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<blockquote data-quote="Deep Purple" data-source="post: 906835" data-attributes="member: 17"><p><span style="font-size: 12px">I really appreciate your comments and sportsmanship, and I wasn't going to comment on the Big 12 history, but you had to bring it up. Baylor and Tech fans are the only ones in the world who actually believe this manufactured drivel. More objective sources say differently...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"> </span> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">AUSTIN - Did political pressure come to bear in the Big Eight's decision to invite Texas Tech and Baylor universities to join two others in a newly formed alliance that could all but doom the Southwest Conference?</span></span><span style="color: #0000FF"></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">The politicians say no. But Baylor President Herb Reynolds, when handing out thanks yesterday that the university was included, credited the politicians anyway.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"></span><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">"When it became apparent to us that this was the thing we had to achieve, obviously we were going to look to the people that can help make a difference to bring this about," Reynolds said.</span></span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">[…]</span></span></strong></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">He also thanked Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, referring to him as "a very loyal Baylor alumnus" who was "very helpful to us."</span></span></strong><span style="color: #0000FF"></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">"We're very grateful to all of these folks," Reynolds said.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"></span><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #0000FF">[…]</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">Although Texas and Texas A&M long had been rumored to be shopping for a new conference in which to play, <strong>the inclusion of Baylor and Tech in the merger - while other <strong>Southwest</strong> Conference schools were left out - has raised intense speculation that politics may have played a role.</strong></span></span><span style="color: #0000FF"></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">[…]</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"></span><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">A Bullock spokeswoman said that Bullock met with UT and A&M officials Monday. Also at the meeting were Montford, who represented Tech, <strong>and state Sen. David Sibley, R-Waco, who represented Baylor</strong>, she said.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"></span></span><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #0000FF">[…]</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"><strong>In August 1990, lawmakers sprang into action and threatened to slash state funding to Texas and Texas A&M when rumors circulated that the two schools were considering moves to the Pacific 10 and Southeast <strong>conferences</strong>.</strong></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">According to published reports, Montford was one of the first lawmakers to suggest that the Legislature get involved.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"><strong>One political source said yesterday that UT and A&M officials remembered the 1990 situation and feared a similar backlash if they accepted a deal that left Tech and Baylor behind.</strong></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-size: 10px"><span style="color: #0000FF"><span style="font-size: 12px">"<strong>It was very important to the success of this drill that Baylor and Tech be in it," the source said. "Politics does enter into these things.</strong> It is who you are associated with and your status as a university.</span>"</span></span> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><em>Fort Worth Star-Telegram, February 24, 1994</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"> </span> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"><span style="font-size: 12px">But before the Big 12 could form, politicians in Austin, Texas, would have plenty to say about who would wear the new logo.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></span></span> <span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">Texas and Texas A&M were locks to be merged into the Big 12. But the SWC's other schools – Texas Tech, Baylor, Texas Christian, Houston, Southern Methodist and Rice – were not, and players in Texas state politics tried to include almost endless combinations of those six in the new deal. Arkansas bolted the SWC for the Southeastern Conference before the breakup of the SWC.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"></span></span><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">Texas Tech found its way to the Big 12, and <strong>SWC veterans say TCU had the other slot until the last minute, when then-governor Ann Richards and key colleagues in the state's House of Representatives, all Baylor graduates, gave Texas and Texas A&M an offer they couldn't refuse: dump TCU for Baylor or possibly lose state funding.</strong></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"> </span> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"> <em>Denver Post, July 1, 2000</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"> </span> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">In 1994 the Southeastern Conference broke away from the College Football Association's television deal and agreed to an exclusive package with CBS. Consequently, collegiate athletic conferences had to negotiate separate deals.</span></span><span style="color: #0000FF"></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">"The only way to get leverage was to build a conference that was absolutely middle American," Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds said. </span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">With vast alumni bases in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, the University of Texas and Texas A&M were key figures in the merger. The question was which other SWC teams would join them. </span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">Texas Christian had facilities. Southern Methodist had history. Houston had success, having won or shared five SWC football championships and having played in three NCAA basketball Final Fours.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"></span><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">But Baylor and Texas Tech had political clout.</span></span> <span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">At the time, Baylor alumni were at the top of state government: Ann Richards was governor and the late Bob Bullock was lieutenant governor.</span></span></strong><span style="color: #0000FF"></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">Several state legislative committees were chaired by politicians with ties to Texas Tech, and <strong>threats surfaced of reduced funding to Texas and A&M if Baylor and Tech were not included.</strong></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"></span><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF"><strong>"That's the point where the politics of it came in," said State Sen. David Sibley, R-Waco, a Baylor alumnus.</strong> "If the breakup had occurred two years earlier when the lieutenant governor (Bill Hobby) was from Houston with strong ties to UH and the speaker of the House (Gib Lewis) was a TCU alumnus, things might have been different."</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><em>Austin American-Statesman, November 2, 2001</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">That Baylor is even in the Big 12 is an accident of politics. <strong>If Baylor grads Ann Richards and Bob Bullock hadn't been Governor and Lt. Governor, respectively, in 1994 when Texas and Texas A&M decided to jailbreak out of the Southwest Conference and merge with the Big Eight, Baylor never would have been invited.</strong></span></span> </span> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><em>ESPN, November 6, 2002</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span><p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #0000FF">"Baylor is the only private institution in the Big 12, and that's no coincidence," <strong>former Big Eight Commissioner Chuck Neinas said. "Without Richards and Bullock, Baylor had no chance."</strong></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><span style="font-size: 12px"></span> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"> <em>Charlotte Observer, May 8, 2003</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><em></em></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Look, I have no problem with Baylor and Tech using political muscle to get into the Big 12. Given the opportunity, TCU would have done the same. But I do object to this Baylor fairy story that politics wasn't the deciding factor -- that Baylor "earned it." That simply isn't true by any stretch of the imagination.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Deep Purple, post: 906835, member: 17"] [size="3"]I really appreciate your comments and sportsmanship, and I wasn't going to comment on the Big 12 history, but you had to bring it up. Baylor and Tech fans are the only ones in the world who actually believe this manufactured drivel. More objective sources say differently... [/size] [indent][size="3"][size="3"][color="#0000FF"]AUSTIN - Did political pressure come to bear in the Big Eight's decision to invite Texas Tech and Baylor universities to join two others in a newly formed alliance that could all but doom the Southwest Conference?[/color][/size][color="#0000FF"] The politicians say no. But Baylor President Herb Reynolds, when handing out thanks yesterday that the university was included, credited the politicians anyway. [/color][b][size="3"][color="#0000FF"]"When it became apparent to us that this was the thing we had to achieve, obviously we were going to look to the people that can help make a difference to bring this about," Reynolds said.[/color][/size] [size="3"][color="#0000FF"][…][/color][/size] [size="3"][color="#0000FF"]He also thanked Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, referring to him as "a very loyal Baylor alumnus" who was "very helpful to us."[/color][/size][/b][color="#0000FF"] "We're very grateful to all of these folks," Reynolds said. [/color][size="2"][color="#0000FF"][…][/color][/size] [size="3"][color="#0000FF"]Although Texas and Texas A&M long had been rumored to be shopping for a new conference in which to play, [b]the inclusion of Baylor and Tech in the merger - while other [b]Southwest[/b] Conference schools were left out - has raised intense speculation that politics may have played a role.[/b][/color][/size][color="#0000FF"] […] [/color][size="3"][color="#0000FF"]A Bullock spokeswoman said that Bullock met with UT and A&M officials Monday. Also at the meeting were Montford, who represented Tech, [b]and state Sen. David Sibley, R-Waco, who represented Baylor[/b], she said. [/color][/size][size="2"][color="#0000FF"][…][/color][/size] [size="3"][color="#0000FF"][b]In August 1990, lawmakers sprang into action and threatened to slash state funding to Texas and Texas A&M when rumors circulated that the two schools were considering moves to the Pacific 10 and Southeast [b]conferences[/b].[/b][/color][/size] [size="3"][color="#0000FF"]According to published reports, Montford was one of the first lawmakers to suggest that the Legislature get involved.[/color][/size] [size="3"][color="#0000FF"][b]One political source said yesterday that UT and A&M officials remembered the 1990 situation and feared a similar backlash if they accepted a deal that left Tech and Baylor behind.[/b][/color][/size] [size="2"][color="#0000FF"][size="3"]"[b]It was very important to the success of this drill that Baylor and Tech be in it," the source said. "Politics does enter into these things.[/b] It is who you are associated with and your status as a university.[/size]"[/color][/size] [/size][/indent] [size="3"][i]Fort Worth Star-Telegram, February 24, 1994[/i] [/size] [indent][size="3"][color="#0000FF"][size="3"]But before the Big 12 could form, politicians in Austin, Texas, would have plenty to say about who would wear the new logo. [/size][/color][/size] [size="3"][color="#0000FF"]Texas and Texas A&M were locks to be merged into the Big 12. But the SWC's other schools – Texas Tech, Baylor, Texas Christian, Houston, Southern Methodist and Rice – were not, and players in Texas state politics tried to include almost endless combinations of those six in the new deal. Arkansas bolted the SWC for the Southeastern Conference before the breakup of the SWC. [/color][/size][size="3"][size="3"][color="#0000FF"]Texas Tech found its way to the Big 12, and [b]SWC veterans say TCU had the other slot until the last minute, when then-governor Ann Richards and key colleagues in the state's House of Representatives, all Baylor graduates, gave Texas and Texas A&M an offer they couldn't refuse: dump TCU for Baylor or possibly lose state funding.[/b][/color][/size] [/size] [/indent] [size="3"] [i]Denver Post, July 1, 2000[/i] [/size] [indent][size="3"][size="3"][color="#0000FF"]In 1994 the Southeastern Conference broke away from the College Football Association's television deal and agreed to an exclusive package with CBS. Consequently, collegiate athletic conferences had to negotiate separate deals.[/color][/size][color="#0000FF"] "The only way to get leverage was to build a conference that was absolutely middle American," Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds said. With vast alumni bases in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, the University of Texas and Texas A&M were key figures in the merger. The question was which other SWC teams would join them. Texas Christian had facilities. Southern Methodist had history. Houston had success, having won or shared five SWC football championships and having played in three NCAA basketball Final Fours. [/color][b][size="3"][color="#0000FF"]But Baylor and Texas Tech had political clout.[/color][/size] [size="3"][color="#0000FF"]At the time, Baylor alumni were at the top of state government: Ann Richards was governor and the late Bob Bullock was lieutenant governor.[/color][/size][/b][color="#0000FF"] Several state legislative committees were chaired by politicians with ties to Texas Tech, and [b]threats surfaced of reduced funding to Texas and A&M if Baylor and Tech were not included.[/b] [/color][size="3"][color="#0000FF"][b]"That's the point where the politics of it came in," said State Sen. David Sibley, R-Waco, a Baylor alumnus.[/b] "If the breakup had occurred two years earlier when the lieutenant governor (Bill Hobby) was from Houston with strong ties to UH and the speaker of the House (Gib Lewis) was a TCU alumnus, things might have been different."[/color][/size] [/size][/indent] [size="3"][i]Austin American-Statesman, November 2, 2001[/i] [/size] [indent][size="3"][size="3"][color="#0000FF"]That Baylor is even in the Big 12 is an accident of politics. [b]If Baylor grads Ann Richards and Bob Bullock hadn't been Governor and Lt. Governor, respectively, in 1994 when Texas and Texas A&M decided to jailbreak out of the Southwest Conference and merge with the Big Eight, Baylor never would have been invited.[/b][/color][/size] [/size] [/indent] [size="3"][i]ESPN, November 6, 2002[/i] [/size][indent][size="3"][size="3"][color="#0000FF"]"Baylor is the only private institution in the Big 12, and that's no coincidence," [b]former Big Eight Commissioner Chuck Neinas said. "Without Richards and Bullock, Baylor had no chance."[/b][/color][/size] [/size] [/indent][size="3"] [i]Charlotte Observer, May 8, 2003 [/i] Look, I have no problem with Baylor and Tech using political muscle to get into the Big 12. Given the opportunity, TCU would have done the same. But I do object to this Baylor fairy story that politics wasn't the deciding factor -- that Baylor "earned it." That simply isn't true by any stretch of the imagination. [/size] [/QUOTE]
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