Big 12 To Water Down Its Conference Further With 2-4 More Teams

[greenminer]

[NTXCoog]

4 hours ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

Houston is returning less that half their offense and defensive starters from 2015; and, none from their special teams:  punter, place kicker, returners...even the long snapper...gone.

OU returns Mayfield and Perine to lead the offense, as well as most of their defense and special teams.  Houston isn't a "we just reload" school by any stretch of the imagination.  So, the Sooners will blow out Houston, likely in epic fashion. 

Mayfield and Perine are Heisman Candidates.  OU won't have to throw often, though.  They'll likely spend the day handing off to Perine and Joe Mixon and being satisfied with the two of them demolishing Houston's young and inexperienced front seven.

Perine's Heisman chase will begin that day.  Guessing he'll go off for 200+ before they sit him, then Mixon for 100+ before they sit him.  Mayfield will have to wait until the following week against Ohio State to begin his Heisman campaign in earnest.

Don't know where you get your info. 

UH returns 13 starters.  13 > 11 (half).  That's not counting all the returning OL that started at least 1 game as subs.

No returning special teams?.

All conference KR Brandon Wilson is back.  He was the only player in the country to score multiple TDs on offense (2 rushing TDs), defense (1 INT TD, 1 fumble return TD), and special teams (2 KR TDs)

Kicker Ty Cummings is back as a senior after going 8 for 8 on FGs and 51 for 51 on XPs last year.   Was 11th in the conference in scoring despite not playing the first 4 games.

We are intrigued by who our new punter will be.  WR/Backup QB who won the Memphis game Kyle Postma is in the mix.  Another possibility is 27 year old Australian rules football player who won a league longest kick competition.  Don't know how good they'll be at punters, but lots of intrigue for possible fakes.  Either the backup QB will be in or a 6'6" 240 lb Aussie ruckman will be in. And it helps that we were in the top 1/3rd in least punt attempts per game at <5.

And if you're really concerned about our long snapper, we picked up one of the top long snappers in JC who had committed to Baylor but flipped to UH.

Young, inexperienced front 7?  5 of the front 7 made one of the Athlon preseason all conference teams.  2015 2nd team all conference and preseason 1st team AAC DT Singleton returns as a SR. SR Malveaux returns at DE and is 2016 Preseason all conference 3rd team.  Senior linebacker Steven Taylor (who led the conference in sacks) is preseason all AAC and is on the watch list for the Butkus and Nagurski trophy.  Senior LB Tyus Bowser is also on the Butkus watch list. Really the only young, inexperienced player in the front 7 is 5 star commit Ed Oliver.

You really don't know anything about UH football.  Why do you try to comment like you're an authority on it?  Stick to UNT football. 

[Mike Jackson]

Just another example on how greed will continue to slowly kill college football. This move has nothing to do with providing a better product for college football fans, better quality of life experience for students athletes or just regular students.  I think it is absolutely disgusting and with each money grab move they are weakening their case for not paying the athletes.   College football has 2 distinct market profiles and it seem like the powers that be don't understand that:

1. National Interest College Football relevant to the national championship race

2. Regional Interest College Football relevant to the fans in a particular region.

These 2 profiles do not overlap enough to build a consistent mega conference that can offer both kinds of games every week.  

The SEC gets close but when Georgia, Tennessee, LSU, Alabama, Auburn, or Florida are not playing each other in a given week a national interest for a game inside the SEC is sometimes hard to find.  And spare me Texas A&M cause you haven't proved to be nationally relevant without Johnny Manzel in the SEC.   Arkansas, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi State and Ole Miss can make things interesting on a national scale once every 5 years or more.  Kentucky and Vanderbilt are almost alway non factors and don't generate interest (in football) outside their states.

Big 10 do programs not named Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State,  and Penn State.  Sorry Nebraska the mid west loves you but the coast don't give a rip about your football program.  Wisconsin is a nice program but does anyone not from that area really care when they are on TV and not in the national championship picture (which is rare) Nebraska is the best of the next tier of the Big 10 cause the fans are loyal and you see them in a lot of place far away from Nebraska occasionally. 

PAC 12 UCLA, USC, Stanford, Washington and Oregon those are the only consistent national interest school in that conference.  No one is tuning in to watch Arizona vs Utah.  Colorado is the Nebraska of the PAC 12.  A transplanted school with good history but unfortunately for them the fans are as committed as Nebraska's.  Are the rest of the schools worth mentioning why they rarely get national interest? Not really.

ACC FSU, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Miami.  I think Miami is a little bit of a stretch.  But if coaching changes don't produce long term success and stability at Virginia Tech and Miami do fans outside the south east cost region care about Virginia Tech and Miami?

The consistent pattern is that all the conference have at the most 6 contenders,  3 to 4 spoiler teams and the rest are irrelevant.  And the mega conference that Big 12 could build even if they could ideally steal Missouri, Texas A&M, Arkansas, and Nebraska (the historical regional rivals) you have the same template.   Even that mega conference is still behind the SEC, PAC 12, and Big 10 in many ways.

As we learn more about concussions and their long term effects the more parent will start to weight the benefits of scholarship vs long term physical problems the NCAA and schools don't want to pay for.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Mike Jackson