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[Update] Thoughts About Pac-10 Expansion: Not Excited About Baylor In Pac-16

Looks like things are moving really fast thanks to Larry Scott. From the New York Times today:

With Texas as his focal point, Scott is expected to attempt to lure six teams from the Big 12 to create the first 16-team superconference. That could produce a domino effect with major college sports featuring four 16-team leagues.

But Texas and other Big 12 powers would prefer to stay together, which is why Nebraska and Missouri are situated in such a key spot. If the Big 12 stays intact, the Pac-10 will probably not expand significantly. If the universities leave, college sports will inevitably change drastically.

"Larry Scott wants to fire the first bullet," said a Big 12 athletic official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly about the topic. "The pressure is being put on Nebraska and Missouri. Over the next two weeks, we’re going to know where we stand."

As for the Big Ten, Delany did not reveal much to reporters in Chicago on Sunday, other than to say that the "timeline could be affected." What is unknown is how hard the Big Ten is pursuing Notre Dame, a football independent that brings considerable value.

Notre Dame wants to maintain its independence, but if it did jump to the Big Ten, which already has 11 teams, it would prefer the league stay at 12 for revenue-sharing reasons.

Publicly, Big 12 athletic directors and officials are saying they hope the status quo remains, because they have built a strong league in football and basketball. Privately, they are scurrying to best position themselves for a potential spot in the Pac-10, which could become the Pac-16.

I still don't know what to think of Larry Scott yet but man I love how aggressive he has been about marketing our conference. It has been a refreshing change. I like his vision about the potential of our conference and the way he has taken initiatives. Still remains to be seen though how he executes his strategic plan (he seems to have one) in coming months.

I do like the thought of Pac-16 with Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma as part of a Pac-East division but I want Colorado in the mix. Chip Brown from OrangeBloods.com tweeted that the invitations may go out as early as this week and that the sixth invitation will come down between Baylor and Colorado (HT Ralphie Report).

First, here are the numerical comparisons between two progams via College Football DataWareHouse:

From College Football Data Warehouse Colorado Baylor
All Time Record 668-435-36 525-531-43
Bowl Record 12 -16 8-8
National Championships 1 0
Total Championships 29 7
Year of Last Conference Championship 2001 (Big-12) 1994 (SWC)
Years in college polls 21 13
Record v. Pac-10 38-34-1 13-11-0

Colorado has the better all time record. It has struggled under Barnett and Hawkins but did win its last conference championship in last 10 years. It also has a national championship and what is significant here it has a pretty good history in terms of engagement with with the Pac-10 (in bold).

Plus I don't think I am the only UCLA fan who will not be all that excited about Bruin road trips to Waco.I much rather prefer Boulder and Denver than going out to the heat in Waco.

So I am not sure what Baylor brings to this conference. I hope Scott considers how Colorado would be a better fit for our conference instead of getting influenced by preference of the Texas state legislature. Why should we let Texas politicians dictate the makeup of our conference? I sure hope Scott doesn't make his decisions based on those pressures.

I have not been the most ardent advocate of Pac-10 expansion any way. What is more important to me is the visbility and marketability of Pac-10. I understand the lure of bringing in Texas, which would be awesome but not sure if we have to play on the terms of Texas legislature and get forced into bringing in Baylor.

I am sure there will be lot more on this in the coming days but for now. For now I have put up a poll to gauge the preference of this community between Colorado and Baylor. Keep the discussions going even if we are not paying all too much attention to it on the front page (at least for now).

GO BRUINS.

UPDATE (N): Looky here. Even Texas fans despise Baylor. Hopkins Horns writes an open letter to Scott asking him to "kill" this "deal" if it involves a "leech" school like Baylor (HT The Ralphie Report):

Kill this deal.

Do you really want a goddamned lobbyist dictating to Stanford and Cal, and all of the other fine academic institutions of the Pac 10, and Arizona State, that a gnat of a school no one (and I mean NO ONE) wants in the Pac 10 is the price you have to pay to get Texas?

Baylor offers nothing. Nada. Zip. It is a mere leech. Well, OK, it seems to offer one thing: political expediency for the mass of pro-Texas, pro-A&M and pro-Tech legislators who seem to lack the testicular fortitude from preventing this from happening.

Despite what our school's leadership might say, fans of Texas do not want Baylor tagging along. [Author's Note: please, readers of BON, if I am misrepresenting anyone's position with that sentence, please chime in!] And I would guess that UT's administration really doesn't want Baylor either. There's a reason why Texas and Texas A&M originally thought that they, and they alone, would be leaving the SWC to join the schools of the Big 8. I would also guess, given the surprise inclusion of Tech, that backroom negotiations had already worked out the optimal solution from UT's perspective with the original leaked group of six teams.

I don't presume to speak for Aggies and Red Raiders and Sooners and such, but I cannot imagine that any of them are really thrilled. And if those who participate on message boards are good indicators for the general feelings among a school's fanbase as a whole, you would have been shocked to see how quickly opinion switched from being almost universally positive (Colorado!) to negative (Baylor?!?) among your conference's schools once news of the proposed forced substitution emerged.

Again this should not be decided by Texas politicians. If Texas politicians try to ram Baylor down our throats, than Commissioner Scott should be looking the other way.

GO BRUINS.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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