Expansion Headlines – 10/11/11

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Let’s get some expansion clutter out of the way.  We’ll start with the 45-page document “obtained by The Associated Press from a source within” Missouri’s administration.  (In case you missed our breakdown of that news, here’s what we wrote last night.)


1.  Mike DeArmond of The Kansas City Star reports that “a high-ranking Texas A&M official” tried to warn “a counterpart at Missouri” that these types of documents might leak to the press during “MU’s protracted investigation” into an SEC berth:


“You guys are new at this.  You’re going to have to come to terms with the fact that this sort of stuff is going to happen.  You just have to keep advancing the ball forward.”


According to DeArmond, “a rift with certain SEC officials” over a previous leaked story has been patched up.  The rift came after an anonymous MU source said the SEC was the school’s second choice behind the Big Ten.


2.  Meanwhile, TCU will officially join the Big 12 next year, slipping neatly into the slot currently occupied by Texas A&M.

3.  Vahe Gregorian of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that TCU and Missouri appear to have two completely different views of the Big 12.  (Yeah, TCU make more money in the Big 12 than the Big East and Missouri can make more money in the SEC than the Big 12.)

4.  Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com follows up on a Boston Globe report in which Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo stated that ESPN told the ACC what to do in expansion:


“There is no denying that the ACC will receive a better television contract with Syracuse and Pittsburgh involved.  There’s no denying that the Big East being greatly diminished makes the league less attractive to NBC and Fox.  They’re accepted facts.  So did ESPN help destroy the Big East?  I guess I can’t say for sure.  But I bet the folks a the Big East office feel that way.”


The Big East had turned down a contract offer from ESPN in order to take its right onto the open market and force ESPN to compete with NBC and Fox.  Interestingly, the leadership at Pittsburgh was instrumental in turning down that initial ESPN offer.


5.  CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dodd writes that Air Force AD Hans Mueh — whose school is “strongly leaning” toward leading the MWC for the Big East — is turned off by the double-crosses taking place across college sports today:


“There are terrible, terrible hard feelings in college athletics.  I’m so disappointed with my fellow athletic directors.  I think we have put the student-athlete in second place while chasing the dollar.”


Well, yes and no.  Yes, this is all happening because of television money.  No, because that money will be poured back into the schools and athletic programs that benefit the student-athletes and — someday — might even provide them full-cost-of-attendance scholarships.  Sure, some coaches and AD will get bigger checks along the way, too, but in case you haven’t noticed… the study centers and practice facilities going up around the country are just a tad better than what student-athletes had at their disposal a generation ago.

(Sidenote — Dodd also mentions the possibility that the SEC and Big Ten will try to remove the current BCS bowl limit of two teams per conference.  We suggested that would happen way back on May 17th of 2010.)