Winners and losers are being sorted out in the Big 12’s near-death experience

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Some win, some lose in Big 12’s near-breakup

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The harrowing, near-death experience of the Big 12 Conference has affected every one of its member schools and had a ripple effect on others. Some are better off, some are not, and hardly any school broke even.

Without perennially weak Colorado and Nebraska clogging the drain, for example, Big 12 basketball fans will have a better product to enjoy. They’re winners.

But Nebraska’s defection to the Big Ten weakens the league’s football clout and severs its storied association with Oklahoma, destroying one of the sport’s great rivalries.

Nebraska can at least look forward to bigger payouts and new rivalries with the likes of Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan. But fans in both states will miss those Sooner-Husker showdowns and they’re going to feel sadly nostalgic for the glory days of Tom Osborne, Barry Switzer, Turner Gill, Brian Bosworth and the rest.

Rivalries like theirs helped fuel the popularity that college football enjoys today and now it’s gone. Here’s a recap of some of the winners and losers following a tumultuous week in college sports:

Winner: Texas. With the promise of much more lucrative television contracts for the slimmed-down Big 12, the league’s richest athletic department will have even more cash to roll around in. Texas even got the green light to start its own TV network. Plus, the Longhorns don’t have Nebraska quarreling with them all the time.

Winners: The Uninvited Five. Kansas, Missouri, Iowa State, Baylor and Kansas State were in deep trouble for a while, with no apparent home had the Big 12 fallen apart. They might have talked their way into, say, the Mountain West or Conference USA. But it would have meant less income and tougher recruiting. Prized rivalries, some dating to the 19th century, might have been imperiled. Some are laughing at these schools for offering, in effect, to pay Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma to stay with them. What would you do?

Loser: Dallas and/or Jerry Jones. With only 10 members, the Big 12 does not qualify under NCAA rules to have a football championship. The game had been scheduled for Jones’ sparkling new Cowboys Stadium for five straight years.

Winner: Kansas City. Giving up the Big 12 basketball tournament would have been an economic and emotional blow to the citizenry of this Missouri River town known long ago as Possum Trot. Kansas City probably had more at stake in the Big 12 saga than any other city in the region.

Loser: Missouri. While the Tigers stay in the Big 12, Gov. Jay Nixon was so excited at the prospect of ditching the Big 12 for the “academically superior” Big Ten that he publicly insulted Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. Missouri athletes, after all, still have to play the Red Raiders and Cowboys.

Winner: Notre Dame. The Big 12 largely stood pat while the Pac-10 and Big Ten picked up a few teams but the past week has not amounted to a “seismic” change in realignment. That means the Irish can keep their beloved independence in football.

Loser: Iowa football. They get Nebraska as a rival but have to persuade in-state talent not to leave for Lincoln.

Winner: Osborne. Dr. Tom got everything he wanted — an “in-your-face” split from Texas and permanent residence for his Huskers in the Big Ten.

Winner: Dan Beebe. A week ago, people were calling for the embattled Big 12 commissioner’s scalp. Now he and his staff are credited with a miraculous save. Especially grateful are the Uninvited Five.

Loser: Kansas basketball, sort of. In their last 43 games against Colorado, the Jayhawks were 42-1. Now with Colorado gone to the Pac-10 and a new round-robin format, Kansas has to surrender two annual automatic wins and trek to Texas every season instead of every other season.

Winner: Colorado. The Buffaloes never seemed to have much in common with their Big 12 brethren. They’ve always recruited heavily in California, so Pac-10 membership could be very good. Hello, Rick Neuheisel? See you soon!

Losers: Football coaches at Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Missouri. They’re relieved of facing Nebraska every year, sure. But now they’ll be butting heads every year with Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. Remember, in Kansas’ storybook Orange Bowl season of 2007, the Jayhawks did not have to play Oklahoma or Texas.

Winner: Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini. An Ohio State grad and Youngstown, Ohio, native, Pelini knows his way around the Big Ten recruiting grounds. And Nebraska’s brand of power football is better suited for the colder Midwest than for the Sun Belt.

Winner: Baylor basketball. Brittney Griner, the 6-foot-8 dunking sensation, might have considered leaving if Baylor had been left without a major conference. It would have been much tougher to recruit the highly touted recruits who’ve headed to Waco in recent years.

AP Sports Writers Stephen Hawkins in Fort Worth, Texas, Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City, Eric Olson in Omaha, Neb., Pat Graham in Denver and Luke Meredith in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this story.