{"id":3265,"date":"2016-09-18T18:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T23:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=3265"},"modified":"2017-01-27T15:53:29","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T21:53:29","slug":"sooners-and-horns-open-your-eyes-big-twelve-programs-just-not-up-to-snuff-league-shows-problems-in-weekend-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=3265","title":{"rendered":"Sooners and Horns open your eyes! Big Twelve Programs just not up to snuff; League shows problems in weekend games"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Big Twelve\u00a0displayed its inherent weakness Saturday as the\u00a05th best of\u00a0the Power conferences.\u00a0\u00a0 In truth sports fans, the short and long term outlook for the Big Twelve is at best\u00a0iffy.<\/h3>\n
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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.\u00a0 These two programs are not keeping pace with the best programs in the country.\u00a0 As last night showed, Ohio\u00a0State\u00a0lives in a different world when it comes to football players.\u00a0 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\u00a0really good defensive players proved that the Horns are closer to the\u00a0Rice’s and\u00a0SMU’s\u00a0than they want to be.\u00a0 Yes, they best Notre Dame, but Ohio\u00a0State would rip them another one like the Buckeyes did to OU last night.\u00a0 And that should not be for the\u00a0Horns and Sooners.\u00a0 Their programs are better than that and the Big Twelve is taking them to places that they\u00a0should not go.<\/h5>\n
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Signing players that are not as good as other schools is key, as the coaching difference\u00a0of the Big Twelve and the\u00a0other Power Five\u00a0is more of a recruiting problem\u00a0than an on-field one.\u00a0 Do not tell me that a Bob Stoops or a Charlie Strong are not quality coaches.\u00a0 They are.\u00a0And 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.\u00a0Recruiting 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.<\/h5>\n
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Giving the remaining eight members of the league are\u00a0historically only\u00a0somewhat good or somewhat bad, the conference has nowhere to go.\u00a0 The league\u00a0is currently\u00a0in a sink hole trying to keep it’s head above the smothering quicksand (that in itself, \u00a0is\u00a0a mighty challenge).\u00a0 To see a Big\u00a0Twelve team winning a National Football Championship in the next five or\u00a0ten years (and the league probably won’t be alive past 2024) is a long shot at best.\u00a0 As long as schools like Ohio State and Alabama keep their head coaches, and other Power Five\u00a0conferences boast of popular programs such as Michigan State, Michigan, Louisville, Clemson, Florida State, and others, the\u00a0Big Twelve flops in mediocre places like Ames, Lubbock, ad Waco.\u00a0Add 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\u00a0of these schools. Add West Virginia to the mix and they bring almost nothing with regard to winning something more than a minor\u00a0bowl.\u00a0 Heck, even Texas cannot sellout DKR every\u00a0Saturday.\u00a0\u00a0Give me a physical break.\u00a0\u00a0Texas is better than places like\u00a0Tennessee where 100 thousand plus come no matter the competition.\u00a0 You want big time football, you sell your stadium out.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 \u00a0The fact that playing\u00a0games in places like State College, Knoxville, College Station,\u00a0Ann Arbor,\u00a0and Tuscaloosa\u00a0on a regular basis in front of one\u00a0hundred thousand\u00a0rabid fans is where your best players want to play.\u00a0 And to get to play at Ohio State or Alabama with two\u00a0of the greatest coaches ever, any decade, knowing you have a better than not chance to get a ring, a National\u00a0Champ ring, is what it is all about.\u00a0 This stuff\u00a0is just\u00a0to much for the Big Twelve to overcome.<\/h5>\n
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Without the\u00a0chance to play in significant leagues in\u00a0major college football stadiums\/venues\u00a0on a\u00a0weekly basis, the Big Twelve will not see the number of top recruits to mount a true solid championship run.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The final word, and you can believe it or not, the Big Twelve will not see the “ring” in football ever again.\u00a0 Bank on it.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
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If Oklahoma or Texas ever want to be in that highest level of college football, a change will need to be made sports fans.\u00a0 We all know what that change needs to be, and it is not coaching.\u00a0 It is what conference\u00a0you align your school with.\u00a0 Boomer Sooner and Hook’em.<\/h5>\n
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Feature photo:\u00a0ADAM 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.<\/p>\n