Why On Earth Would the Big 12 Want to Be More Like the Pac-12, ACC?
The month of May always has a lot going on. Mother’s Day weekend and Memorial Day weekend are some of the first things that come to mind. It’s also a month when spring is in full effect as flowers bloom and the smell of fresh-cut grass surrounds us.
What I didn’t know is that this month has brought us one of the worst articles I have read in a while, which is saying something because I read a lot of garbage coming from Pac-12 country.
David Ubben from The Athletic wrote an article talking about the Big 12. Before I dive in on it, just look at this tweet and try not to laugh.
Why would the Big 12 want to be more like the ACC, Pac-12, or Mountain West? The ACC is trapped in a bad TV deal that lasts until 2036. Does the Big 12 want that? What exactly is the ACC outside of Clemson? A whole bunch of mediocrity.
As for the Pac-12 or Mountain West, do I really need to say anything? Since David brought them into the conversation, I guess I will. Please tell me what conference wants to be like the Pac-12 right now. Does anyone else want George Kliavkoff to lead their conference? Or are we going to ignore the fact that the Pac-12 is dead in the water right now and on the verge of a total collapse?
Give me a break about the Mountain West. Nobody in the Mountain West even wants to be in the Mountain West. But I guess the one good thing for them is that they aren’t on a sinking ship like the Pac-12.
Basically, David’s whole point in the article is to tell people that the Big 12, without Oklahoma and Texas, is in trouble when it comes to recruiting. He compares the number of five-star players that have signed in the Big 12 compared to the ACC, Pac-12, and even the AAC in the last 11 years. Obviously, the more talented a team is, the better chance they have it winning games. Unless you are Texas, which of course hasn’t won a Big 12 title in the last 11 years despite signing a top ten recruiting class year after year.
If we want to talk about talent, how about we take a look at last week’s NFL Draft? What if I told you that the Big 12 (minus Texas and Oklahoma) had more draft picks per team than the ACC and the Pac-12? In fact, even if you take away Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 and keep USC and UCLA’s draft picks for the Pac-12, the Big 12 still had a higher amount of picks per team.
Of course, David didn’t want to talk about that because it wouldn’t fit his narrative. And when he gets called out about it on Twitter, this was his response.
Christian here had the perfect summary of what David is doing.
When people brought up the draft facts that he didn’t like, David had this to say.
Is this guy serious? His column isn’t about 2023, but instead, it’s about 2029? Has this guy paid any attention to what is going on in the Pac-12 right now? Forget about five-stars or recruiting for a minute because is the Pac-12 even going to be around in 2029? They may not even be around in two years with the way things are going.
We can sit here and talk about recruiting all we want, which is fine. But to say that the Big 12 is behind? Give me a break. How about on the field? Cincinnati went to the College Football Playoff in 2021 and TCU made it to the national championship game last season. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 hasn’t even had a team make the playoffs in over five years. But sure, go ahead and call TCU and Cincinnati Cinderella teams. I guess being a Cinderella is better than being nothing at all.
David ends his article with this. “The Big 12 has to find a new recruiting pitch to throw or else it faces a reality in which its status as one of college football’s elite conferences will slowly fade as the appearances on the sport’s biggest stages do the same.”
I will end with this. The playoffs are expanding which will give the Big 12 more opportunities to get teams in. As far as a recruiting pitch goes, I’ve got one for you, David. You can talk down on the Big 12 all you want, but at least they aren’t the Pac-12. Plus, if you would choose George Kliavkoff as your commissioner over Brett Yormark then you are even dumber than I thought. You and every west coast writer, including some of your friends at The Athletic that have been spewing garbage about the Big 12 for almost two years now. It’s about time we took the garbage out and we can start with your article.
