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New Big 12 commish, TCU, smoke and fire
Published: 9/24/2011 10:39 AM
Last Modified: 9/24/2011 10:39 AM

Interim Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas said this morning there is resistance to adding a new member from the state of Texas.

I interpreted that to mean TCU. And I was reminded that I once had a conversation with Neinas about the Horned Frogs.

It was 2003 and conference dominoes were falling. The ACC cherry-picked Miami and Virginia Tech from the Big East, which then raided C-USA for Louisville, Marquette, Cincinnati and DePaul.

Neinas was a paid consultant for C-USA at the time and C-USA intended to replenish its ranks by snaring teams (including Tulsa) from the WAC. Meanwhile, TCU, which had already bolted from the WAC to join C-USA, was allegedly being targeted by the Mountain West.

I phoned Neinas with that bit of intel and he told me that it was unlikely any C-USA teams would switch conferences. When Neinas was asked why he feels strongly about that, he said, “because I’ve been in Conference USA meetings.”

Asked specifically about reports of TCU’s flirtation with the Mountain West, Neinas scoffed and indicated that the media deals too much in speculation.

And then TCU left for the Mountain West.

How does that translate to current events? Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe I was just tossing it out there as background information. Or maybe it translates to current events in this way: There are two reasons the media often deals in speculation.

Reason No. 1: Smoke. Reason No. 2: Fire.


Reader Comments 1 Total
Ken1 (last year)
A friend in Austin told me that the word there is that Texas does not want TCU in the conference. So it is likely that shuts out TCU. Once again Teas will call the shots unless others speak up and stop being so passive.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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