Texas Longhorns

Last season was the first in almost a century that Texas and Texas A&M didn't play, and speaking personally, Thanksgiving weekend just didn't seem the same without the two Lone Star rivals going head to head.

Texas A&M has been outspoken about a sort of anywhere, anytime, anyplace attitude toward resuming the rivalry, but Texas, who won the final game in 2011 on a last-second field goal, is taking a rather arrogant approach to when the next game will happen.

Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds, From the Daily Texan (my emphasis added):

“They left,” Dodds said. “They're the ones that decided not to play us. We get to decide when we play again. I think that's fair. If you did a survey of our fans about playing A&M, they don't want to. It's overwhelming. I know. I hear it. Our fans are important to us. I think there's got to be a period where things get different. I think there's too many hard feelings.”

Hey-oh! Dodds is in a power position here and doesn't sound like he has many plans to let anyone forget that. As for why this game isn't being played, it depends on who you listen to. There's merit to both sides, and it's a perfect situation in which either side feels completely comfortable blaming the other.

Texas warned A&M when it was considering a move to the SEC: "Leave and this rivalry is over."

Texas A&M has been consistent throughout the saga: "We'll play you anytime, you're the ones providing the rivalry's death blow and refusing to play."

The truth is where it usually is: Right in the middle. Texas A&M decided SEC membership was more important than its rivalry with Texas. Texas decided keeping its word (and its pride) was more important than showing that its warning to the Aggies was an empty threat.

The Longhorns have the bragging rights, and that certainly will extend the period in which these two teams won't play. Dodds says the two teams will play "sometime," but anyone who thinks that time will come under Dodds' watch is out of their mind.

Texas has been caught in a bit of a funk since reaching the 2009 title game with an undefeated regular season and a Heisman finalist in Colt McCoy.

Texas has averaged just over seven wins in the three seasons since, but don't let DeLoss Dodds catch you comparing these recent down years to some of college football's lesser powers.

“We’re going to have good years again,” Dodds told the Austin American-Statesman. “Our bad years are not that bad. Take a school like Missouri. Our bad years are better than their good years. But we’ve created a standard.”

Ouch. The Longhorns' men's and women's athletic directors -- Dodds and Chris Plonsky -- addressed the recent issues in the athletic department with the paper, but Dodds' unnecessary (and inaccurate) shot is sure to gain some traction. When was the last time Missouri was happy about a year with five or eight wins like Texas had in 2010 and 2011?

Texas' on-field problems are frustrating for burnt orange folk used to contending for Big 12 and national titles, but Dodds is trying to keep perspective in the recent lean years.

"Football is fine," Dodds told the paper. "Nine wins are not the end of the world. But we want 13 wins."

Texas still looks a little ways away from reaching that point, but at this point, Dodds clearly doesn't seem too concerned with the feelings of the Big 12 expats. Granted, why should he be? Still, he shook things up a little with this one, and I'm guessing criticism over his attitude toward a team the Longhorns don't play anymore isn't very high on his list of concerns.

Neither is deciding if Mack Brown is the right man for the job at Texas, at least for this year.

"Next year we will be having a different conversation. Look at the programs that made changes: Lloyd Carr at Michigan, Phil Fulmer at Tennessee, R.C. Slocum at A&M," Dodds said. "They all had great runs and then two or three average years and have been through two or three coaches since. Mack’s our coach. He’s the best person we can have in that position."

Some may disagree, but Texas has an experienced team with lots of potential coming back in 2013 that will be capable of rewarding Dodds' faith in Brown. Will it happen?

AUSTIN, Texas -- Last week Manny Diaz was putting band-aids on paper cuts.

This week the Texas defensive coordinator is trying to avoid a blow from the guillotine.

"They are constantly going to be on the hunt for the big play, whether through deception, through double moves by the wideouts, double pass, a trick, something," Diaz said of the Ole Miss offense.

That is a dramatic change from what New Mexico and its option attack did to Texas.

"They want to try and create death by paper cuts," Diaz said. "They just paper-cut you and paper-cut you and you get so annoyed and so frustrated and then all of thee sudden they strike with the big play."

While it never got to that point, Texas gave up 112 yards in the first three series. Included in that were two third-down conversions of nine or more yards. Consider this a lesson learned without a lot of blood loss because while New Mexico may have started fast, Texas never started falling apart.

"Biggest credit to our guys, and it is not always fun to watch, but you have to stay poised against those teams," Diaz said.

That poise should once again be an attribute as Texas faces a fast-paced, no-huddle Ole Miss offense. The Rebels, while not exactly playing the best competition, have three touchdown passes for more than 50 yards and rank 10th nationally in overall offense with 551 yards per game.

"The whole thing still comes down to poise and discipline," Diaz said. "Now with this offense if they break a run or they throw a pass and they are coming at you with fast tempo, you have to be locked in for the next play.

"You have to be disciplined against every offense. That is just sort of the nature of great defenses. The challenges are different week in and week out, but the basic themes are always the same."

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AUSTIN, Texas -- After two football seasons marred by the storm clouds of conference realignment, the Big 12 is back on solid ground.

That’s the message Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and University of Texas president Bill Powers tried to send on Tuesday, when they met with local reporters during Bowlsby’s tour of his new conference.

“We have been through some changes in the conference, but I can say unequivocally I have never, in my six and a half years here, seen the conference in as strong a position as it is now,” Powers said.

Bowlsby’s stop in Austin was his sixth on this tour. The response he’s received from presidents, athletic directors and coaches around the league has been one of common optimism.

“It’s been really kind of striking,” Bowlsby said. “I know that there’s got to be some scar tissue, but it’s not palpable on the campuses. Maybe it’s the time of year, to be honest. This tends to be a very hopeful period of time.”

Of course, Bowlsby had to chuckle when a reporter congratulated him for not losing any Big 12 members in the first three months of his tenure. His job has only just begun.

The topic of conference realignment did arise on Tuesday, as did a handful of other pressing issues. A recap of what we learned:

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The Big 12's second day of spring meetings came and went on Thursday in Kansas City, Mo., with no real news after the conference reaffirmed its commitment to 10 members on Wednesday.

Until the new configuration of the BCS is settled (i.e., what form will a four-team playoff take?), the Big 12 won't be taking much action, if any. Outgoing commissioner Chuck Neinas confirmed at least that much. Neinas also said he might stay on through July to relieve new commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who has other obligations on the United States Olympics Committee's board of directors. Bowlsby would still come aboard June 15, but there would be a period of overlapping commissioners.

"It was great to see Bob and Chuck together today at the head table, talking about things," Oklahoma State president Burns Hargis told reporters Thursday. "I think the transition will be smooth."

The league's presidents were in attendance Thursday and reaffirmed the athletic directors' stance on expansion.

"We're all very satisfied with 10 teams," Hargis said. "We're not shutting the door to any opportunity that might arrive. We're not in the market, we're not receiving applications. Our expansion committee is inactive."

To my knowledge, that's the first public confirmation that the expansion committee is indeed inactive. Interesting stuff. If Notre Dame becomes a possibility, it's clear the Big 12 would listen, and I'd assume that Florida State would engender a similar reaction, to a lesser extent. For now, though, the Big 12 maintains it's sitting at 10, even if no one (yours truly included) really believes it.

With Florida State officials expressing conflicting messages about the school's future conference affiliation, and the future of the Big East very much in flux, how could you?

A few other quick notes:

• Texas AD DeLoss Dodds came out firing on Thursday, tossing barbs just about everyone's way. The SEC has Texas in its footprint? "They have a sliver of the east side," he told reporters. On the Big East? "I don't know if they qualify as a BCS [conference]. They've lost a lot of strength."
• Neinas, on the league extending its six-year grant of media rights agreement, which is in progress, but not a done deal? "I don’t believe the membership feels it’s a gun-at-the-head arrangement. It’s just a step forward moving together."
• The league membership also didn't sound very fired up about re-instituting a championship game in the new iteration of the BCS. Reports John Hoover of the Tulsa World: “We have come to really appreciate the position we’re in right now by not having a championship game,” said Iowa State’s Jamie Pollard, chairman of the Big 12 athletic directors. Said Dodds: "If this all happens the way we’re visualizing today, I think there are some football coaches out there that will say, ‘Well, what are we doing? We’re 12-0, we’ve got to go into play a team that’s 9-3, we’ve got a shot at getting beat.' Or, 'We win the game, it’s a struggle, we get two kids hurt’ -- I mean, those kinds of things are gonna be the reality of it."

Dodds might not have been making many friends Thursday, but he did make some among the league's coaches with that comment for sure.

Friday is the final day of meetings, but it's been a quiet week compared to the past two years at Big 12 spring meetings. For now, it's mostly just been the league's members drawing battle lines on where they stand in relation to the playoff and expansion.

The Big 12's spring meetings kicked off with the league's athletic directors meeting in Kansas City on Wednesday, and made it clear beforehand that expansion would be only informally discussed.

Still, the questions had to be asked, and they were answered. For now, the league is happy with 10 members, echoing its stance for the past few weeks.

Will anyone believe them? (Does it matter?)

"We could expand to some number. You name the number -- 12, 14, 16," Texas AD DeLoss Dodds told CBSSports.com. "We could expand, but the question is, do we need to expand?"

Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas, in fact, made it simple.

"The Big 12, athletic directors reaffirmed their commitment to 10 members," he said.

For now, anyway. Florida State is still only flirting, but if the Seminoles make up their mind, the safe bet is that stance will change very quickly.

Until then ... here we are.

Playoffs were a hot topic, but the league's athletic directors reiterated what we essentially already knew: The Big 12 is in favor of a four-team playoff.

"We're in favor of taking the four highest-ranked teams," said Neinas, who has begun to transfer power to new Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby. "We think it should be some type of selection committee operation, and how you rate a conference champion, strength of schedule must be included."

I love the selection committee idea personally, an idea reiterated by chairman of the league's athletic directors, Iowa State's Jamie Pollard.

The BCS has its flaws. That's obvious. The biggest flaw in piecing together a selection committee? How do you do it? How do you find panel members without bias? Is that possible? Do you copycat the NCAA's formula for the basketball tournament?

All difficult questions with answers to come.

"There needs to be a human element to kind of handle the unknowns. You can't always say computers get it right or opinion polls will get it perfect," Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said. "You still need someone with good, rational thinking to deal with unforeseen circumstances that may come up.

"Who knows what form that takes, but some form of human element that gets college football to the point of determining the best teams."

Chalk me up on board with that.

The rumors are swirling again, but the Big 12 isn't in danger. The Big 12 is putting other leagues in serious danger. Namely, the ACC.

Florida State and Clemson have had administrators openly question those schools' future ACC membership, with the Seminoles openly wondering if the Big 12 might be the best new home for the war chant.

Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas will only hold that title for a little more than two weeks before Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby takes over on June 15, but on the way out, Neinas is not exactly waving the flag for making a bigger Big 12.

"People have to understand that bigger is not necessarily better," Neinas told the Dallas Morning News. "What we are trying to do, in view of what has transpired in the past, is to build unity. We have two new members. Let the membership be comfortable with each other before they ever consider going forward."

Neinas served as commissioner of the old Big Eight, and saw how the merger with the Southwest Conference splintered the new Big 12. Those old wounds were a major factor in Nebraska's exit to the Big Ten from the Big 12 in 2010.

The new configuration that allows for round-robin play in football and double round-robin in basketball has only been played for one season, and two of those members -- Texas A&M and Missouri -- are gone.

Neinas doesn't sound fired up to raid the ACC after playing the new format just once with new members West Virginia and TCU.

"We’ve taken care of the contentious issues. We have a very workable solution. Let’s build on that, then down the road maybe think of expansion. But to automatically run off and say, they’re going to go to 12 or 14 or whatever -- that does not take into account where this conference was, where we’ve come from, and where we need to go," Neinas said.

Fascinating stuff, and probably the strongest anti-expansion comments we've heard from anyone in the Big 12 other than Texas' DeLoss Dodds, a strong proponent of keeping the Big 12 at 10 teams.

For now, I generally believe the Big 12 will expand at some point. Florida State is a slam dunk in every possible measurement save geography, and with the Big East crumbling, giving Notre Dame a home for everything but football would be lucrative, too.

When, and how many -- 11, 12 or 14? -- is a big question, but Neinas is certainly bringing the "Will the Big 12 expand?" question a lot of attention.

Will that change when Bowlsby takes the reins?

USA Today released its annual survey of athletic director salaries, noting that they're rising almost as fast as coaching salaries. How did the Big 12 stack up?

Here's how they ranked:

• DeLoss Dodds, Texas: $1,095,756
• Joe Castiglione, Oklahoma: $975,000
• Bill Byrne, Texas A&M: $690,000
• Mike Alden, Missouri: $659,775
• Kirby Hocutt, Texas Tech: $580,000
• Jamie Pollard, Iowa State: $450,000
• Sheahon Zenger, Kansas: $450,000
• Ian McCaw, Baylor: $423,449
• John Currie, Kansas State: $412,500
• Mike Holder, Oklahoma State: $387,560

I kept old Big 12 schools in this list because they were in the Big 12 when these numbers were taken.

For the new schools?

• Oliver Luck, West Virginia: $405,600
• TCU's Chris Del Conte was paid $115,639 for a partial-year salary. He took over in October 2009, and his full salary was not available on public tax returns.

The most surprising name on the list was Mike Holder, who is at the bottom of the list, despite holding the position since 2005. Oklahoma State's not exactly starved for money these days, either.

Kansas State's John Currie is a newcomer to the job, and a first-time athletic director who has helped K-State become the most profitable athletic department in the country. You've got to expect a raise is coming his way, even though he had a high-profile gaffe when hoops coach Frank Martin exited stage right all the way to South Carolina.

Not surprising to see Texas and OU at the top, but that's a pretty big gap between Dodds, Castiglione and the rest of the league, especially now that Missouri and Texas A&M are gone.

Dodds is only the fourth-highest paid AD, behind Vanderbilt, Florida and Louisville's athletic directors.

What else stuck out to you?

Earlier today, we looked at the pay for athletic directors around the league, but what about the men up top?

USA Today researched and released the pay for each conference commissioner, and former Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe earned $1.7 million in 2010 after receiving a 70 percent raise.

He was relieved of his duties in fall 2011.

Here's how he ranked among his peers:

• Larry Scott, Pac-12: $1.9 million
• Jim Delany, Big Ten: $1.8 million
• Beebe: $1.7 million
• John Swofford, ACC: $1.5 million
• Mike Slive, SEC: $1 million
• John Marinatto, Big East: $600,000

The Big 12 has since moved on from Beebe, and no salary information was available for interim commissioner Chuck Neinas.

In USA Today's survey of athletic director salaries, new commissioner Bob Bowlsby's salary was unavailable, because Stanford is a private institution.

Either way, I'd expect the first-time commissioner to easily clear a seven-digit salary in his new gig.

For reference, Texas AD DeLoss Dodds made just under 1.1 million last year. Not exactly helping that whole "Texas runs the Big 12" perception if he makes more than the Big 12 commish, no?

The subject of a playoff for the highest level of college football has long been a desire of the fans. It has been a desire of the coaches for the most part for the last decade. It appears that the chancellors and the presidents might be coming to the decision that a four team playoff, essentially a plus-1 system, might be on the docket in the next few years. Whether it is an answer for increased demand for growing revenue or if it is an answer to the frustration over the BCS system, college football could look very different than it does now in just a few years.

DeLoss Dodds is one of the most important voices in college sports. As the athletic director at the University of Texas, he manages the largest budget in college sports and has a résumé that speaks for itself. It not only has championships but possesses a quality of competition, the goodwill of a Fortune 500 company and a revenue model that is unrivaled in college sports.

While most of the college football world is bracing for a four-team playoff, Dodds actually would prefer to see that number double.

“I’m for an eight-team playoff but anything to get beyond where we are today with the BCS,” Dodds said. “The four-team playoff is fine. If we can pick the four teams and not go through the bowl games. Pick the four teams after the season and have a semifinal and a final I think that’s a good positive step.”

If the new system does not go through the bowl games than either the bowl system will change or the plus-1 will be layered on top of the current platform of college football.

But how will those four teams be chosen? Does it end up being the result of four 16-team super conferences and the champion of each of those conferences will populate the plus-1 system? Do the conferences stay in their same format and a version of the current BCS formula determines the four teams? Dodds has an opinion about who should have the final say.

“I’d put people in it,” Dodds said.

While the Harris Poll has been part of the BCS formula due to its makeup of former players, media members and former coaches, it is not seen as a best practice and could need to be doubled or tripled in size so factions cannot be formed that skew the results. Dodds did not rule out using something resembling the NCAA tournament selection committee to get to a football version of the Final Four.

“Give the people the computer rankings. Give people the newspaper polls. Give the people everything and then let people decide,” Dodds said. “People that are not biased and people that know the sport, that know college football and let them pick the four teams. That would be a tough job but it’s a tough job to pick 68 in basketball but they do it.”

Change is in the air. It is a story that nobody wants to put down but that nobody has the answers to. Soon, somewhere in a hotel conference room while croissant sandwiches are getting stale in the corner, a decision will be made. That decision will be made and college football will change forever.

New Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby doesn't want to see any future expansion in college athletics, but recent events have given him no choice but to put the issue on the Big 12's agenda, as it is on other conferences'.

My opinion," he told USA Today on Tuesday, "is college athletics would be well served by some period of smooth water and not all of the angst and disorganization that goes with moves from one league to another."

We've heard that from the Big 12. Florida State is forcing Bowlsby's hand, though he wouldn't mention the school by name.

"I think the topic of expansion will be on every agenda going forward. But it's on every other conference's agenda going forward, too," Bowlsby told the paper.

Over the weekend, Florida State's chairman of its board of trustees opened up a big ol' can of realignment worms, however, when he offered credence to a long-held rumor rumbling around college sports. Could Florida State leave for the Big 12?

"On behalf of the Board of Trustees I can say that unanimously we would be in favor of seeing what the Big 12 might have to offer. We have to do what is in Florida State's best interest," Andy Haggard told Warchant.com.

So, here we are. After two years of attrition and a role as the hunted, the Big 12 is doing some hunting of its own? Or is it? The league just added TCU and West Virginia for 2012 after Texas A&M and Missouri bolted for the SEC, leaving the Big 12 with eight members. That move was a year after Nebraska and Colorado left the Big 12 for the Big Ten and Pac-12, respectively, costing the conference its namesake. Could Florida State move the Big 12 one step closer to a return to 12 members?

Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds tamped down some of the discussion, telling the Austin American-Statesman that there was "no traction" to the reports.

He did not add a "yet" on the end of that sentence, but more than a few assumed that was the case. How could the Big 12 and Florida State at least not sit down at a table for an exchange of ideas?

Where does the Big 12 stand right now? Bowlsby's not showing his hand.

"It's all about driving value for the member institutions," Bowlsby said. "There is a case to be made for optimal value being driven by the status quo, and there is a case to be made for some form of expansion. And I'm not prejudging or adopting either side of that right now."

He is, however, discussing it. And while that happens, there won't be many calm waters in college football.

Trying to hand out blame for the Big 12's diminishment over the last 16 months is a bit too convoluted. By now, just about everyone involved has had a hand in it.

But the possible end of the Lone Star Showdown, at least in football?

That's a bit easier.

Texas A&M's stance has been consistent throughout, punctuated by a repeated, clear stance on the issue.

"We want to make it abundantly clear we will play the game anywhere, any time," new Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp told the Austin American-Statesman last month. "If that game dies, it will not be on us. That game is bigger than Texas and bigger than A&M. That game belongs to the people of Texas, and if it goes away, it's not going to be on our watch."

Texas AD DeLoss Dodds, who admitted last month that scheduling the Aggies would be "problematic," delivered what may have been the rivalry's final blow on Friday.

"In my e-mail to [Texas A&M AD] Bill Byrne, I wrote that we were not in a position now to look at future football scheduling," Dodds said. "We're scheduled out with nonconference games through 2018 and our Big 12 schedule is not yet settled. What we have right now is a full schedule but if any future options are available, the decision will not be made by just one person."

Last month, Dodds had this to say: "We didn't leave the conference. They did. ... We'll make a decision that's best for Texas."

Each side is looking to pass the blame off to the other.

Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin told the Associated Press on Sunday: "We're able to accommodate them anytime they want to make that happen. ... It's their choice, obviously."

Sorry, guys. This one must be shared.

And drink it in, Lone Star State rivals, because it might be the last time you share anything for awhile, save a mutual disdain for one another.

This may return at some point in the future. In time, I'm betting it does. But the loss of this heated, annual rivalry is the most disheartening consequence of any recent college football realignment move.

As much as fans were clamoring to see Wyoming and New Mexico come to Austin in 2012, I'm betting all sides would have understood if those contracts had to be broken to make room for the Aggies. Pay to get out of those contracts? No, Texas shouldn't have to because of the Aggies' choice, but I'm also betting Texas A&M might have been willing to chip in on the cost to keep the rivalry going.

If nothing else, it would have forced A&M to quite literally put its money where its mouth is.

This rivalry dates back to 1894, is each school's most-played rivalry, and has been played every single year since 1914, a stretch of 97 seasons. It's the third-most played rivalry in college sports and the most-played intra-state rivalry.

Texas refusing to schedule A&M may kill one of college football's best rivalries, but the Aggies helped.

Texas delivered the death blow with the rivalry still salvageable. Texas A&M's move to the SEC, though clubbed the rivalry over the head, and put it in jeopardy.

Divy out percentages all you liked, but Dodds is both right and stubborn. Texas has been nothing if not consistent, insinutating throughout the process that if Texas A&M left the conference, the rivalry would be discontinued.

Texas A&M left the conference. Dodds is willing to sacrifice tradition for ego.

You know, like A&M sacrificed more than a century of tradition for "increased visibility for its student-athletes."

What, pray tell, was keeping Aggie athletes out of the spotlight? I'll hang up and listen.

The Aggies made their choice. Nobody, especially not Dodds, forced them to leave.

Dodds made his.

Now, college football fans may have to live with the consequences.