I never thought I would see the day when I would find myself sitting down to write a column praising Baylor University.
All I knew about Baylor prior to this year was that their campus is down the road from the former headquarters of the Branch Davidians and that former basketball player Patrick Dennehy was murdered by teammate Carlton Dotson there. Not exactly fond thoughts about a small private school that is the Big 12's carbon copy of Northwestern.
But today I have a ton of respect for this school of 15,000 strong, not only because they showed the nation why TCU would have lost each and every time had they faced the Badgers, but also because they have stepped up to the plate and made an attempt to put a stop to the madness that is conference realignment.
My thoughts on the addition of Nebraska to the Big Ten are out there and it's no secret that I feel TCU moving to the Big East is a terrible development. But this next round of proposed realignment goes beyond the repositioning of the conferences and threatens the vitality of the college football world as we know it.
As Texas A&M attempts to leave the Big 12 for the golden cow that is the SEC, they take with them any hope of saving the Big 12. If the Aggies head east, Texas is sure to look for a move of their own. With Texas goes Oklahoma and with Oklahoma goes Oklahoma State with Missouri likely following. Left in the dust would be a paltry four-school conference of Kansas, Kansas State, Texas Tech, and Baylor.
Kansas and Kansas State have a rich tradition in basketball and would likely find themselves in the basketball-rich Big East or even the ACC.
Texas Tech does have a fairly solid football program with an 11-season bowl streak, enough to get them an invite into the Mountain West or maybe even the Pac-Plenty along with fellow AWOL's from the Big 12.
That leaves Baylor. Yes, the smallest school in the conference. They seem to have the most to lose as they likely would have nowhere to go should the Big 12 dissolve.
But they have equal membership in the conference at this point in time and, to the surprise of way too many so-called ""experts,"" they invoked one privilege of that membership, namely the right to sue Texas A&M for its proposed exit in favor of SEC membership.
One tiny school's seemingly overlooked right has suddenly put the entire conference realignment process at a standstill.
And we all should be thankful they spoke up. Conference realignment is a menace to the future of collegiate athletics. While the creation of ""superpower"" conferences might generate additional revenues through television and marketing contracts, the costs of this movement will far outweigh these gains in the long-term.
As college football becomes more and more about the money, it becomes in essence a minor league. College football is successful because it isn't a professional league, but rather a school activity that generates and capitalizes on school and alumni spirit. If it starts to look like the stepchild of the NFL, it will lose this edge.
If athletic directors stay focused on the experience and the product, the money will come. However, if they focus on maximizing the financial return, as conference realignment so clearly does, that point of maximization will start to decline as the allure of college football becomes less.
What Baylor has done is to say ""wait a minute, let's think about this."" Rather than jumping head-first into the world of conference realignment, I think we should all follow in Baylor's lead and consider what this would do to the national pastime that is college football.
What do you think of conference realignment? Tell Max at max.sternberg@yahoo.com.
