The Big 12 should've hired me as their Commissioner years ago, and it wouldn't be in this shape now. HaHa
A post of mine on the shag 7 years ago, and a sample of the responses...
My post was about the time of the AT&T buyout of Direct TV, so there were some lengthy posts responses how the buyout would fix the carrier issues for the PACNET, which led to my own lengthy posts explaining why the buyout wasn't the magic wand most assumed it was. AT&T wasn't coming in to roll over, since they had all the leverage., And Scott was too arrogant to admit his master failure of a plan, needed a lifeline. He'd hadn't budged with the other National carriers, so I didn't see him doing so with his last hope either.
Then after more lengthy posts breaking down the numbers if there was a deal struck between AT&T and the PAC, with the PAC getting 100% of what they wanted, even IF AT&T went beyond that and added it to their basic pack required for service, and forced all customers to have it, they would still fall way behind the others, so either way, AT&T wasn't saving them.
There are a bunch of posts I made back then, and even further back to when the PAC let Texas, Texas Tech, OU and OSU slip away. But (I think) most of me going on about the PAC going to come unravelled starts around page 935 of the realignment thread, if anyone wants to verify my posts on archived web pages.
I pointed out that for the PACNET to get anywhere close to the projected numbers Scott was pushing, it needed the Texas market as a bridge to the east. And not securing it was likely a fatal mistake. One person understood the $ value I pointed out, but no one understood why I thought it went way further than that.
The PAC dickweeds really took offense to the notion someone called Scott either an idiot or a con. So I'll admit I had some drunken disagreements. Like this one. Most didn't understand how ESPN torpedoed the PACNET at the time of this post, or why I thought PAC whiffing on UT/OU/TT/OSU meant doom, in more ways than just market money, but a lot of people did figure it out, slowly but surely.
...like this guy most recognize. Granted, it took a couple of years, literally.
And my response... Note. I consider PACs miss on UT/OU/TT/OSU a mistake, but a mistake none the less. But the biggest blunder of all realignment was the PAC telling OU/OSU to piss off. That was the golden ticket to undo their fatal mistake... Funny thing about it, Stanford was at the center of either stalling, giving ESPN the time to slide in behind them and slit their throat, and for telling OU to fuck off, without considering we would've followed them before long. The Stanford AD fucked up BIG TIME by not understanding the overall picture and killed the PAC. Just like the BIG 12 Commissioner didn't see the big picture of how far the BIG 12 was going to fall behind the BIG/SEC this new revenue contract would be an issue. The Big 12 schools might be okay with being the 3rd highest paid conference even if it is 6-8-10 million a year less, for the most part. BUT, UT and OU didn't fall in the most part group and were not going to be content with letting the revenue train leave the station without them. Third highest paid conference is not a good thing the big fish
I posted this little gem 7 years ago
NOTE. I didn't say the B12 and ACC would merge, I said it wouldn't surprise me if they did, because they would lose their workhorses if they didn't do something to protect themselves. B12 lost UT/OU, PAC lost USC/UCLA, and now Clemson/FSU/ect are on the clock. Stay competitive in football, or try to compete with half the others budget.