Who is making the call on this for us?

Governor Perry
Board of Regents
President Loftin
Big Money Boosters

I think Byrne is giving input but he's not gonna be a decision maker...

MOVED TO FOOTBALL BOARD...

[This message has been edited by Shoot That Deer (edited 6/4/2010 5:22p).]

This looks like a good place to discuss the effect that this realignment stuff would have on the non-revenue sports (especially since we won't have to worry about the football-board meatheads coming and blasting us with how nothing but football matters).

First of all, the huge budget load that joining the Pac-10 would put on the non-revenue sports could cause some SERIOUS problems. Hopefully, the new money earned would be appropriately spread to counteract this...

I think the most interesting case after this move (if it's to the Pac-10) is women's swimming. Sure, it would make the season more interesting to have more than just a head-to-head competition with t.u. for the conference crown. But can you imagine the gauntlet that would then become the Pac-16 championships?? USC, Cal, Stanford, Arizona, A&M, Texas? I mean, that has the potential to be 6 out of the top 7 or 8 teams in the country next year! Throw in some bada** divers from Arizona State, Missouri landing the top Arizona assistant and potentially being a future power, and a UCLA program that is on it's way back around, and you've got a conference championship meet that's almost as exciting to watch as a national championship meet! Exciting, but a hell of a tough thing to win!

Speaking of gauntlets, how about golf and tennis?

I don't know much about golf...whether its joining the Pac 10 or SEC, tennis would be tough but I think that Denton & crew are up to it. The great thing about tennis is that losses against great teams barely affect your rankings and wins against have a huge positive impact, so playing a brutal schedule is a good thing...if you have a team that can win a few of them, of course. If the rumored CU, tech, OU, OSU, t.u., Ags make the Pac-16 had already gone through, here's what the top 10 schools in the conference final rankings for this season would have looked like...

#1 USC
#4 t.u.
#6 UCLA
#9 Stanford
#10 Texas A&M
#15 Texas Tech
#17 OU
#18 Cal
#28 Washington
#31 Arizona

WOW, talk about tough. It would have to make us better though, facing that kind of competition week in and week out.

With the women, I think it would be a good thing eventually. $B tolerates the 3rd place finishes and early NCAA exits because the results are not spectacular but at least respectable. Put us in the Pac 10 and all of the sudden that's 6 conference losses every year, plus our annual loss to t.u. with a couple of sub-.500 conference records, I think eventually $B would bring in a gun that could keep up with the west coasters. Same deal with the SEC.

I think a move to the PAC would be ultimately good for swimming. The men would lose many dual meets - but perhaps it would raise the profile of the sport for Jay and help him recruit.

Bultman might benefit similarly.

Same for the divers.

True spicewood. I know in football and basketball they talk about teams getting games in certain cities to get exposure to those recruits. I wonder if there's any effect in a sport like swimming? Having the recruiting hotbeds of Texas and California in the same conference (if Pac-10) or Texas and Florida (if SEC) could be pretty exciting prospects.

It would definitely be nice in men's swimming to have more than a 3 team conference.

Pac-10 volleyball, softball, and soccer are powerhouses as well.

Well, I think it's safe to say that the Pac-10 is a powerhouse in all of the "non-revenue" sports. But there's clearly a few sports where the Big 12 and Pac-10 are BOTH powerhouses, and will create some massive competitions.