The Big 12 officially needs to DIE, here's why....

[PortCityProphet]

We did that breh, the last 7-8 games we led the NCAA in rushing.

Our main issue offensively all year was our O-line pass blocking though. Baker Mayfield made a lot of Heisman highlight plays b/c he was running for his life, basically. LOL

That should be improved next year now that the freshman linemen are experienced.

And yeah, a ton of high school teams in Texas now run spread/air raid offenses. And it's probably hurting their development overall.

Yall really are in a tricky situation
The thing about it in football you're always gonna need big bodies. You aren't winning a ship playing small ball. It is the reason I'll never pick Oregon to win a ship.
You got to find a medium between a Bama and Oregon. But if you go full cheetah you gonna get pushed around when you play the big boys. Only chance you really got is to find a medium stick with it and impose your will

 

[jadillac]

Same here @jadillac. I'll wait until I get back to talk about our midget receivers and lack of big bodies

lol...Sterling Sheppard is the GOAT midget

but next year we'll have at least 3 guys about 6'4 playing

 

[Charlie Broadway]

I don't think the big 12 needs to be put out of its misery. I think the conference needs Texas and Oklahoma to be stronger. The conference is the way it is because of two reasons:

1. Texas and Oklahoma made mistakes with recruiting philosophies in the mid 2000s and only OU has recovered. These two programs should have the most talented teams in the conference 9 times out of 10. Their rosters should be stacked with guys that are big, strong, fast and physical. Yes the spread is all over Texas high schools but these types are out there and they should be at the big 12's flagship programs.

With Texas it's pretty much common knowledge that Mack went after a different type of player after he won the title. I don't see the need to elaborate because I'm assuming we all agree Texas should be targeting the cream of the crop rather than choir boys that would commit on the spot like in Mack's last days. With OU, to this day I still remind one of my OU brehs that years ago I told him they'd forever regret pulling back on recruiting Texas. I don't remember the reason why but at some point in the 2000s started to go national with their recruiting. I'd be interested to see what their number of Texas kids is now that they're doing great again. Even if you don't get a top of the line Texas recruit you're getting a talented kid with a chip on his shoulder. I'd also imagine those Texas kids get more amped to play the instate schools than those recruited from around the country. That's 40% of your schedule that the OU roster should be juiced for off top which definitely comes in handy over the grind of a season.

2. Mike Leach and Art Briles. The branches of these 2 men's coaching trees are spread all over the conference. People to this day mistakenly refer to Briles' system as the air raid but it's not nor has it ever been an air raid offense. The air raid is more pervasive in the big 12 than Briles' offense. The air raid was/is supposed to even the odds and minimize the difference in talent levels between 2 unevenly matched teams. Leach does what he does because he has to. I'm not saying schools like OU shouldn't be running the air raid but I am saying they shouldn't have to. They've been in a much different place than where they were when they won the title with Mangino for a long time.

From there the big 12 just became a copycat league that is now reaping what it's sowed for so long. OK st said they needed to get better so they hired Holgerson from Houston. West Virginia headed to the big 12? Gotta go get Dana. Tubberville not working out? Time for tech to go back to the basics and get Kliff. TCU struggling in a new conference? Why build when you can hire an air raid coach from Houston. Texas falling off fast? fukk recruiting smarter let's go to the spread.

I at least give Briles credit for doing his own thing. I liked what Strong was thinking by trying to zag while everyone else is zigging but I think his execution was poor.

tl;dr
Big 12 needs Texas and Oklahoma to each get their talent levels back to where they should be (which is in the process of happening) and stop poaching coaches from nearby schools in attempts to replicate their success.

 

[jadillac]

to this day I still remind one of my OU brehs that years ago I told him they'd forever regret pulling back on recruiting Texas. I don't remember the reason why but at some point in the 2000s started to go national with their recruiting.

c'mon breh.

OU has been recruiting nationally for years. Roy Williams? He was from Cali. Josh Heupel was from South Dakota or something like that. DeMarco is from Vegas.

We're still heavily comprised of Texas kids. We recruit Oklahoma, Texas and westward fairly well. Most recently Florida/Lousiana

I really wanted us to win this year tho We could've used a big victory to legitimize us to the southeastern part of the country.

 

[BelowTheMasonDixon]

It's what 128 teams. Only 1 is gonna win the College Football Playoff and after this bowl season I see that more times than not it's gonna come from the SEC. I don't fukk with the SEC in any way, shape or form but I realize that they are on a different level . I accept it but I still want to see spread/air raid teams of the Big 12 or pro style type offenses that focus on the passing game like the Pac 12 was known for.

So you like watching basketball on grass. and 69-48 games. fukk that, shyt is pathetic.

 

[RammerJammer]

Big 12 is my favorite conference along with the Pac 12. Way more offensive minded. Don't change a thing just recruit better players. Baylor's coming, Texas won't be down forever and expansion can happen. fukk running the ball and relying on defense. I say get a QB and light up the scoreboard.

That type of football dont win National Championships though

 

[Tha_Mac]

So you like watching basketball on grass. and 69-48 games. fukk that, shyt is pathetic.

Basketball is my favorite sport college football is 2nd then the nfl.

 

[Tha_Mac]

That type of football dont win National Championships though

I didn't go to college I just love the sport becuz these college players play with passion and for the love of the game. The big 12 style is fun to watch and I'm sure it's fun to play in as well.

 

[FreedS[ohh]lave]

I agree 100 % I hate how gimmicky that conference is. It's arena league football with no defense played As an old school football I hate it and agree that you can't beat elite teams that way.

Ou is the one school that got sucked into it that shouldn't have and it's a shame because I think it's killed their chance to win a national title

All those other schools using it like baylor tech tcu etc play that way because they don't recruit well enough to win big so that gimmick offense has helped them win a few more games but their never gonna contend unfortunately though it's ruined the whole conference

 

[Silkk]

BS, Oklahoma just got beat by a better team. Same way they did in 03, 04, & 08

They lit up Bama with the same offense. You win some, You lose some

Big 12 games are very entertaining

 

[Silkk]

That type of football dont win National Championships though

Thats BS, if teams can win 12-13/make the playoffs with it it can definitely win a national championship. Just a matter of time

 

[FreedS[ohh]lave]

c'mon breh.

OU has been recruiting nationally for years. Roy Williams? He was from Cali. Josh Heupel was from South Dakota or something like that. DeMarco is from Vegas.

We're still heavily comprised of Texas kids. We recruit Oklahoma, Texas and westward fairly well. Most recently Florida/Lousiana

I really wanted us to win this year tho We could've used a big victory to legitimize us to the southeastern part of the country.

Ou though seems to be consistently around 15-25 in rankings which isn't bad but not elite like you'd think

The big 12 as a whole doesn't get many top 300 guys But if not for Ou and texas it would be almost mid major level recruiting

 

[Tony D'Amato]

(long read)

watching that OU/Clemson game was so disappointing for me. Still hurts to think about. Let me have my peace.


Despite Clemson being the better team, it highlighted a bigger issue.

If you look at OU 10-12 years ago, we had big, huge LBs, 6'0+ physical DB's with size, etc. Our WRs were big guys. Our linemen were maulers. You look at us now, and it's not the same. What happened?

It's been building for years, but now all 10 outta 10 teams in the Big 12 have switched to some version of the air-raid offense. A decade or so ago, it used to be just Texas Tech that was pass, pass, pass... Every team back then good or bad, had a different identity. Now there's no balance anymore.

Long story short, you now have to build/recruit your teams a certain way to win consistently in the Big 12. You have to score in bunches to keep up with Baylor, TCU, WVU, OkSt, and Texas Tech b/c there's no way to shut them down EVERY WEEK. Sure, in a one off game you might be ok.....but for 9 conf games, somebody is gonna catch you slipping and crazy stuff will happen. Building a team to win the Big 12 doesn't prepare you well to win against top teams from other confs. You have to have a lttle smaller, quicker player to compete in the Big 12. You think a big safety like Roy Williams could play today? Not a chance. Our leading tackler, LB Dom Alexander, LOST 10 lbs before this season so he could play at 220lbs and be quicker for the Big 12 style. That's crazy.

Clemson's D-coord, Brent Venebles, was almost ran out of Norman b/c his last couple years were simply AWFUL. Everybody blamed him when in retrospect the real problem was these week to week gimmicky offenses. Granted he might have a little better talent at Clemson, but he also isn't handcuffed the way D-coordinators are in the B12.

Two years ago OU switched to a more traditional run-heavy ball control offense, and a 3-4 defense......that season we beat Alabama at the end....but we also got stomped by Baylor that year. And then the following year lost 4 conf games. So this season we switched up things again, we outscored everybody and played fantastic pass defense, but Texas beat us by essentially playing bully ball..Clemson too. Our team isn't really built for that, BUT you also can't win in the B12 consistently playing bully ball b/c you'll need to score more week to week. It also makes it a harder sell to 4-5 star recruits on the defensive side of the ball.

So yeah, Big 12 had it's time, but it needs to go away, be dissolved into others, whatever. I wouldnt mind seeing OU in the Big 10, Pac-12, or SEC West.

Stop your crying. Why would u want to see OU finish 3rd and 4th in those conferences. At least in the big 12 yall can pretend that you're elite

 

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

The big 12 needs to die because of the following:

• It has no identity. There is really no purpose to the league and no uniform connection or identity between any of the schools outside of texas and oklahoma. They are all running air raid as you said and they are setting themselves up to be simply unimpressive during the regular season, and thus, be the odd man out in the playoffs if the pac 12 isn't trash.
• TO TRULY CREATE A 4 TEAM TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS for college football. 4 conferences, 16 teams each (or even 18 if you flex on independants and add some smaller schools), and you WIN THE CONFERENCE AND YOURE IN. NO more pools, no committee, no fake mystery bias trash. WIN the conference and you're in. Hell, you can make the 4 conference titles the Sugar bowl [SEC] the Orange bowl [ACC], the Fiesta bowl [PAC], and the Cotton Bowl [B1G] or whatever, and make it truly settled on the field. Until then, its simply broken...you can't play your way into the title game period.

Texas should've let the whole thing fall. Oklahoma and Texas to B1G to establish a big ten east and west and re-establish the nebraska fued, and build something worthwhile with Iowa and iowa state, and take it from there. College football is broken because of 8 schools trying to hold on to the old SWC

 

[RammerJammer]

Thats BS, if teams can win 12-13/make the playoffs with it it can definitely win a national championship. Just a matter of time

Who has done it though?