UH Formally Invited to Join Big East

You have failed Emperor Palpatine (oops DeLoss Dodds) in your burnt orange mission to keep the University of Houston out of a BCS conference. 

UH got that rumored invitation to formally join the Big East Conference in all sports late last night after the Big East presidents and chancellors met via conference call to discuss expansion.   AD Mack Rhoades and UH President and Chancellor Renu Khator will head to New York later this week to meet with Big East officials.

If they accept, they would join the Big East for the 2013 season.  They would not only get that coveted AQ spot in football, but it would be a major boost to the men's and women's basketball programs.  Where it would hurt would be in baseball, where C-USA is one of the strongest collegiate leagues but right now the grins over on Cullen Blvd and in Cougar Nation are as wide as Texas.

After being Left Behind during the formation of the Big XII, we're now in a better conference than the Big XII that Texas AD DeLoss Dodds was keeping us out of.   He and his bretheren in the Big XII-3+1 will pay for his lack of vision and the burnt orange flavored hateraid he was drinking when it comes to UH.

Take that Longhorn Elementary.   As the old saying goes, when you dig a grave for one, better dig one for yourself as well.

Being that the University of Houston not only has Tier One academic status and sits in the fourth largest city in the nation, the largest in Texas and the prime recruiting area for Lone Star high school talent in all sports, potential Big East membership will not only help the financial bottom line, it also helps UH tremendously in terms of recruiting.in football and especially basketball since the Big East is the premier basketball conference in the collegiate men's and women's game.

So we'll see how this conference realignment drama will play out, but for now a long sought after UH return to the stage of big time collegiate athletics is within its grasp.

Syracuse And Pitt Leave The Big East For ACC

Wow, didn't see this coming.   Dave Gavitt, the man who founded the Big East conference in 1979 and was its first commissioner until 1990 passes away on Friday.   Sunday the news gets leaked that founding member Syracuse and Pittsburgh are leaving the conference for the ACC.  

While Syracuse and Pitt have the right to look out for their schools interests, it's still some foul and nekulturny timing to make this kind of announcement in light of the fact the founder of this league isn't even cold in his grave yet. 

TCU, y'all sure y'all want to head to the Big East seeing that serious sporting drama is about to break out on the East Coast?

Now the fun and drama the Big XII-3 is having over Texas A&M's SECession is about to take place on the east coast.   There are rumors the ACC is about to extend invites to Rutgers and UConn as well, but we'll have to stay tuned to see if this plays out

That unexpected ACC raid of the Big East may set off another frenzied round of expansion and soap opera level intrigue.  Will the SEC get busy and make an expedited adoption of a 14th team and who will it be?   Will the Big Ten wait or expand?   Will the Pac-12 grab more teams?  Will the ACC do the same?  

What happens to Louisville, West Virginia and the rest of the Big East's remaining members?   Will everybody in the BCS wait and see if the Big 12 and Big East implode, then pick up the leftovers and the AQ BCS conference status that go with it?


And to think I was upset about All My Children being canceled and the last broadcast of it happening on Friday.

Time to pass the popcorn, the latest chapter of 'As the College Conferences Realign Turns' is about to take place.

2011 Pac-12 and Big Ten Football Changes

While we football fans were waiting for the NFL to get cranked up since ratifying a new CBA agreement and prepare for the upcoming 2011 season, on July 1 the moves of Boise State to the Mountain West Conference, Colorado and Utah to the Pacific 12 and Nebraska to the Big Ten conferences became official.

That means in this 2011 college football season we're going to see old faces in new conference places for the first time since the last major conference reshufflings in the 1990s.  TCU's move to the Big East will take effect in 2012    But this post is going to focus on the Pac-12 and Big Ten, and I'll talk about the other permutations in the college football landscape later.   

With the moves of Colorado, Utah and Nebraska to their new respective conferences, it also means the Pacific-12 and the Big Ten have the required 12 teams in order to host conference championship game at the end of the season.

Starting with the Pacific-12 Conference, they went to a north-south divisional setup for football.  In the Pac-12 North the teams competing in it will be defending champ Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, Cal and Stanford.   The Pac-12 South will have the conference newbies Colorado and Utah, Arizona, Arizona St, UCLA and USC.  

The California schools will continue to play their traditional rivalry games against each other with the winner of the Pac-12 North facing off against the winner of the Pac-12 South in the Pac-12 Championship Game.  

That new Pac-12 title game will be hosted by the division champion team with the best record.

The Big Ten not only got a new logo with the entry of Nebraska into the league but also went to a divisional setup for football as well with the divisions being named the Leaders and the Legends Divisions. 

The names of the divisions have gotten some heavy criticism from Big Ten fans and others (I don't like them either) so the Big Ten powers that be may consider new names for them in the future. 

The divisional lineup memberships were also set up with an eye not only on geography and competitive balance, but making sure the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry game and other traditional rivalries weren't diminished to being a battle for just a division title.   The Wolverines were placed in the Legends Division with Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, Michigan State and newcomer Nebraska.  Ohio State was placed in the Leaders Division with Indiana, Penn State, Illinois, Purdue and Wisconsin    

Division winners will square off in the Big Ten Conference Football Championship game, which will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis through 2015.

I'm interested in seeing how the newbies do in their brand new conferences this fall and how the brave new world of Pac-12 and Big Ten football plays out.   In any case, should be fun to watch, including those new conference championship games on December 3.  

Dave Campbell's Texas Football Is Out

One of the iconic signs that fall will soon be upon us in the Lone Star State is Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine hitting the newsstands.

It has been published since 1960 and is considered the football bible in this state.  I've been a regular reader of it since 1978 and it includes in addition to the feature article on the cover boys, in depth coverage of all aspects of football in the state from high school to the colleges.  It even included features on our two NFL franchises, the Texans and Cowchips.

On the high school level it covers all the classifications and teams in them from Six-Man to Class 5A and the private schools.  It also compiles a preseason high school Top Ten for each conference.

It not only covers all the college teams in the state, it predicts their records for the upcoming season.   The DCTF staff is predicting UH will go 11-1 probably because Case Keenum is back for a medical redshirt season, so we'll see.if that comes to pass.


Now if we can get the NFL lockout ended, everything will be alright for us Lone Star football fans.