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Would be really intriguing if we got some truth serum and asked Big 12 expats what their decision would be if they had it to do over again.
— David Ubben (@davidubben) January 17, 2013
My guess: Colorado and A&M don't regret leaving one bit. May not for awhile. I sense regret from Huskers. Mizzou would come sprinting back.
— David Ubben (@davidubben) January 17, 2013
@rockmnation Not saying MU would come back if given opportunity now. Wouldn't have left knowing definitively how league would look in 2013.
— David Ubben (@davidubben) January 17, 2013
@rockmnation Though I also believe hubris and a misperception of the Big 12 would prevent anyone from MU from admitting that.
— David Ubben (@davidubben) January 17, 2013
@davidubben Don't mistake fan hubris with program hubris. The curators didn't sign off because "Screw those guys LOL!"
— Rock M Nation (@rockmnation) January 17, 2013
@robweir @rockmnation That phrase admittedly allows folks to draw that conclusion, but in context of my tweets about the issue today, no.
— David Ubben (@davidubben) January 17, 2013
I stand corrected. There was apparently a late break of no's, and in the end, a whopping 12 percent of those responding said that Mizzou should never have left the Big 12. Never mind that you cannot get 88 percent of Missouri fans to agree on anything. They agreed on this. But apparently that's just hubris, not an enormous combination of conference stability, financial stability, and the fact that the SEC is just a pretty nice place to live. Nope. Only hubris prevents 88 percent of Missouri fans from admitting they secretly regret the move and wish they could crawl sprint back to the cozy, comfortable and TOTALLY STABLE, REALLY, confines of the Big 12.
I love the Big 12 as a sports conference. With my "college football writer" hat on, I watched a ton of Big 12 games this season -- almost as many as I'd have watched had Missouri still been in the conference -- and even as Missouri was limping toward a 5-7 finish, with quite possibly the hardest schedule in the country, and with a record number of injuries, I never, not for one single second, found myself thinking "Man, I wish none of this would have happened." This was, as it has often been described, a true 100-year move. And while Mizzou has caught more bad breaks this year than in almost any year I can remember ... [pauses to put my Mizzou hat back on] ... regrets? Seriously? I'm supposed to have regrets about this?