West Virginia to the Big 12. Smart or Dumb?

Big 12 sources are coming out and saying that West Virginia could be accepted as soon as later today.  As far as I know the Big 12 is doing this so they can replace Missouri if they leave for the SEC.  This apparently will happen even if Missouri decides to stay in the Big 12.  I imagine that West Virginia will be put into the North Division assuming the Big 12 makes it back to 12 teams.  This works heavily in the Big 12′s favor considering that West Virginia football is probably at an all time high and their basketball team has made the NCAA tournament six out of the last seven years.   If Missouri leaves then that will leave the Big 12 with just 9 teams next season.  West Virginia will be leaving the Big East in 2013.  With TCU joining and Texas A&M/Missouri probably leaving this would leave the conference looking like this:

1. Kansas State
2. Oklahoma State
3. Oklahoma
4. Texas Tech
5. Baylor
6. TCU
7. Texas
8. Iowa State
9. Kansas

So is this good for the Big 12?  I would have to say yes as far as sports goes.  I think that geographically it makes about as much sense as TCU going to the Big East.  I am really unsure how they expect their fans to travel well to most of their football games.  If it holds the Big 12 together I am all for it though.

Oklahoma to the Pac-12?

According the ESPN there is a lot of leadership at Oklahoma that is still interested in moving to the Pac-12 from their current conference the Big 12.  They are also reporting that Texas officials met with Oklahoma big wigs and they left Norman feeling very doubtful that Oklahoma would be staying.  What does this mean for the Big 12?  Well there are a whole lot of situations at this point the worst one of which being that both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State move over to the Pac-12.  That would leave the Big 12 in a very bad position.  Texas has already made it clear that it would not consider a 7 team Big 12 viable.  We all know what has happened since last year when Colorado and Nebraska decided to go elsewhere.  Now Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State are all looking elsewhere while everyone else in the conference minus Texas is talking possible lawsuit against everyone leaving the conference.  If you are a Texas fan like us, you are just sitting and waiting for everything to unfold. Lets be honest with each other, short of a death penalty there is not a whole lot that could really hurt Texas athletic program.  Texas A&M will not get in if there are

Texas Longhorn Men’s Basketball Schedule 2011-2012

The Longhorns ended their season last year in the third round of the Men’s Basketball Championship against Arizona by one point.  One point separated them from possibly going all the way to the National Championship.  One point and a lot of bad calls.  All of that is in the past though.  We have the future to look forward to now.  They ended the season with less than 10 losses which hadn’t happened since their last run with Kevin Durant.  This team will be nothing like that team having almost no height at all on the team this season.  With Kevin Thomas not qualifying academically, we are going to have our eyes set on the run and gun. 

*****I have updated the schedule as of 1/9/2012 with the updated times and TV channels the games appear on.  I hope this pleases everyone who has been emailing Sidelineblog.   It looks like the Longhorns have had a rough start to the season but can make up for it during the conference stretch.  Hook em’*****

Texas Longhorn Men's Basketball Schedule 2011-2012

Date	Opponent	Location	Time/Result
11/13/2011	Boston University	Austin, TX	W (82-46)
11/15/2011	Rhode Island	Austin, TX	W (100-90)
11/19/2011	Oregon State	East Rutherford, NJ	L (100-95 OT)
11/21/2011	North Carolina State	East Rutherford, NJ	L (77-74)
11/26/2011	Sam Houston Sate	Austin, TX	W (56-40)
11/29/2011	North Texas	Austin, TX	W (73-57)
12/03/2011	UCLA	Los Angeles, CA	W (69-59)
12/06/2011	UT Arlington	Austin, TX	W (80-62)
12/10/2011	Texas State	Austin, TX	W (86-52)
12/13/2011	Nicholls State	Austin, TX	W (93-40)
12/17/2011	Temple	Austin, TX	W (77-65)
12/21/2011	#6 North Carolina	Chapel Hill, NC	L (82-63)
12/31/2011	Rice	Austin, TX	W (73-59)
01/04/2012	Iowa State	Ames, Iowa	L (77-71)
01/07/2012	Oklahoma State	Austin, TX	W (58-49)
01/11/2012	Texas A&M	Austin, TX	8:00 PM ESPN2
01/14/2012	Missouri	Columbia, MO	12:00 PM ESPN2
01/18/2012	Kansas State	Manhattan, KS	8:00 PM ESPN2
01/21/2012	Kansas	Austin, TX	3:00 PM
01/24/2012	Iowa State	Austin, TX	8:00 PM Longhorn Network
01/28/2012	Baylor	Waco, TX	12:00 PM
01/30/2012	Missouri	Austin, TX	8:00 PM ESPN
02/04/2012	Texas Tech	Austin, TX	6:00 PM Longhorn Network
02/06/2012	Texas A&M	College Station, TX	8:00 PM ESPN
02/11/2012	Kansas State	Austin, TX	1:00 PM ESPN
02/14/2012	Oklahoma	Norman, OK	7:00 PM
02/18/2012	Oklahoma State	Sillwater, OK	3:00 PM
02/20/2012	Baylor	Austin, TX	8:00 PM ESPN
02/25/2012	Texas Tech	Lubbock, TX	3:00 PM
02/29/2012	Oklahoma	Austin, TX	8:00 PM ESPN2
03/03/2012	Kansas	Lawrence, KS	8:00 PM ESPN
03/07/2012	Big 12 Tournament	Kansas City, MO	TBA
03/08/2012	Big 12 Tournament	Kansas City, MO	TBA
03/09/2012	Big 12 Tournament	Kansas City, MO	TBA
03/10/2012	Big 12 Championship	Kansas City, MO	5:00 PM

Longhorns on Top of Money List Again!

That’s right, out of the Top 200 Colleges and Universities, The University of Texas at Austin tops them all in amount of merchandise sold. The Longhorns made over $10 million in the last fiscal year (July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010).  That’s almost $1.5 million more than they made last year.  This top 10 looks almost identical to a lot of the college sports top 10 teams.  I think its interesting how those two go hand in hand.  A lot of professors curse at collegiate sports like they serve no purpose in this educational system.  I say they go side by side more than you could think.  Colleges need to make money in order to update their facilities, pay their staff, and keep everything like business as usual.  Sports bring in far more money(Football in particular) than the professors do.  That’s impressive if you consider the amount of grants that professors can get from companies and individuals who support whatever research and development is going on in that field.  The point is that I am tired of hearing about how UT puts too much emphasis on sports and not enough on the education.  To me, The University of Texas at Austin is the best place in the world to go to school because not only is it one of the best public universities in the nation for education, but its also one of the best University systems for sports having teams ranked in the Top 25 in nearly all sports.  The Collegiate system out there to me also falls under the “iron law of oligarchy” in the sense that eventually the best teams are just gonna get better making all the other schools out there suffer ever more than they already are.

Top Selling Universities

Rank	College/University
1	The University of Texas at Austin
2	The University of Alabama
3	University of Florida
4	Louisiana State University
5	The University of North Carolina
6	University of Georgia
7	The University of Michigan
8	University of Kentucky
9	The Pennsylvania State University
10	The University of Oklahoma
11	University of Notre Dame
12	University of Tennessee
13	West Virginia University
14	University of Nebraska
15	Auburn University
16	University of Wisconsin
17	The University of Kansas
18	University of Missouri
19	Florida State University
20	University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
21	Texas A&M University
22	University of Illinois
23	University of South Carolina
24	Texas Tech University
25	Clemson University
26	Oklahoma State University

The Collegiate Licensing Company Names Top Selling Universities and Manufacturers

Mack Brown Rap

The title says it all.  I am a fan of music but more importantly Chopped and Screwed music.  You know, the slowed down style normally involving a deep voice.  For sure, it sounds a lot like Mike Jones more than likely and it could be for all I know.  What I do know is that its a baller song that Mack Brown should play right before he goes and gives his big speech before the game.  In fact they should just go ahead and make a rap song for all the players and they should just listen to the song before the game starts and there wouldn’t even need to be a big speech.  Anyways, check the video out because it was originally showcased on 1300 The Zone (AM Radio Station out of Austin) which is my favorite station when I am in Austin because its the official Longhorn station.

Move over Minnesota, Notre Dame is here.

The all but sealed deal between the Minnesota Gophers and the Texas Longhorns  is anything but at this point.  The deal was that Texas and Minnesota would play each other in 2015 and 2016.  I imagine that Minnesota had thought Christmas had come early when they thought they had this deal in the bag back in September 2009 because anyone who plays the Longhorns gets rich.  While this would have been the first time the two teams had gotten together was just a few years after the Great Depression back in 1936.  While this may come as a disappointment to Longhorn fans, I have heard rumors of the Minnesota series being replaced by playing Notre Dame in the same seasons.  We have all heard about how Notre Dame has been wanting to ramp up their schedule in order to boost rankings and viewership.  It looks like they have taken a swipe at Minnesota while trying to increase their ratings.  Good thing I am not a Gopher fan or I might be mad.  Maybe they will get their shot in the Alamo Bowl if Texas craters this season behind Garrett Gilbert.  As a Lohghorn fan, I look forward to whooping up on Notre Dame in the future.  Especially if Will Muschamp is at the helm.

SidelineBlog Preseason Top 25 Rankings

First of all I would like to tell you how good it personally feels to see USC not in the Top 25 this season due to their slight death penalty.  However, I do not like how the Big 12 really got screwed in the USA Today Poll.  We here at SidelineBlog have created my own Top 25 that in my opinion is more realistic because you are kididing yourself if you think that Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and more have given up because teams are leaving.  Texas is put at #1 because their program consistently puts together the best team possible out on the field and this season it just so happens to be the best in the nation.  Now whether or not they live up to those expectations is very doubtful if you look at their past (minus the win against USC with Vince Young).  I am excited to see how the Top 25 ends up in the end and how close I am right now to predicting it.  We will be monitoring the situation all season and will have updates periodically (More than likely on a weekly to bi-weekly basis).  Without further ado, here is our Top 25 preseason rankings:

Rank	Team	Record
1	Texas	0-0
2	Alabama	0-0
3	Ohio State	0-0
4	Florida	0-0
5	TCU	0-0
6	Nebraska	0-0
7	Miami U (FL)	0-0
8	Boise State	0-0
9	Wisconsin	0-0
10	Oklahoma	0-0
11	Iowa	0-0
12	Virginia Tech	0-0
13	LSU	0-0
14	Penn State	0-0
15	Florida State	0-0
16	Pittsburgh	0-0
17	Georgia Tech	0-0
18	North Carolina	0-0
19	Arkansas	0-0
20	Houston	0-0
21	Oregon State	0-0
22	Cincinnati	0-0
23	Oklahoma State	0-0
24	Oregon	0-0
25	Missouri	0-0

2010-11 Longhorn Men’s Basketball Regular Season Schedule

For all of you Longhorn fan’s out there, I have some exciting news for you.  Out of the 31 regular season games, you will be able to see 21 of them on TV.  Even though I doubt they will open up in the Top Ten, I see this season as a great opportunity for Texas to show the Big 12 that its not just all about Football.  If they do well in New York City at the beginning of the season, they could face Illinois in the 2K Sports Classic basketball tournament.  The games you should obviously be excited about are the games against North Carolina, Michigan State, USC, Texas A&M, Baylor, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  Those are all potentially great games.  I am not promising a triple overtime game, but you know they are going to put up a fight to play all those guys.  Anyways, here is what the schedule looks like so far:

Texas Longhorn 2010-2011 Regular Season Schedule

Date	Opponent	Location	Time (All CST)
11/08/2010	Navy	Austin, Texas	8:00PM
11/10/2010	Louisiana Tech	Austin, Texas	8:00PM
11/18/2010	TBA (2K Sports Tourny)	New York City, N.Y.	8:30PM
11/19/2010	TBA (2K Sports Tourny)	New York City, N.Y.	TBA
11/23/2010	Sam Houston State	Austin, Texas	TBA
11/27/2010	Rice	Austin, Texas	TBA
12/01/2010	Lamar	Austin, Texas	TBA
12/05/2010	USC	Los Angeles, CA	TBA
12/11/2010	Texas State	Austin, Texas	TBA
12/14/2010	North Florida	Austin, Texas	TBA
12/18/2010	North Carolina	Greensboro, N.C.	3:00PM
12/22/2010	Michigan State	East Lansing, MI	6:00PM
12/31/2010	Coppin State	Austin, Texas	TBA
01/04/2011	Arkansas	Austin, Texas	8:00PM
01/08/2011	Connecticut	Austin, Texas	2:30PM
01/11/2011	Texas Tech	Lubbock, Texas	6:00PM
01/15/2011	Oklahoma	Austin, Texas	3:00PM
01/19/2011	Texas A&M	Austin, Texas	8:00PM
01/22/2011	Kansas	Lawrence, KS	3:00PM
01/26/2011	Oklahoma State	Stillwater, OK	6:30PM
01/29/2011	Missouri	Austin, Texas	8:00PM
01/31/2011	Texas A&M	College Station, Texas	8:00PM
02/05/2011	Texas Tech	Austin, Texas	8:00PM
02/09/2011	Oklahoma	Norman, OK	8:00PM
02/12/2011	Baylor	Austin, Texas	1:00PM
02/16/2011	Oklahoma State	Austin, Texas	8:00PM
02/19/2011	Nebraska	Lincoln, NE	12:45PM
02/22/2011	Iowa State	Austin, Texas	7:00PM
02/26/2011	Colorado	Boulder, CO	TBA
02/28/2011	Kansas State	Austin, Texas	8:00PM
03/05/2011	Baylor	Waco, Texas	TBA

Will Muschamp to Tennessee??? God I hope not.

With Lane Kiffin leaving the University of Tennessee just a little over a year after getting there, Tennessee is going to be looking for a non-controversial coach who can just step in and take over where Lane Kiffin left the program.  The Tennessee program really isnt that bad but they were embarrassed by Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl 37-14.  The main reason they lost this game was a lack of production from the offense.  While the defense was quite lame towards the end, they played a good game most of the first half.  I mean, who wouldn’t do well with Monte Kiffin coaching your defense, but with his son Lame Kiffin going to USC, part of the package included Monte also.  This does wonders for USC but this cripples Tennessee.   So with all of this, you can only wonder why they want Will Muschamp.  Here are the candidates that SidelineBlog has found to be in the front of the pack that Tennessee has written down as who they would love to have:

Will Muschamp (Defensive Coordinator and Coach in Waiting for the Texas Longhorns) – Will Muschamp would undoubtedly look good in that Tennessee Orange managing the defense while using Mack Brown and Greg Davis’ expertise (which he has been around for a few years now) to command the offense.  While this would be great for Tennessee, I dont think its the best spot for Muschamp.  He is set to take over a Longhorn program that brings in over $80,000,000 dollars per season.  Thats a lot of zero’s.  But you know never, in his heart of hearts…he is still just a boy from Georgia.

Jon Gruden – He has had his issues with Monte Kiffin in the past, and from what I can tell, he was supposed to get the job at Tennessee until Lane Kiffin strolled into town.  What a sweet deal it would be to take over the program the Kiffin’s tore apart and win a BCS championship.  Lets just say that Tennessee fans would love to see Lane Kiffin face down in the dirt.  I doubt it will happen in the end because Gruden is saying he loves being an announcer.  Mike Hamilton (Tennessee Athletic Director) has already spoken with Gruden and it sounds like he is turning it down.  But then again, from what I hear, Hamilton wont be there much longer.

David Cutcliffe (Head Coach of Duke University) – Has had ties to Tennessee in the past (1982 – Part Time, 1983-1993 – Tight Ends Coach, 1990-1993 – Quarterbacks Coach, 1993-1998 – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach, 2006-2007 – Offensive Coordinator) and when he wasnt with the Volunteers, he was coaching around the SEC.  To me this is the smartest choice because of the large rift that is Tennessee right now.  He spent two tours underneath long time Head Coach Philip Fulmer which is interesting considering all the rumors that Fulmer could be the next Athletic Director.

Other coaching possibilities at this point include:

• Randy Edsell
• Houston Nutt
• Troy Calhoun
• Derek Dooley

Is the Big 12 overrated this season?

With Texas being the only team that is undefeated left in the Big 12, people are starting to talk about how the Big 12 is overrated this season.  Oklahoma has dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time since 2005.  They barely stayed in the AP poll only because they only lost my three points to Texas this past weekend.   The real question here is whether or not the Big 12 is overrated.  I say its not for a lot of reasons.  First reason is that Oklahoma has three losses.  If you disect those losses Bradford got hurt in the BYU game, did not play at all in the Miami game, and got hurt 8 plays into the Texas game.  So you tell me that Oklahoma is horrible having shut out two other teams without Bradford.  They might not be able to step up against the likes of Miami and Texas, but they are still no pushover, they will be in a highly anticipated bowl game (more than likely either the Cotton Bowl, Alamo Bowl or Holiday Bowl).  Yes sir, when it comes down to it, I dont think I would like to face any of the top 6 teams in the Big 12.  I don’t think any team could call it an automatic win.

Secondly, even though the Big 12 only has 3 teams in the top 25, they have three teams just outside the top 25 and next week, if all those teams win, they will more than likely be right back up in the top 25.  There are two teams with one loss and 3 teams with two losses.  In fact, there is only one team in the Big 12 that has a losing record at this point and thats Colorado.  They are coming off a huge win against a top 25 opponent and long time rival Kansas handing them their first loss.  My point is that even Texas A&M (which in the past few years has kind of been a joke in the Big 12) is putting up huge numbers against teams.   They started out great with three huge wins against some decent teams, but has hit a rough patch going 0-3 in the past three games and being outscored 145-64 in those games.  Thats a crazy stat considering they outscored their opponents 135-54 for the first three games of the season.  Wake up boys, thats all I have to say.  You need to step it up and make the Big 12 proud.  I look forward to the Texas-Texas A&M game at the end o the season because both teams have the potential to put up some crazy numbers.  All in all I would have to say that the SEC wont look as pretty as they do at the end of the season either because they are all going to have to beat up on each other.  We might have lost one of our giants in Oklahoma, but to be honest with you, I am pretty sure most of the Big 12 teams could hold their own against SEC opponents.  I look forward to the Cotton Bowl this season as I plan to attend and watch the Big 12 battle the SEC in a high profile bowl game.  The Big 12 is not going away people.  They are here to stay.

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