recruiting is the difference, and that is something the Big Twelve is not improving on as long as the league stays in an inferior position with the other Power Five conferences.
Giving the remaining eight members of the league are historically only somewhat good or somewhat bad, the conference has nowhere to go. The league is currently in a sink hole trying to keep it’s head above the smothering quicksand (that in itself, is a mighty challenge). To see a Big Twelve team winning a National Football Championship in the next five or ten years (and the league probably won’t be alive past 2024) is a long shot at best. As long as schools like Ohio State and Alabama keep their head coaches, and other Power Five conferences boast of popular programs such as Michigan State, Michigan, Louisville, Clemson, Florida State, and others, the Big Twelve flops in mediocre places like Ames, Lubbock, ad Waco. Add the non-football atmosphere of Lawrence to go along with the less than full stadium in Stillwater and the smallish home stadium in Fort Worth, the Conference is just not that conducive for big time four and five star high school recruits to fill the rosters of these schools. Add West Virginia to the mix and they bring almost nothing with regard to winning something more than a minor bowl. Heck, even Texas cannot sellout DKR every Saturday. Give me a physical break. Texas is better than places like Tennessee where 100 thousand plus come no matter the competition. You want big time football, you sell your stadium out. Period. The fact that playing games in places like State College, Knoxville, College Station, Ann Arbor, and Tuscaloosa on a regular basis in front of one hundred thousand rabid fans is where your best players want to play. And to get to play at Ohio State or Alabama with two of the greatest coaches ever, any decade, knowing you have a better than not chance to get a ring, a National Champ ring, is what it is all about. This stuff is just to much for the Big Twelve to overcome.
Without the chance to play in significant leagues in major college football stadiums/venues on a weekly basis, the Big Twelve will not see the number of top recruits to mount a true solid championship run. For Sooner and Longhorn fans, get real and understand that your programs are not on the same tier as those of the Buckeyes and Crimson Tide and the Big Twelve is more closely aligned, in football, with the American Conference and the other lesser leagues. The final word, and you can believe it or not, the Big Twelve will not see the “ring” in football ever again. Bank on it.
If Oklahoma or Texas ever want to be in that highest level of college football, a change will need to be made sports fans. We all know what that change needs to be, and it is not coaching. It is what conference you align your school with. Boomer Sooner and Hook’em.
Feature photo: ADAM CAIRNS | DISPATCHOhio State set the tone early Saturday night when, on fourth-and-1 at the Oklahoma 36-yard line, Curtis Samuel broke free to score the first touchdown of the game.
I think I understand what you are trying to say, but your article is far from accurate. Two bad throws by Mayfield set the stage for a 21 point loss. As the statistics show, the teams were very close, but two pick six’s was the main difference in the game, along with an uncharacteristic missed field goal by Seibert. Oklahoma is right on the threshold of a championship year, overshadowed by some inexperience in key positions which by the end of the year will most probably be a different situation. However, I firmly agree that Oklahoma needs to leave the Big 12 for either the Big 10 or the SEC, and the reason I listed the Big 10 first is because I have always hated the SUC and the Big 10 is simply a classier conference by far!
Steve, I don’t know what football game you watched but if you think OU and Ohio State are close we are not on the same page. OU could not stop the Bucks on the ground and in the air. The line play was a total mismatch. The fact that Ohio State is the youngest team in D1 tells me they will challenge for the Nati1onal Title in years to come and with their significant recruiting advantage over OU (12 of the top 100 in the new 2017 class to OU’s 11 in the top 300) OU is not making any run toward a NC with the Bucks and Tide around with their coaches. Sorry, but the only thing I can agree with you is that OU needs to get to a better conference where they can hopefully recruit a btetter athlete. I appreciate your comments and that you read my article. Boomer.