Burnt Orange Nation

All the Big 12-2 Conference news that is and isn't fit to read...
And some other stuff.

The Horns were just too much for the Aggies. [ESPN Dallas]

The women's basketball team beat the Aggies, 76-71. [Texas Sports]

Two Texas Men’s Track & Field athletes have received national attention. [Texas Sports]

Texas Men’s Track & Field athletes Marquise Goodwin and Maston Wallace received recognition in the preseason for The Bowerman, an award given to the top collegiate track & field athlete.

Ricky Williams is still doing his own thing. [Yahoo Sports]

Inside the Baltimore Ravens’ locker room the air is alive. Players argue about a bean-bag toss game they play after practices, then mock a teammate who has inexplicably decided to do an interview naked. Music thumps. Giant men laugh, and their laughter rattles off cinder block walls in the symphony of a football team that feels invincible.

Only Ricky Williams sits alone.

Frank Martin is molding his team to be just like him. [Fox Sports]

Martin did not enjoy losing to Baylor. [Yahoo Sports]

Maybe the third time will be the charm for Tommy Tuberville. [Washington Post]

Art Kaufman has been hired as the defensive coordinator at Texas Tech more than a decade after holding the same job under Red Raiders coach Tommy Tuberville at Mississippi.

Kaufman will be the third defensive coordinator in three seasons for Tuberville at Texas Tech. James Willis and Chad Glasgow lasted just one year each.

Missouri had a financial oops. [Columbia Tribune]

The athletic department originally stated that its football expenses had rocketed from $13.76 million in 2009-2010 to more than $20 million during the last fiscal year. According to the federal report, which is frequently cited in national media reports and helps shape perception of a program’s status, the Missouri football team was suddenly one of the nation’s 20 richest programs — surpassing high rollers like Oregon, Southern California and Nebraska.

But as it turned out, Missouri had not relocated to a ritzy new neighborhood. MU instead became the latest school to call into question — inadvertently or not — the accuracy and comparative value of the annual Equity in Athletics Disclosure report.

He's baaaaaaccckkkk. [SI]

Still waiting for resolution in the Mike Stoops sweepstakes, but the story is at least inching forward today.

A few minutes ago, ESPN reported that the deposed Arizona coach would return to Oklahoma as a co-defensive coordinator, along with Brent Venables. The report said it could officially happen as early as today, but I’m told not to expect any sort of announcement or release today.

Our entertaining friends over at Barking Carnival have the perfect musical interlude for Mikey's return. [Barking Carnival]

Blatant Homerism takes look at the Sooners' defensive progression. [Part One, Part Two]

The 2012 Big 12 football conference champion is anyone's guess. [Ft. Worth Star-Telegram]

OSU assistant head coach Joe DeForest has taken a job on Dana Holgorsen's staff. [Tulsa World]

Mountaineers owe Oliver luck. [The Daily Athenaeum]

The West Virginia Mountaineers are the 2012 Discover Orange Bowl champions.

Who would have said that at this time last year? Probably no one.

Well, you can thank WVU Athletic Director Oliver Luck for hiring Dana Holgorsen. You could even credit Bill Stewart for basically forcing his own way out of a job. But, it was Luck who hired Holgorsen to coach next season even if Stewart had not done what he did.

Boy, did that decision pay off! Holgorsen brought in an exciting offense, based on a system of complex passing, but was able to break it down for the players to a science.

TCU has a great season ticket deal. [Ft. Worth Star-Telegram]

It is official. [Baylor Bears]

Baylor Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Robert Griffin III will declare for the 2012 NFL Draft and forgo his final season of eligibility, he announced Wednesday.

Griffin III departs after leading Baylor to a 10-3 record and No. 12 ranking in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll (13th in Associated Press Poll) in a 2011 season which concluded with a victory in the Valero Alamo Bowl. RG3 led Baylor to back-to-back bowls in 2010 and 2011 as a sophomore and junior.

Can someone give me an amen? Baylor will be changed forever. [ESPN Dallas]

NCAA President Mark Emmert is taking a stand. [Yahoo Sports]

NCAA President Mark Emmert is taking a stand.

He still intends to make swift, sweeping changes in college sports regardless of the uproar it creates.

Emmert told The Associated Press that he believes that two significant new rules—a $2,000 stipend toward the full cost of attendance for athletes and a four-year scholarship rather than year to year renewals—will survive override efforts at this week’s annual NCAA convention.

The NCAA has broadened the definition of agent to include parents who have a hand out. [Yahoo Sports]

The Cecil Newton Rule. Too little, too late. [CBS Sports]

Do you think the NCAA is the problem? Think again. [CBS Sports]

"This meeting and the board [of directors] meetings are the most substantive since I've been involved in the NCAA," Texas Tech president Guy Bailey said. "I don't know if sea change is the right word but it is a big change. There's serious concern about preserving the collegiate model and maintaining student welfare."

The ire over two proposals, stemming from NCAA President Mark Emmert's reform package that came out of meetings in August, has drawn the most attention. The presidents want to give conferences the option of giving out scholarships beyond one year renewals and up to $2,000 to cover the cost of attendance.

The schools pumped the brakes by overriding it.

Does the nation have SEC fatigue? [SI]

Two years ago, just after Alabama had beaten Texas to earn the SEC's fourth straight national championship, Slive watched the celebration and said, "It never gets old." From his standpoint, nothing much has changed since.

But the always dysfunctional system has only gotten older, and it has not aged well. And finally, the status quo might no longer be acceptable to the power-brokers, whose whispers about "BCS fatigue" seem to coincide, conveniently, with the SEC's complete takeover. Revolution is probably too much to hope for, but we might be about to see evolution.

Others just think everyone outside the SEC are just angry. [Ocala]

But facts are inconsequential when the blind rage that is occuring outside the Southeastern U.S. is present.

From the championship lock to Florida beating up on Ohio State again, the league has become an open wound to the others it takes a chunk out of ... and there is no salve available.

Would things have been different this season with a one-plus format? [NewsOK]

Had the "plus-1" system been in place, we would have gotten to see the Cowboys go head-to-head with the Crimson Tide, the team that edged out OSU for the No. 2 spot in the final BCS standings by a mere .0086 points.

Other than the BCS, what are the options? [National Championship Issue]

The regular season is the problem in college football. [NewsOK]

Protect college football's regular season, they all say. Talk into the night if you must on ways to change the national championship process, but protect the splendor of the regular season.

My old pals have lost their way.

The regular season is what's wrong with college football. Not what's right.

There is plenty of BCS hate talk, but will there be any action? [CBS Sports]

There's a blueprint for winning a national championship. [AAS]

Here's Nick Saban's formula:

Recruit a bunch of lathered-up defensive players and coach 'em into the best defense in history.

Develop a huge offensive line that blots out the sun and can protect the passer as well as it run-blocks.

Find a caretaker quarterback who takes care of the ball, matures by his third season and can be ultra-effective when he throws on first down.

Locate Heisman-caliber running backs and unleash them, but don't be afraid to share the tailbacks' carries.

Don't be afraid to run a trick play here and again, like a fake field goal.

Got it?

Do programs with African-American head coaches have an edge in recruiting African-American prospects? [Rivals]

Yes, there is already a 2012 Heisman watch list. [Orlando Sentinel]

More bad news for that epic SEC rematch. [Wiz of Odds]

Monday night's Bowl Championship Series title game between Alabama and Louisiana State was the third-lowest rated title game in the 14-year history of the BCS.

The ESPN telecast drew a 14 rating. The only BCS games with lower ratings were the 2005 USC-Oklahoma matchup, which got a 13.7, and the 2002 Miami-Nebraska game, which had a 13.8.

MIke Leach just won't go away. [AAS]

The Good, The Bad, The Sanctioned

The president of the Ohio State University needs to keep his mouth shut. [ESPN]

Gee rattled off the university's top accomplishments, including a first-year retention rate for all students of 93 percent and retention rates for black and Hispanic students exceeding national averages for both public and private institutions.

A few minutes later, in a question-and-answer session, Gee referred to the problem of coordinating 18 divisions such as independent schools and colleges.

"When we had these 18 colleges all kind of floating around, they were kind of like PT Boats, they were shooting each other," Gee said. "It was kind of like the Polish army or something. I have no idea what it was."

As nervous laughter arose in the audience of a couple hundred listeners at a Columbus Metropolitan Club monthly forum, Gee said, "Oh, never mind, who did I embarrass now?" A moment later he said: "I'll have to raise money for Poland now."

Following the gravy train of college sports and the BCS...money.

The PAC 12 network will be up and running soon. [NY Times]

In July, the conference announced that it would introduce seven cable channels, six regional and one national, for the summer of 2012.

The regional channels will center on the areas that have two colleges: Washington, Oregon, Northern California, Southern California, Arizona and Mountain. The national programming includes football games, men’s and women’s basketball games, as well as Olympic sports that traditionally have gotten little or no television exposure.

Think Progress has a three-part series on how BCS bowls enjoy a relatively tax-free status. [Part One, Part Two, Part Three]

The question of whether bowl games should or should not be classified as nonprofit charities is ultimately up to the IRS. But recently, public scrutiny toward the BCS has intensified. The Department of Justice is investigating whether the BCS violated federal antitrust laws, and after scandals involving potentially illegal political donations from Sugar and Fiesta Bowl employees to officials in Arizona and Louisiana, anti-BCS group PlayoffPAC asked the IRS to investigate multiple bowls. That bowl CEOs are making, on average, more than $500,000 a year and spending money on lavish trips for executives, donors, and other affiliates has raised even more questions and prompted an internal investigation at the Fiesta Bowl.

The Department of Education isn't too happy, either. [CBS Sports]

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan slammed the BCS Wednesday saying major conferences contribute "zero" to student-athlete academic success. Speaking at an NCAA Convention luncheon, Duncan added that the BCS should set aside an academic enhancement fund.

"I think it is a problem that BCS conferences use zero – zero percent of their bowl game revenues for educational components or to support student academic success," Duncan said during remarks made at the luncheon where he was the keynote speaker.

This is an interesting look at how much SEC teams spend on their football programs and how Missouri and A&M stack up. Included is a link to Big 12 football expenses (pdf file). [Business of College Sports]

And finally...

Condolences to Kansas State and the family and friends of former Wildcat coach Vince Gibson. [Kansas City Star]

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