:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46522424/usa-today-8435439.0.jpg)
What's On
What's the basketball team up to these days?
Teki
The Trib (Courtside View): Gill-Caesar not part of final roster for Canadian U19 national team
AND HEY ... speaking of Children's Hospital ... we're approaching 87% of our Tremendous Stubble fundraising goal ... that's pretty amazing, but we've got 13% more to go...
Up in Eugene...
MUTIGERS.COM: Rushin, Peoples Earn All-American Honors
Seniors Kearsten Peoples, Jill Rushin, and Katrine Haarklau closed out their stellar Tiger careers on Thursday (June 11) at the NCAA Championships at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., earning their final All-American honors in the black and gold. Peoples and Rushin both found themselves back on the podium, finishing in the top eight of their respective fields, while Haarklau earned a Second Team finish after placing tenth. [...]
Freshman John Warren will be the final Tiger to compete this week as he makes his NCAA Championship debut on Friday in the men's triple jump, starting at 4:30 p.m. PT. Warren, who placed ninth at the West Preliminary Round, currently holds the fifth-best mark in Mizzou history at 15.75m (51-8.25).
The Missourian: Peoples, Rushin earn All-American status in Oregon
Post-Dispatch: Two Mizzou javelin throwers are in NCAAs
ICYMI
Nworah is No. 10
PowerMizzou: Nworah ends tour with commiment
The Trib (Behind the Stripes): Texas OL continues MU's commitment hot streak
Post-Dispatch: Texas lineman picks Mizzou
Other recruiting
PowerMizzou: Mizzou hosts Oklahoma speedster
MIZZOUEXPANSIONAPALOOZA 2010™
There was a wave of realignment reminiscing yesterday on the fifth anniversary of Nebraska announcing it was going to t the Big Ten. I'm going to continue evergreening some old Rock M posts from that time just for grins, but here are some of the best pieces. Someone really needs to write a book about this ... maybe for the 10th anniversary...
Fox Sports (Stewart Mandel): Biggest winners, losers five years after realignment hell broke loose
The biggest winners
4) Texas A&M and Missouri. Neither seemed like natural fits upon joining the SEC, but fans of the existing teams embraced them. For A&M, a perfect storm in 2012 of Kevin Sumlin's arrival, Johnny Manziel's ascendance and beating Alabama greatly emboldened the Aggies' fan base. The school approved an expansive renovation of Kyle Field the next year. And while Mizzou won two Big 12 division titles under Gary Pinkel, its consecutive SEC East crowns garnered newfound respect nationally.
The biggest losers
3) West Virginia. By late 2011, then-AD Oliver Luck knew he had to get WVU out of the Big East, but landing an invite from the SEC or ACC proved unrealistic. Instead, the school began a clunky marriage with the Big 12, where it's nowhere near any of the other members. The Mountaineers, which went to three BCS bowls their last six years in the Big East, have gone 16-18 in four seasons of Big 12 play, with coach Dana Holgorsen running a similar Air Raid offense as half the league but without the same recruiting benefit of having the state of Texas in its backyard.
SI.com: The man who helped save the Big 12? Rethinking Dan Beebe in realignment
First, Beebe tried to convince ESPN and FOX executives, who both had deals with the Big 12, to rip up the Big 12’s existing contracts and write new ones for the 10-school group. His logic? It could cost the networks far more if the Pac-10 destroyed the Big 12. Not only would they have to pay megabucks for the Pac-16, they would probably also have to rip up deals and pay significantly more for the Big Ten and SEC if those leagues responded by expanding more. "It behooves you to keep this conference together," Beebe told the executives. Beebe’s request was rebuffed, but with a Tier 2 rights negotiation coming up the following spring, he knew he still had a chance to promise the remaining Big 12 schools more money.
Still, he needed a gesture of good faith to make them stay. And while ESPN and FOX weren’t willing to do new deals, Beebe was correct that letting the Big 12 shatter would ultimately cost the networks more in rights fees. So, they agreed to continue paying for 10 schools what they had previously been paying for 12. Third-tier rights, meanwhile, would remain the schools’ to sell individually. A certain school in Austin could go ahead with its plans for a cable network if it chose. The deal wasn’t all Beebe wanted, but it might be enough to hold the league together.
I'll posit an opinion here: The initial scoop from [Chip] Brown wasn't exactly wrong, per se, but it did seem like a Texas-fueled ploy. Nebraska didn't have its assurance it could join the Big Ten. But, obviously, Missouri couldn't have been certain, either, so the line about Nebraska being "completely left out of the power structure" — while Missouri possessed some assurance that the Big Ten would take it, but not NU — ultimately missed the mark. That one line — "But Nebraska has no assurance it will be invited to the Big Ten and could be left completely out of the power conference structure if it's not careful" — reads like a chess move.
Beebe didn't appear for his scheduled press conference late on June 3.