Future of Big 12 up in the air
BURNET — Speculation swirls on the future of the Big 12 Conference.
Former Texas A&M head football coach Jackie Sherrill recently predicted the landscape of college sports will change at some point.
“We’re going to end up going to four conferences,” he said. “Those four conferences will have a playoff, one versus three, two versus four.”
Sherrill made the comments Aug. 5 at the Emory Bellard-Spike Dykes Seton Kids Care-a-Van Golf Classic.
Later, the news broke regarding Texas A&M’s interest in joining the Southeastern Conference.
Before that, Sherrill wasn’t big on the new-look Big 12 with only 10 teams and no conference championship game that pits the winners of the North and South divisions.
“I think what people don’t realize is that playoff game is important because it makes you a lot of money,” he said. “But playing a round robin is also good. It gives you a true winner but still leaves you one game short.”
Still, he and the man who replaced him as the Aggies coach, R.C. Slocum, are ready for the upcoming season. Especially since A&M is predicted to perform very well. The toughest test might be against Oklahoma, college football’s preseason No. 1.
“The guys who are going to be there certainly are Oklahoma because they have all the players coming back,” Sherrill said. “They have great receivers, and they also have running backs. But A&M offensively will probably be as good as anybody in the country. Defensively, they may not be able to match Oklahoma, but they’re going to be good.”
“We’re optimistic,” Slocum said. “Coach Mike Sherman has done a great job. We have a bunch of players back off of a big team last year, so we’re all excited. I know the possible pitfalls, but we’re optimistic. I think we’re going to have a good season.”
The Aggies will be led by quarterback Ryan Tannehill, running back Cyrus Gray and receiver Ryan Swope, formerly of Westlake. With 10 starters back, A&M has reason to smile.
The defense is expected to be equally good. A&M only lost Von Miller, so the belief is they will be even more dominant in 2011, Slocum said.
“We’ll score some points,” he said. “I feel good about our defense. We lost a great player, Von Miller. Tim DeRuyter, our defensive coordinator, and his staff have done a great job and they tell me we’re going to be better. So if we are, we’ll be pretty good.”
The event wasn’t just full of Aggie coaches. Dykes, former Texas Tech football coaching great, was on hand to personally welcome people to the event that bears his name, including former Texas women’s basketball coach Jody Conradt, Texas women’s athletic director Chris Plonsky and legendary Texas football coach Darryl K. Royal.
“Here is a man (at) 87. He’s been to 10,000 of these things,” Dykes said of Royal. “I talked to him two months ago and said, ‘You want to come back to the tournament?’ He said, ‘Want to come back? I’m coming back.’ He is such a force, and he’s so proud. He’s represented Texas for so long, he represented college football for so long, and he loves to do it.”
Dykes remains a big Tech fan. He noted that quarterback Seth Doege hasn’t taken a lot of snaps since junior high school.
“His was injured his sophomore, junior and senior years in high school,” he said. “He was injured his first year at Tech. Great athlete, great kid. Everybody who knows him just loves him. They say he’s a great leader. So if he can stay well, I think he’ll do good. That’s always a crap shoot anyway, to know who’s going to stay well and who’s not, but he really is talented. He’s really a great leader. So it’ll be interesting, to say the least.”
Dykes said he had mixed feelings about the new Big 12.
“I think it’s really good when everybody plays everybody. It’s sort of the reason why I wanted a college playoff, ya know, where you’ll really have a true champion. They’ll really have a true champion,” he said. “You get beat up in the South, you go play the North, they beat you, they upset you or vice versa. The real champion comes out of this league, and I think where we’ll really make a difference, we’ll have a chance to have two teams in the BCS every year. But how could you ask for a better situation than to play everybody in your conference? And then there’s a true champion. There’s none of that mythical stuff.”
And just like his Aggie counterparts, Dykes said he understands why Oklahoma, with quarterback Landry Jones, receiver Ryan Broyles and linebacker Travis Lewis, is picked so high.
“They got a great quarterback back. They’ve got a great coach. Bob Stoops has done a great job,” he said. “And more importantly, they got a great program, just year after year after year, the same. Much like Texas has been until last year. Texas had a bad year. Every once in a while you have a bad year. Sometimes it makes a big difference in the following season, sometimes it doesn’t. But I feel sure that Texas will rebound. Of course, Oklahoma State is picked real, real high. How about the Aggies? The last three games of the season, the Aggies beat Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas. That’s pretty good football, I’m telling you. So I’d say you’d have to be an idiot if you don’t pick Texas A&M to at least be a strong contender.
“You take people like Baylor with Robert Griffin, who’s been a great quarterback for them forever. If he stays healthy and were to have a great year and pick up a little on defense, no telling what they could do,” he added. “No telling what Texas Tech could do. Anybody who ever counts Kansas State out of the Big 12 is an idiot because Kansas State is good and always will be as long as Bill Snyder is there. Iowa State is like Texas, they’re sort of down. And then Texas Tech, if their quarterback comes through, I think it’ll really be interesting. I think it’ll be a fun year in the Big 12. I think it’ll be close. I think it’ll be enjoyable, I really do.”
Sherrill said Texas hired a solid defensive coordinator when Manny Diaz came from Mississippi State.
“Manny is a good football coach,” he said. “He’s a young man that’s really bright and knows the game. He does a lot of things, moves a lot of people. He was at Mississippi State last year and ended up beating Georgia, beating people they were not supposed to beat.”
Slocum said he looks forward to the new-look Big 12.
“In terms of playing everybody in the league, I like that,” he said. “I think that’ll be an interesting little twist in the league where everybody will line up and play everybody. I don’t have any problem with that.”