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Message: [QUOTE="WoadBlue, post: 3459493, member: 1145"] But it was far from calm behind the curtains. Texas knew the SWC was Dead Man Walking. The Pac reached out and all but offered UT and A&M to make a Pac 12. That would have added the very valuable state of TX to the Rose Bowl alliance. Aggie even then was totally uninterested is going Left Coast. Texas flirted with a Big 8-SWC merger, but 16 teams seemed far too unwieldy. Allegedly, the BT told Texas it would take both UT and A&M. Finally, both SWC and Big 8 dissolved their charters and disbanded, and then the 8 of the Big 8 and Texas, A&M, Baylor and TexasTech became the new league the Big XII. That the Big XII was NOT the Big 8 expanded to 12 is very important to the demise of the Big XII. Miami's goal was to be in the ACC, and that did not change with BE football. When Erickson's zoo/circus/playpen for troubled boys forced his cancellation, Miami President Tad Foote hired Butch Davis with one order: clean up the program so it does not keep the university out of the ACC. My first post online was in 1998, and I said I had learned from a Bama booster who was good friends with a Florida booster in Miami that Miami was working hard to get an ACC invite. The BE knew what Miami was doing back then. When we added Miami and VT, the ACC, upset that Tranghese lied to the public, released proof that in 1998 the BE offered to let the ACC 'have' Miami, Cuse, BC, and Pitt for football season, but they would remain BE basketball. By 2000, Miami was advocating that the ACC go to 12, with Miami, Cuse, and BC. FSU immediately backed the Miami Plan. It was a given that any BE team offered by the ACC would leave because Miami could not be replaced. Behind the scenes, VT was playing excellent state politics, arranging things so that UVA would vote NO on expansion unless VT were included. VT began the ACC's 10th, and Miami was the 11th. But neither BC nor Cuse was added then. The reason is that the ACC and Notre Dame were talking. ND and the ACC had been allies on virtually all issues back to opposition to Jock Dorms. And ND even then knew that it required Major conference memberships for all sports but football and might need it later for football. Supposedly, ND back them agreed to be a full member of the ACC if the league played only 5 football games per year. The ACC could not go that low, obviously. So then BC got the nod, probably because so many Cuse basketball boosters were less than thrilled about leaving the BE. The Big XII had never been fully stable, because Nebraska had never been fully happy. It lost its annual game with OU, and Texas became THE Big XII power broker immediately. That meant that the SEC kept looking at A&M to get into TX. It also meant that Texas would keep looking at possibilities. The Big XI began to fall apart when the Big Ten again failed to get ND to join. The BT decided to take Nebraska so it could have a Championship Game. That occurred as Texas was flirting with the Pac, to take A&M, OU, and Ok ST to make the Pac 16. Colorado did leave for the Pac 12. That gave the Pac Rocky Mountains, which it hoped would greatly increase its revenue. The remaining 10 in the Big XII were not stable. A&M lost all trust in Texas with the start of the LHN. Missouri had hoped to get into the BT. KU would have done anything to get into the BT. The SEC knew it must act to get into TX or lose that possibility. The Aggies were taken to be the SEC's 13th. Later, the SEC added Missouri for 14 members. The Big XII added TCU to replace A&M. It needed a 10th, and the Big XII looked at Pitt first. The plan was to take Pitt and use the old ND rival to offer ND a scheduling arrangement. The second that Pitt knew it was in the Big XII if it wanted, Pitt called John Swofford, who immediately set up a conference call with all ACC ADs and Presidents, and Pitt and Syracuse were voted in. ND was angry because the ACC had told ND it would not act to harm BE football, and Pitt also had told ND the same thing. ND calmed once it learned that Pitt had no choice but to call Swoffird because if Pitt did nit take the Big XII offer then WVU would, so BE football would be harmed deeply either way. The ACC added Pitt and Syracuse to make certain they did not go Big XII. All that led to the ACC deal with ND. And that spurred the BT to get even with the ACC by expanding to 14. I think the BT was stupid enough to think that the ACC would be left reeling at losing Maryland. Louisville is a replacement that works very well for the ACC. Then the BT took Rutgers. Both were exclusively about TV markets, hoping to harm the ACC. Now, everything is about Notre Dame and Texas. [/QUOTE]

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