The Fake Lonnie Finch

On OU & Georgia v. NCAA: http://www.colorado.edu/econ/courses/spring10-4999-003/NCAA.pdf American Needle v. NFL: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/1209mccannamericanneedle.pdf It's all good and academic, ya'll!

The SEC really has no reason to ask for the waiver other than to avoid the time and money waste in what would be failing lawsuits. My guess is, if the SEC wants Texas A&M badly enough, they'll simply say, "Look, forget the waivers. Everyone's signed them but Baylor and Iowa State. Fine. We'll waste a little time in court with them." SEC lawyers are simply doing their due diligence in trying to avoid time and cost. That doesn't mean they will avoid it. As to Baylor and their money, they'd have to prove they couldn't make money without the Big 12. It could be easily proven that they could succeed enough to rejoin a BCS AQ conference by simply pointing out Utah and TCU. You have to understand that when you go in front of the courts, they don't like non-actors in the form of well-educated people acting helpless. Baylor is far from helpless. Baylor has been on a near-two decade gravy train. They did little to enhance their position within it. No court will brook that. It's non-sense. Outside of California and the 9th Circuit, it's difficult for me to imagine a court simply bending the law just because it feels sorry for Baylor - a private school rich enough to attract the likes of Ken Starr to guide it. By the way, I think it's laudable that Baylor hasn't wasted every last resource and dollar on athletics. I think that's the higher road taken. But, like getting people off of welfare, when the "free" money is threatened, people tend to freak.

Their interests are bunk. When you read cases involving amateur athletics (even professional athletics) and the law (contracts and antitrust, mainly), everything comes down to marketplace and shares. Antitrust law does not protect the actors, it protect consumers. In an antitrust action, Baylor must prove that the consuming public is harmed by A&M leaving the Big 12 and going to the SEC. The consuming public is not harmed by it. In fact, the football consuming public is likely improved because the SEC gains another highly marketable member. Also, conference are free to pick and choose whomever they want in their membership. There is nothing in contract, antitrust, or association law that says a member of one organization must protect the interests of the members of their former organization. Legally, the simple fact of the matter is that Baylor is part of a marketplace and must compete in it like everyone else. It is no more entitled to equal protection within it than any other member. That Baylor has weak marketability is not the Big 12's fault, nor is it Texas A&M's fault. Baylor is just screwed, and so they are buttsore. Fine. Be buttsore. But, don't waste everyone's time being buttsore. TCU has a message for Baylor - Shut up and fend for yourselves. That works, too.

Baylor can't win an anti-trust suit, that's already been explained - in the marketplace, you will not be helped by the court if no one happens to like your brand better than, or as much as, someone else's. This was the example I used with beverage makers suing Coca-Cola and Pepsi for shelf space in grocery and convenience stores. They never win. If your product isn't as good or in demand, the courts have never stepped in to equalize results. This, in effect, is what Baylor is asking a court to do. The other forms of anti-trust aren't even in the same ballpark with what's happening. Ken Starr is an academic and this is a big time academic dream theory of a lawsuit...if, they are stupid enough to file it. At some point, the free market is allowed to run its course. Baylor's football program fails mightily in the free market. That's not A&M's fault. And, no one wanting you in their big boy conference isn't an anti-trust violation, it's just marketplace reality. SIDE NOTE: I took antitrust law from one of the attorneys who represented OU and Georgia in the suit against the NCAA over television rights back in the early 80s. Interesting class, for sure. But, Baylor has no anti-trust standing anywhere in their plight. http://attorneys.crowedunlevy.com/AttorneysDetail.aspx?id=57 http://www.law.ou.edu/faculty/meyers.shtml

Is Denton just the Town That Didn't Want To Grow Up? None of these people have ever been to a game at OU, Texas, etc., where streets are shut down or more lanes are used going in at game time and after? People spend money in your town when they come to the games, dickfilters. Be happy the police and school are trying to make the traffic flow as smoothly as possible. Part of me hates that we were a hippie school for so long.

They don't have a leg to stand on, legally. No court will force Texas A&M to look after the interests of Baylor. If Texas A&M has followed the procedures to leave the Big 12, and apparently they have because the Big 12 commish gave them his blessing to go, Baylor is just pissing in the wind...again. They have this dreamland wish that the Texas courts are like the California courts and don't understand the law (or, that they understand it, but flaunt it in the name of "equality). At law, there will be nothing holding A&M back. It's a fantasy pushed by a desperate bunch of college administrators whose football program is traditionally weak. No court will make Texas A&M protect Baylor's interests. Baylor will be told it need to put on their big boy pants and look out for itself like everyone else has done.

It will all happen. The lawsuit is bunk. The only people hoping there's a court in Texas as confused about the law as California courts are Longhorn fans. Well, probably not their fans. The Longhorn fans, from the tone of Hornfans.com seem pretty resigned to the fact that LHN and the idiot woman they put in charge of it didn't think it through. They're posted some enlightening e-mail between themselves and her. Anyway, the brass at Texas are the one pipedreaming at this point. But, that all it is. You've got to have standing and damages to sue. Baylor has neither. And, so when the 2012 football season kicks off Baylor, OU, and A&M will all be in separate conference. Texas might be with OU, they might not. OU has already dropped the "we don't give a crap about our rivalry anymore" bombshell. Frankly, OU survived having its Nebraska rivalry ended; so, it can survive not playing Texas as well. That happens when you have some sort of football history people around the country can grasp. So, Randy and I are correct, OU now calls the tune, and Texas now dances to it. Again, Texas badly overestimated how much their conference mates outside of Waco and Ames really gave a crap about them.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/09/07/3345246/sooners-finally-lower-the-boom.html Here. He says it right here. What I've been saying all along. Texas has lost its power in this shuffling to OU. They overplayed their hand, and now OU has the beans to feed the birds. I don't even know why I'm not Mean Green Pope yet. Maybe you guys can't find the funny hat and whatnot. But, it is what it is.

Yes...barring any changes in BCS bylaws...which, they will do five minutes after OU and Texas leave the Big 12. If they decide to replace the Big 12's AQ status, it will be given to the MWC...which is why we want in the MWC and not some new amalgamation of the C-USA or old SWC.

Come on, man, be fair...many of us called out the Dodge farce long before Season One of his failed experiment even ended. I think the problem is, some fans get too emotionally attached to coaches. Coaches are human, too, and need love. But, that's what their wives and 2nd wives and 3rd wives are for. Some of them have kids, too, that love them and depend on them for new cars and a steady source of cash. We're different. We're fans who pay money and stuff to watch their product on the gridiron football fields. If we see crap, we call crap. Giving up 28 points in one quarter to a Sun Belt Conference school is crap. It doesn't take an aardvark to sniff out the difference between a prepared team and an unprepared team. Sacto State beat Oregon State on Saturday. Eastern Kentucky - not Western Kentucky - almost beat Kansas State. I don't have to tell you that Sacto State and Eastern Kentucky are FCS schools, which used to be I-AA. And, that Oregon State and Kansas State are FBS schools, which used to be I-A. And, listen...if Dodge left this program in the shape of an FCS school, I'm not going to be real positive about it anymore. At some point, you have to understand that cows eat cabbage and, so, Rick Villareal must have known after a couple of seasons how the program was being pared down into an FCS-like shell of an FBS program. I mean, is no one culpable here? We just sit here on our asses like Baylor, hoping to have someone to sue when we can't field competitive enough teams year after year? Get that corn out of my face!

Fixed.

Not happy, "positive."

That's hilarious. Arkansas voluntarily going back under the mayhem Texas creates? How stupid is the Big 12 commissioner?

And, yet, they can't get any major carrier to carry their network. Because, the demand is limited. Again, this isn't 1957. This isn't all-white football squads 1969. In the major metropolitan cities, half or more of the populations are made up of non-Texans. There are many colleges in Texas as well. And, graduates of those schools outnumber UT grads every year. So, the majority of college grads in Texas have no affiliation with UT. There is nothing wrong with what they are doing. They are free to bully. But, the other schools are just as free to seek greener pastures are well without the bullying. If it's okay to Texas to seek what they believe to be greener pastures in the own network, then it's okay for A&M to seek greener pastures in another conference. Ditto OU. And, KU and Mizzou. And, OSU, Tech, KSU, and the rest. It was right for Nebraska and Colorado to seek greener pastures as well. I'm far from bitter. I find it comical that Texas supporters have a problem with others school doing the best for their own schools without Texas. But, therein lies the problem with Texas. It perpetually jumps the shark, believing that it has some sort of power over other schools. Well, congratulations for having power, apparently, over Baylor, dudes. I mean, what a return on investment. As it turns out, only Baylor and Iowa State really "need" Texas. Everyone else will end up in better circumstances. Texas is then free to reform some new form of the SWC, or scale back their network enough to become palatable to another conference. Either way, Texas, for all of the power it assumes to have, is stuck waiting on whim of others schools who are supposedly less powerful. And, deliciously, its been first A&M and now OU.

Hmmm. Trying to show high school games with its recruits and potential recruits. Then, trying to show highlights. Then, trying to get other schools to shift their games to LHN. Why doesn't Texas just make a pay channel of its sports and be done with it? Why? Because they know it wouldn't make as much money as having a cable service charge their subscribers to have it in a regular package or sports package...regardless of demand. There's nothing wrong with Texas wanting to be the whale in the stock tank. But, that doesn't mean everyone else has to play ball. A&M can stand on their own. So can OU. Nebraska and Colorado could and did. Kansas and Missouri, on the strength of basketball, will be able to do so. Texas Tech can filch their way into some conference, basically based on they are nice guys and give pretty good competition without giving headaches off the fields of play. Ditto, Oklahoma State and Kansas State. Basically, everyone is walking away from the bully. And, this has caused Baylor to lose their mind and sue.

We have a winner!

There won't be a long, expensive lawsuit because Baylor has no standing. They have to claim something in order to file suit. They have to ask for either damages or an injunction. Either way, they have no standing for the first and no proof of the second. So, again, the suit will be tossed long before A&M tees up as members of the SEC in September 2012.

This is an even better read from the same site: http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2011/sds-responds-to-baylor/ Some nugggets: As for “hundred-year-old rivalries,” A&M and Baylor may play each other every year, but it’s not much of a rivalry. Baylor has exactly two wins in the last 25 years against A&M. Is it any surprise that A&M seeks more challenging annual competition in the SEC? Baylor knows it can’t compete in the changing college football environment...Like Vanderbilt in the SEC and Northwestern in the Big 10, Baylor’s presence in college football’s first tier is largely a longevity prize. Baylor is the only institution that’s not thinking about the future. Instead it’s obsessed with preserving a mythical past where Baylor is somehow relevant to the larger college football community. This process began with Texas creating the Longhorn Network in an effort to maintain its chokehold over Texas A&M and other Big 12 institutions. A&M finally decided it had enough and realized the future was with the SEC.

As someone with a law degree, my thoughts are the case will be thrown out. Texas A&M is under no obligation to look out for Baylor. Baylor may claim tortious interference, but it's not likely the claim will stand. First, Texas A&M doesn't have a contract with Baylor. A&M's legal tie was with the Big 12. Baylor cannot sue on behalf of the Big 12. Second, there must be some damages proven in order for Baylor to proceed. Courts don't generally let you go in and theorize about what damages might occur. Even though Baylor could argue they could be forced into a lesser conference, a judge could just as easily say, it's a free market and Baylor needs to exhaust any and all efforts to join a conference that doesn't pay them less than their Big 12 share. But, the reality of it is, Baylor would have to sue everybody leaving the Big 12 if they are going to sue A&M. OU is also leaving. Oklahoma State will leave. Texas Tech will leave. Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri will leave. Texas...they be rocketed to moon to play with themselves, which will make them - and, everyone back on Earth - happy. Iowa State and Baylor are going to be the only two stragglers without homes. That's really no one's fault but their own for not winning more and - unfortunately, in this day and age - not trying to capitalize on their "brand." You can't make the public like your product. This is the lesson of many a beverage maker who have tried to sue Coke and/or Pepsi over grocery and convenience store shelf space. The court isn't going to force stores to put equal amounts of any given product on its shelves. It lets the free market decide what is in demand. NEWSFLASH - Baylor and Iowa State football aren't in demand. Neither are their basketball programs, which is what will save Kansas and Missouri. Look, this is all messy and ugly. But, it wasn't a marriage made in heaven to start. Texas always rubbed the Big 8 schools wrong. And, Baylor and Tech were begged in by politicians. Here is where I go on my "other sports" rant. It doesn't matter that Baylor has a good baseball team, or women's basketball team, or golf team, or tennis team. It doesn't matter. Those programs don't make money. No one cares. They let Dallas Baptist into Division I baseball. Anybody can field Division I squads in almost all other sports except football. Football and men's basketball make the money. Baylor has no pull there. They are sucking hind tit for a reason. TCU should be laughing long and heartily at Baylor right now. A private school can be successful (USC, Miami, TCU, Notre Dame, etc.). Baylor just didn't push hard enough. They were content to suck at football and be showered with BCS money all the while. Baylor has easily filched off more than they have provided the Big 12.

I'm positive that Sacto State beat Oregon State...and we were drubbed by a fellow Sun Belt foe. Look, man, I like your vibe. But, there's nothing positive abut having 28 points hung on your the first quarter of a season opener when the jersey of your opponent doesn't say "Sooner" or "Texas" or "LSU." I don't care how bad recruiting has been. Never should a fellow Sun Belt team hang 28 points on us in one quarter. Coach McCarney said himself after the game, "No excuses." So, we will positively give him no excuses. I think the deal is, if we are competitive this year, people won't freak out so much.

I'm just glad we didn't schedule Sacramento State or Eastern Kentucky.

Dude, I've already said we've got to get Mexicans like my wife and her family and friends involved by opening up a marketing avenue to them. We're practically in Mexico now. For crazy-ass uniforms to challenge Maryland and Towson State, we could have Bimbo as a sponsor and have that little, cute, fuzzy, white bear on our Mean Green jerseys:

All that and not even a bag of chips?

Dog balls aside, you have to keep your eye on the ball: Bob Stoops said at his weekly press conference today that OU could be in a conference without Texas and live with it. The wheels of change are in motion. There is no waiting until the off-season, or until we get this many or that many more recruiting classes under our belts, or a year or two from now when it all gels. Every move you make is important! Have we learned this lesson too late in college football life? Christmas will be here and we won't have any gifts to give or receive.

I don't have to tell you that things are happening in the college football world. There is a buttload of conference realignment talk, and we aren't being discussed at all. Some people would wonder about their next meal if they thought they were going to starve. Me. I'd be that guy wondering. Are we stay with the Sun Belt? Are we go with another conference? Who are the choosers, and who are the deciders? Who will lead, and who will follow? Does OU hold all of the cards? Will anyone dance with Texas and their cumbersome new network? Will there be a MWC, WAC, or C-USA left worth being in once the stampede to move is on? Mock. Yeah. Ing. Yeah. Bird. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll never be in the same conference as Penn State, or Florida State, or Oklahoma State, or Mississippi State, or Kent State, or Colorado State, or Washington State, or San Jose State unless and until we start nutting up and beating the likes of Houston and FIU. We have to do it. Win. We have to ignore how much Todd Dodge sucked and couldn't recruit and coach and stuff. We're not blind. We see what needs to happen. We see it. "Win, buttmunch!" "I'm trying, but my lines are too small!"