The Big 12 Expands While The World Ends

Big 12 media days have come and gone, leaving the conference in a 180 degree directional switch from whence they started. The Big 12’s position was that something bad would happen to Baylor and that the conference’s expansion plans were put to bed for the time being.

Furthering the Baylor position, Tuesday, Dennis Dodds wrote that Baylor’s relationship with the Big 12 was “strained, potentially beyond repair”. Berry Tramel of the Oklahoman wrote about Baylor from the Big 12’s perspective, stating that the conference would like to “wash its hands of Waco”.

Tuesday morning, USA Today’s George Schroeder tweeted that the Big 12 was going to table expansion consideration, perhaps for several years. (Don’t blame George. It was an easy mistake given the previous position by the Big 12.)

Everyone was momentarily sad about the death of Big 12 expansion; really they were sad about the death of web hits and a splashy subject to write about in the middle of July.

The Big 12 presidents met on Tuesday, then after the meeting the world was informed during a conference call that Baylor wasn’t going to receive any punishment from the conference, but that Big 12 EXPANSION WAS ON WITH A VENGEANCE!

I’ll let Oklahoma president David Boren explain how Baylor convinced the Big 12 that they didn’t need to be punished and were doing everything they were supposed to be doing despite the fact that the Big 12 had previously asked for specific information (a written version of the Pepper Hamilton report of which no written version exists) on the scandal and received none twice.

Between Baylor’s Dave Bliss basketball scandal and the recent Ken Starr/Art Briles/sexual assault scandal, Baylor’s explanation to the Big 12 is akin to saying “I’m going to quit drinking (and this time I really mean it)!”. This is a phrase that a lot of us are accustomed to, whether saying or hearing. We add that bit in parentheses if we’re required to cry while saying it as this might make us more pitiful and more worthy of forgiveness.

The abrupt change in thought was brought about by the presence of big bags of money in the form of the recent ACC television contract. There’s nothing like dollar signs floating in your eyes (other than a live, nude body) to make you forget about everything else going on. Rationality leaves the room while fear and greed enter.

Greed is apparent, that’s easy to understand. Fear entered when the Big 12 presidents imagined that at the next big (no pun intended) meeting of Power 5 presidents that they would be left with no big bags of money while the other Power Five presidents all had bags of money, and the cars, mansions, and accessories that accompany them.

What you see in that video of David Boren speaking is him passing responsibility for Baylor on to the NCAA, an organization (not) known for swift and just enforcement. Someone should have asked Boren if he would let his daughter go to Baylor (more likely at his age, his granddaughters), if for no other reason that to get that split second look of contemplation on video.

Passing the buck is nothing new. It’s been going on the since the dawn of humanity (Adam, Eve, and the Serpent), but you’d like to think that someone, somewhere, especially those in charge of our children would hold themselves accountable in some manner. Distracted, the Big 12 presidents did not bother.

Neither did college football writers, who are now happy to speculate (again) as to which schools are the best Big 12 expansion bets while we wait for the beginning of football season.

The lack of accountability would be easy to take were it only in sports, but it is not. It is rampant. It is in everything from the Pokemon Go player who drives into a tree or falls off a cliff to the individual pieces of violence appearing, seeming at random, everywhere across the globe.

It is in a US presidential election cycle that asks us to pick between two plates of shit, the idea being that we will eat one after rationalizing the choice. The other is to be demonized. We will make these choices not based on reason, but because one is “on our side” and therefore deemed more palatable. We could care less about right or wrong. We just don’t want to lose.

It is as if the world cannot contain much more bullshit that already exists.

How is this happening?

Noted billionaire Tesla guy Elon Musk said a few weeks ago that "There's a billion to one chance we're living in base reality,” - in other words, that we are living in a simulation run by advanced beings.

That concept - that our world is a simulation - could be one reason for this recent level of madness, especially if said simulation is a game that is won by building a world and filling it to its “maximum bullshit potential”. “Maximum bullshit potential” in this case means filling the world with as many beings as possible running to and fro with no goal other than to gather as many resources unto themselves at the expense of others while blaming everyone else for their problems.

It begs the question - can the world be filled with more bullshit than it is right now? (Unfortunately, the answer is probably “yes”). If you say “No”, then there’s the distinct possibility that the world will end very soon, as our more advanced controller ends this game, gets his grade of “Gold”, “Silver”, or “Bronze” and starts another simulation.

There are certainly other explanations.

There is the idea that we’re simply running to and fro gathering resources at the expense of others and have no one else but ourselves to blame, i.e., that we built this world that we now live in. That we’re the ones to blame for everything....

So, it looks like BYU, UConn (!!!), Cincinnati and Houston are the best schools positioned to become the next members of the Big 12. If things last long enough.