Monday Musings: The Big 12’s Last Dance – CycloneFanatic.com

Mar 13, 2020; Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, USA; Massive 12 faculty banners cling within the courtyard of the Kansas Metropolis Energy & Mild District following the cancellation of the Massive 12 mens basketball match resulting from issues over the Covid 19 coronavirus. Necessary Credit score: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports activities

The sensation hit me as I considered Kansas Metropolis.

I used to be not fascinated with Patrick Mahomes and the two-time defending AFC champion Chiefs or the magical Royals squad of 2015. No, I used to be fascinated with one in all America’s nice basketball cities, one of many few nice basketball cities with no basketball crew of their very own, and the best convention match in faculty athletics.

I used to be fascinated with the Massive 12 Match. I used to be fascinated with the Energy & Mild, Kelly’s, The Inexperienced Girl Lounge and the Marriot resort bar that has been house to many a Cyclone celebration.

I used to be fascinated with Monte Morris’ shot to beat Texas, Deonte Burton’s thunderous slam towards West Virginia and Marial Shayok’s heroics towards Kansas State.

I used to be fascinated with Hilton South.

The Massive 12 as we all know it’s one step nearer to its demise as we speak. Oklahoma and Texas have notified the league of their intent to not renew the league’s media rights settlement as soon as it expires in 2025. No one expects the league to final till midway by way of the last decade, although, with the SEC anticipated to increase membership invitations to each faculties someday within the not-so-distant future.

The writing is, sadly, on the wall. The Massive 12’s final dance is coming — and shortly.

No one on this Earth is aware of what which means for the eight establishments left behind by Longhorn and Sooner greed. They may stick collectively and add just a few faculties. However, then again, they may find yourself scattered throughout numerous different conferences, trying to discover their footing as the brand new children on the block.

The one factor we do know is none of it would ever be the identical.

We all know this as a result of we’ve seen it earlier than with our personal eyes. Nebraska turned its again on historical past greater than a decade in the past to leap from the Massive 12 to the Massive Ten for greener monetary pastures.

The cash has definitely arrived in Lincoln, however ask the oldsters who pack Memorial Stadium on any given Saturday within the fall in the event that they’d somewhat be internet hosting Rutgers or Kansas. The Cornhuskers and Jayhawks have squared off on the gridiron 117 instances, courting all the best way again to 1892.

There’s historical past and familiarity with the Jayhawks. All Nebraska has in frequent with Rutgers is that they’ve each slid in properly as punching baggage for Ohio State on a virtually annual foundation whereas a few of the longest-standing Massive Ten members keep away from the highly effective Buckeyes for years at a time.

It should be good to be the bully when a brand new child comes round.

The Sooners know the worth of historical past all too properly. It’s why they’ll sq. off with the Huskers this season for the primary time because the 2010 Massive 12 title recreation in a celebration of fifty years because the 1971 Sport of the Century.

That recreation 50 years in the past was very like practically each version of the Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry that adopted. Two of the nation’s finest groups going head-to-head with league-title and national-title ramifications on the road year-after-year with unhealthy blood and earned respect that may solely exist between two bitter rivals.

The identical can’t be mentioned for the Sooners, and Texas, this system Oklahoma hitched its wagon to greater than 25 years in the past and can journey behind off into American Southeast sundown.

Texas has gained three Massive 12 titles throughout the league’s 25-year run, which is identical quantity as Nebraska and Colorado mixed. The latter two faculties haven’t been within the league for greater than 10 years and final gained a title in 2003.

But, the Longhorns are those calling the photographs ultimately as a result of that is faculty athletics and barely does something actually really make sense.

I perceive the financial component of all this, however that doesn’t imply I’ve to love it. Oklahoma and Texas stand to make obscene quantities of cash from leaping ship to align with Alabama, LSU, Florida, Georgia and others.

If solely extra money meant fixing each downside. If that had been the case, Texas would have many extra Massive 12 titles than Nebraska, Colorado, and even Oklahoma (which has gained 14 of them, together with the final six), as a result of Texas is already the richest faculty athletics program within the nation no matter their league affiliation.

Oklahoma has shared a league with Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Kansas State and Kansas since 1920. Greater than 100 years of athletic partnership and custom thrown down the drain for just a few million {dollars}.

That’s what makes me so sick about all of this. School soccer celebrates and touts its historical past as passionately as perhaps any sport on Earth in addition to baseball. Oklahoma is correct on the middle of the game’s historical past as one of many flagship blue-blood applications.

Hell, they’re taking part in their longtime rival for the primary time in a decade actually to have fun historical past. However, now, they’re turning their backs on historical past and custom with little regard for any of the folks or locations they’ve constructed that historical past with for over a century.

A high-level Texas supply even mentioned the quiet half out loud to OrangeBloods.com reporter Geoff Ketchum, admitting the 2 faculties don’t actually care what occurs to the eight faculties they’ll go away behind.

As Michael Jordan mentioned in The Final Dance…

“That’s when it turned private to me.”

Historical past, custom, partnership, belief, all of that’s out the window. None of it issues anymore as a result of these two faculties see greener pastures and greener pockets.

I can’t cease fascinated with Kansas Metropolis.

I counsel you make your journey plans for March sooner somewhat than later. It’s one thing that each Cyclone (and Massive 12) fan ought to expertise earlier than they die.

That magnificent celebration of Midwest basketball seems to be on its final legs, too, although. A final dance on the Energy & Mild for followers from throughout The Nice Plains.

From right here on out, the whole lot is private to me.

Jared Stansbury

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Jared a local of Clarinda, Iowa, began because the Cyclone Fanatic intern in August 2013, primarily working as a videographer till beginning on the ladies’s basketball beat previous to the 2014-15 season. Upon incomes his Bachelor’s diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication from Iowa State in Might 2016, Jared was employed as the positioning’s full-time employees author, taking on as the first day-to-day reporter on soccer and males’s basketball. He was elevated to the place of managing editor in January 2020. He’s a daily contributor on 1460 KXNO in Des Moines and makes common visitor appearances on radio stations throughout the Midwest. Jared resides in Ankeny along with his four-year-old puggle, Lolo.

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