MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — If I had just five minutes to speak one-on-one with Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby, there would be no sympathetic pat on the back and certainly no words of discouragement.
It may not seem like it today, especially after Texas and Oklahoma have announced they are leaving the conference for the SEC and after it appears the league will be left out in the cold in whatever alliance the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC are planning, but Bowlsby is a commissioner with a ton of potential and power right at his fingertips.
He could — if he pushes the right buttons and is able to think outside the current realm of affairs — be known as the man who ended college realignment for good.
He could be the one who truly brings college football into the online streaming world, rather than just dipping a toe into that pool.
He could help create a league, that in football, is built and marketed around offensive innovation that puts up numbers seen only in video games.
And not that men’s college basketball is ever a priority in realignment, but this potential deal could also set up a basketball league that would easily rival the ACC or the Big Ten.
All it would take is two phone calls, one to American Athletic Commissioner Mike Aresco and one to BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe.
The theory here is there is one opportunity remaining to end realignment forever.
Now, forever is a strong word, and we obviously realize that Notre Dame sits out there as an independent, but the Irish seem steadfast on remaining an independent.
So, unless the SEC, ACC, Pac-12 and Big Ten suddenly begin to feed off each other by raiding the other power conferences, Bowlsby has the opportunity to basically end realignment.
It would take a complete merger of the eight remaining Big 12 teams with the 11 teams from the American and then also adding BYU to form a 20-team league.
I get that’s a lot of mouths to feed at the dinner table, but it’s the only decision to be made to end the realignment madness.
If Bowlsby were to decide the Big 12 is going to pick and choose a few teams from the American, then it only creates a ripple effect in which the American then raids Conference USA, which raids the Mountain West and so on. In that scenario, realignment may never end.
That is not innovative thinking. That is simply continuing to do what everyone else is doing.
And to be honest, what everyone else is doing, while creating an enormous amount of buzz and headlines, has really become tiresome and disheartening to the majority of college football fans who don’t care to know what it’s like to negotiate million-dollar TV contracts.
I see the potential of a 20-team league with two divisions that sort of operate amongst themselves to cut down on travel expenses.
Here’s how it could look:
The Eastern Division would consist of WVU, Iowa State, Navy, Temple, Memphis, Cincinnati, Central Florida, South Florida, East Carolina and Tulane. The Western Division would be TCU, Oklahoma State, Houston, SMU, Tulsa, Texas Tech, Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State and BYU.
You play the other nine teams in your division, three nonconference games and then a conference championship game.
With the College Football Playoff getting set to expand to 12 teams, it would be shocking if the champion of this new league didn’t find a seat at the table. In some years, it’s possible maybe two teams get in.
If you’re a football fan of the eight remaining Big 12 teams, certainly there will be a certain level of disappointment in seeing a football schedule with games against Temple and Tulsa rather than Oklahoma and Texas.
Yet this would be a league where the recruiting doors to the state of Texas are still wide open, as well as the state of Florida. Ohio, to a smaller extent, is also open.
For traveling purposes, the league offers more warm-weather destinations in New Orleans, Orlando, Tampa and Houston that the Big 12 could never offer.
I see a league that doesn’t have to market itself as a bunch of wannabe power brokers, who simply tout their strength-of-schedule numbers, but rather a league of offensive explosion where numerous guys are putting up Heisman-like numbers.
Because you are no longer competing with Texas and Oklahoma, I see quarterbacks at Houston, Texas Tech and BYU throwing for 500 yards per game. I see a running back at Oklahoma State rushing for 220 yards per game.
I see Navy leading the country in rushing. I see Cincinnati and UCF becoming even more relevant.
I see Matt Campbell continuing to build a budding power at Iowa State and Gary Patterson doing the same at TCU.
I see a basketball league with national powerhouse Kansas, not to mention 2021 champ Baylor and 2021 Final Four member Houston.
Penny Hardaway is pulling in 5-star recruits at Memphis. Bob Huggins is doing his thing at WVU and Mike Boynton Jr. is building a winner at Oklahoma State.
It’s a basketball league that could still operate its conference tournament through Kansas City and would easily sell out every seat the moment Kansas and Wichita State meet up.
You may be wondering what the 11 schools of the American bring to the table?
For starters, a TV deal with CBS, which you may have heard just lost their deal with the SEC and may be looking to up their ante a little for something new and different. That keeps this new league on national TV.
Then you go and cut a deal with either Amazon or Netflix and become the first league that goes head first into online streaming to reach the younger generation rather than just showing a few games here and there on the Big 12 online network.
Now, will all of that equal the $35 million, give or take, that Big 12 teams are currently making per year through its TV contracts? Maybe not, but it would certainly be better than the expected $17 million per team if the Big 12 teams were to stand alone after Texas and Oklahoma leave.
Bowlsby has been quoted that the Big 12 would lose about half of its revenues after the Sooners and Longhorns depart, which is how we rounded out the $17 million figure.
So, it basically comes down to the one man who has more say in the game than what people currently believe.
Bowlsby can either be innovative and take a leap of faith or continue to run on the same treadmill. In the end, Bowlsby can either put an end to realignment or simply add to its momentum.
Good luck with that choice, Bob.
TWEET @bigjax3211
