Goodbye to the Big XII

I'm writing this now, rather than in early March when the basketball season ends, because, to be honest, the conference was created as a football conference.  With the final Big XII football game CU will ever play in going down Friday afternoon, this is certainly a more appropriate time to eulogize our time here.  At first, I was really pumped up for this post.  After 9 years of traveling to literally every backwater town the conference has to offer, I figured I'd have something poignant to say about leaving the Big XII.  I realized last night at 1AM that I don't.  In all reality, I won't really miss the Big XII; in fact, I'm very happy that I'll never see most of the schools ever again.

Sure, I'm going to miss the yearly Nebraska kerfuffle, I have some great memories from my trips to Dallas for the basketball tournament, and UT has a soft spot in my heart for being located in one of the few hospitable places the conference has to offer.  But, outside of that, there really isn't too much to miss from a conference of fly-over states.

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A little history

While the Big XII is not dying (even though it is) the Big 8 is now officially dead.  It had lived on for 14 years as a meaty blob within a super-sized Texas husk; but now, with the departure of CU and Nebraska for greener pastures, the Big 8 is no more.  CU first became affiliated with many of their current conference brothers in 1948 when it left the Mountain States Conference (where we were confederates with little brother CSU and then, and future, big-time rival Utah) for what was at the time called the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association or the "Big 7."  The Big 7 at that time was made up of CU, Iowa St, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and K-State.  That's right, we've been associated with those schools for 62 years.  Oklahoma State re-joined the MVIAA in 1958 to become the "Big 8", and the league officially adopted the name in 1964.  The conference stayed the same for 30 years and in that time we won, or shared, 5 conference titles and, of course, won that national title of ours.  We were even one of the first schools to really challenge Oklahoma in the conference during the time that the Big 8 was known as "Oklahoma and the Seven Dwarfs." 

(Coach Eddie Crowder and the late-60's Buffs began to stand up to powerful Oklahoma.  From: the post)

In 1994, when it became apparent that the Southwest Conference would die a quick, yet painful, death, the Big 8 schools decided to throw their lot in with 4 schools from Texas to create the Big XII as we know it today.  The conference kicked off in 1996.  During the Big XII era we won the conference once and appeared in 4 title games over a period of 5 years.  In all sports, the Buffs have won a respectable 27 conference titles, second most in the North (behind "you-know-who"), even though we don't compete in as many sports as the other 11 schools.

(The highpoint of our stay in the Big XII)

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A little perspective

I grew up in Big 10(11) land and only cared about CU from an outsiders perspective (although I was a fan). I don't even specifically remember the Big 8, having mostly experienced CU football in non-conference play prior to the Big XII years.  Maybe that's why I feel no larger attachment to the Big 8 schools. However, it is sad to see over 60 years of competitive relationships die.  For nothing but history's sake it's sad to move on.  But, if that's the only problem with moving to the Pac-12, then there's no problem at all.  You can never be held back by reminiscing.  The passage of time and the changes we make are what's good about life.  Think about how exciting it is to have opponents like Oregon and USC coming to Boulder; the excitement of next year is infinitely greater than had it been just another year in the Big XII.

But this isn't just change for change sake, we need to move on.  Those 4 Texas schools the Big 8 absorbed in 1996 have come to dominate the conference.  UT and A&M alone have more conference titles in all sports than the North, and the overall tally is South 269 to North 141.  Why did this happen?  Because CU, along with Nebraska, formed the backbone of strength in the North Division, and we haven't held up our end of the bargain.  I don't think we really should've been expected to in any sport other than football, but even there we've faltered.  Over the past 7 years both CU and Nebraska have endured a down-grade in football.  Since football is the only sport anyone cares about, this down-grade has permanently eroded the 2-division championship structure (which is why I'm against the championship format); and that's how we got to where we are with the dissolution of 60+ years of history.

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A little conclusion

Eulogizing our time in the Big XII would be pointless without talking about our future in the Pac-12.  CU now moves on to a conference where it's not expected to carry the load it was expected to carry in the Big XII North.  USC, UCLA, and the Arizona's will do the heavy lifting the Pac-12 South needs to keep the conference balanced, and any gains CU makes will only create more competition in all sports.  If anything, we're located in a center of power with UCLA and it's over 100 national titles under it's belt.  Financially, competitively, academically, and environmentally we're headed for a better situation.  In addition, those November road trips to the barren wasteland that is the Great Plains are being replaced by trips to the California sunshine.  So, really, after it's all said and done, are you really going to miss KU, KSU, ISU, MU, OU, and OSU all that much?  I'm not.