Just wanted to take a little bit of time to vent about the crumbling Big12!! Does anyone else see the significance of what we have lost? The more I think about it, the more pi$$ed I get.... I am actually kind of worried about Texas Tech long term and the exposure we will get nationwide.

1. Losing Nebraska...

Personally, I loved playing Nebraska!! It was a program that was nationally respected and had fans all across the country. No doubt it added TV sets and eyeballs to the Big 12 and it was great to see my Alma Mater beat them! I didnt realize it until looking at a map of the US and realized that a whole state + many other fans across the country instantly turned off TV sets tot he big 12. Geographically and culturally, They fit in well with both the Big 12 and Big 10. It sucked losing them!!!

2. Losing CU....

I lived in Colorado my first few years out of college and found talking to CU grads interesting. They were a decent addition to the Big 12 but I dont feel like they ever really fit in to the Big 12 and their only rival was Nebraska. They definitely fit in better in the Pac 12 as they usually recruited Cali and have tons of west coast ties. We lost another state's worth of tv sets.

3.  Losing A&M....

Some TTU fans hate UT and some hate A&M..... Personally, I grew up hating on A&M. So naturally I feel like I just lost my little brother and dont have anyone else to pick on.  I think they were Tech's biggest rival and I am not sure we have a replacement. Just look at the all-time series between the schools. None of the schools mentioned as replacement hold a candle to replacing A&M's fan base. Does anyone really care if we win or lose to BYU, Louisville, West Virginia, or cincinnati? I don't!!!   No doubt that this will also hurt our recruiting in the Southeast and in Texas!! 

4. Potentially losing Mizzou

I thought our games were usually pretty fun to watch and kind of felt a little bit of a rivalry growing with them finally.... Each team has had their share of upsets and season changers against each other. Again, we will lose a whole state's worth of tv sets and will be completely irrelevant East of the Mississippi!!! 

Potentially....

we could turn into one of the smallest conferences, in all categories, in the nation. UT and OU stand to win big in this situation and that is likely what they want... They can keep all their exposure with national networks and be able to actively measure and account for their tv sets. Big money will be poured into these schools. Tech will never have that kind of following and the institutions that are still around will likely be stuck in a vice with an even more uneven playing field...... Tech is not a Flagship school for a state nor are we even seen as an academically respectable university nationally. OSU has Pickens money!!!

This conference will never be fair. UT and OU  will always collaborate with each other secretly and dictate what happens. They are both too powerful and well connected. OSU has a voice right now because of Pickens money. Why don't the other schools see that?? What is our administration being told behind closed doors that keeps them tied to UT?  It would not shock me at all to see OU and UT independent in a few years and we are just playing to their business plan...... Why would we allow this? 

The fun of college football....... Rivalries, Office trash-talk, etc.... It could be fun to add TCU, SMU,UTEP, UNM etc...... but it's too late.... These schools add nothing but rivalry and that's not what it's all about anymore... Money and exposure is what matters.... So why is everyone ok losing 3 and possibly 4 of our schools?? They cant be replaced with Cincy, Louville, WVU, TCU, SMU, etc. 

This sucks!!!! The best possible landing spot was in the PAC 12 and that is over now!!! Guy Bailey, who is a UT grad, is in love with the idea of being tied to UT and UT cares nothing about Texas Tech. I would love to play the AZ schools, CU, Utah, OU, OSU, and all the west coast schools on a yearly basis. I would travel to Lubbock to see Tech play Washington, USC, Stanford, Cal, etc, much more often than ISU, KU, KSU, and Baylor... I never cared about any of these schools and none of their fan bases are passionate enough to hate!!

The last thing is exposure to recruit... Tech's recruiting options will slowly be dwindled down to recruiting OK, Texas, Kansas, and NM. We will soon have zero exposure anywhere outside that footprint and no kid is going to leave Florida to never even be seen east of the Mississippi.

Overall I am a little worried about the future of Texas Tech. Despite the claim of equal revenue sharing, OU and UT will always get a larger share + 3rd tier rights + more state funding. Can Tech continue to recruit high caliber athletes and coaches when we are at a constant disadvantage? I am going to replace TAMU with Xerox U as my new most hated school. I just can't talk trash to UT knowing that we beat them once every 10 years... There is no fun in that.

OK... Based on Guy Bailey's comments I decided to put some completely speculative thought about who could possibly be invited to the big 12 and actually accept the invite...  I was curious as to who everyone thinks and why. Here are the factors that I took into consideration in order of what I perceive the importance to be as well as comments from UT, Big 12 office, and Guy Bailey.  Please do not just use the argument of (they'd never the the ???? conference!!!). I'm more interested in why they would!!!!

1. New TV market outside big 12 footprint

2. Good academics

3. Stadium size and attendance

So here are the teams(in order of probability) that I think the dysfunctional 12-2-1+? would invite(pending A&M actually leaving). My biggest question is why the powers that be didnt flex their might last year when things were falling apart and invite 2-4 teams to replace NU and CU. We could have expanded our market as well as picked up some traditional rivalries. But anywho.... here is my list in order of probability.

1. BYU - no idea if they'd join, but they seem, on the surface, like the most easy addition and meet the above criteria.

2. UTEP - I hate this (but feel like it could easily happen!! on a side note, TTU has invested heavily in the EL Paso mkt with UTEP...  and UT would love to have another one of their system schools they can manipulate and take advantage of.

3. Air Force - They dont compete in all sports, so I feel like this makes more sense if they take 3 instead of just one

4. UNM - mostly because of market... I wouldnt mind having a close border rivalry with them. 

5. Southern Miss - Big surprise... but not a bad place and definitely expands into new markets

6. Houston - replace the vacated Houston market (But no surprise and one of the worst options... I'd rather see TCU and SMU than this.... I could see them adding Houston if they take three teams)

7. Colorado State - I actually love Fort Collins and it is very similar to the Hub City... but they have many wonderful breweries and one heck of a view. Note: stadium is tiny.

8. Boise State - if they are considering BYU... why not??

extras - most surprising would be getting teams like Iowa, Arky, LSU, Lousville, or Memphis...

I cant think of any other schools that make sense!!! The only reason I see that they pick up TCU, SMU, Tulsa is if they go back to 12 teams and need a "filler"

http://www.cbssports.com/video/player/play?channel=nfl&pid=Cd4MwgktTFS20OwYzhx7uupL3ot_MtZl

Gotta be honest..... This is pathetic!!! I really thought he had more pride in Texas Tech than that!!! I would have been less surprised if this was Crabtree!!! But Wes is one of Tech's best success stories!! If I had his email address, I would email him the words!! Dangit!!!

fill in words...fill in words.... tired of hearing about aggy.... fill in words..... tired of hearing about aggy.... fill in words... tired of hearing about aggy... fill in words

Did BG get rid of our our whole team? Where are all these guys going to play?? I assume some may have trouble with academics so he is giving many a chance in hopes that 70% make it on campus?? 

Anyone have any thoughts??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZgGPveq4zA 

This guy has committed to tech according to his Twitter feed... And now I have to add more words.... Go Tech... Woudl love to move East and quit playing in Ames, Lawrence, Etc.... Hopefully Aggy makes an announcement and moves beginning next year and all the rumors are true...

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-pac-10-fox-espn-20110504,0,7080018.story

This story paints a picture4 that is opposite from what I thought.... I thought our new TV contracts were some of the biggest in the nation. Am I reading this correctly? Texas Tech will get less money in the new contracts than the teams we care about and we will also be getting less than every team in every other conference??

Just thought I would share this with everyone since I found it interesting.... You can definitely tell which school is in Austin's back pocket!!! Check out the amount of funding they are receiving versus other schools in Texas. I am fine with Texas being the flagship for the State, but you would think they could share just a little of the wealth!!! They already have the PUF. 

https://bi.cpa.state.tx.us/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp

I have no idea how you get away with categorizing 26 million dollars as "Misc".

I am just curious if anyone purchased the official Texas Tech class ring sometime between 1999 and now. My wife and I are both graduates and were talking about getting each other our rings for Christmas and I was shocked at the price of them? Have they gone up that much since I graduated in 2001. How much did everyone pay if they got one? It looks like the one I currently want would be about 800-900 dollars??

I found this on the web today while doing some Business Development Research. I didn't have time to completely analyze it, but I did get a chance to look at the PUF and cash flow of Texas Universities. Pretty interesting overview of how drastically different the playing field actually is regarding schools in the State of Texas. I will let someone a little more analytical than myself extrapolate the useful information out of this but wanted everyone to get a chance to actually look at instead of assume the financial disparaties. 

 http://www.window.state.tx.us/finances/pubs/cashrpt/10/texas_annual_cash_report_2010.pdf

Enjoy!!!

First a little about myself..... I hold two degrees from Texas Tech and Love my school..... I find myself being the forever optimist about every Red Raider team that competes.... From wool judging to womens volleyball.... Am I disappointed a lot... Heck yes.... But I dont know what I would do with some of my freetime if I didnt waste it being overly optomistic about my Red Raiders!!  

I have been a observer of Seth's site for a long time but never had the nerve to sign up and contribute until the Mike Leach debacle forced my hand in doing so.... Am I sad and pissed he is gone..... HECK YES!!!!...... Am I glad we got Tubs to replace him....... HECK YES!!!!! All we can do is move on and remember that we still have student athletes out there competing and by refusing to give back to our school does nothing but hurt our alma mater for years to come.... And with the amounts of free money that TU and Old Timer AG get from the state that tech doesnt have access to, Texas Tech can't afford to take a hit from its own Alums!!!

I ask all of you to find another school that comes close to the strides Tech has taken educationally, athletically, facilities/building, and in overall reputation over the last 12 years....  If you havent been back to Lubbock in the last decade???? You will likely not recognize much of campus or Lubbock for that matter!!!....

Anywho... on to the discussion I hope to inspire.....  I have seen so many people trying to make fun of and knock Tubs "Red Raider Walk". I dont get it!!!! Why not try something new.... Are we that close minded??? I love trying new traditions.... But what happened to our old traditions???? I'll begin with the one I am most upset about!!! What happened to Raider Red's Shotguns???  They sound like cap-guns!!!!! They have become laughable... back in 2001-2003??? They got very quiet!!!! I have heard two reasons for this???

according to Saddle Tramps.....

1. When Dr David Smith was chancellor, he complained about them being to loud for people in the boxes and suties... If that is true, I am so pissed I cant even comment other than.... dont ruin the atmosphere for everyone else...if you dont like loud environments, dont go to a football game!!! 

2. post 9-11 things changed and they dont pack the shells anymore... Tech PD does it.... Well that is fine and dandy.... but with increased oversight, and the police department packign the shells(knowing they arent putting slugs in them) cant they still have enough black powder to make my wife jump??? I couldnt even hear them the last time I was at a game.. the crowd muffled the guns.... Our freakin motto is.... Get your guns up!!!! We cant even do that right and make an impact!!! schools all over the country have guns and cannons and whatever... I would bet ours are in the top ten in notoriety and bottom ten in loudness/impact!!!!

another tradition that went by the wayside was the ROTC cannon.... it dissappeared.... apparently ROTC cadets thought it would be funny to overpack the "wad" in the shell and it shot accroww the stadium and hit the building on the other side of the stadium.... so rather than give them some accountability and oversight, They just said...lets put the cannon in a shed and forget all about it!!!! I dont understand it!!!!

back int he late 90s.... other teams hated when we scored because the cannon and guns were so loud in our "little high school stadium"  WHAT HAPPENED???? CAN WE MAKE THE GUNS LOUD AGAIN??? I WANT TO SEE SMOKE RINGS AGAIN????? CAN WE BRING THE CANNON BACK?????

WHY NO MORE STREAMER DROP WHEN TECH WINS BASKETBALL GAMES???? THEY DONT WIN AS MUCH SO YOU CANT TELL ME IT IS COST PROHIBITIVE(HAHA)!!!

Please discuss, lets make a difference!!! Should we all send emails to the admin, Dr Dean, Tubs???