Baylor Must Be Angling For An SEC Invite… That It Won’t Get

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Confession: I don’t like it when politicians get involved in athletics.  Even when its something “bad” like steroids in baseball — gasp! — I expect my elected officials to worry about the economy, not Barry Bonds’ biceps.

Likewise, I don’t like it when athletic parties take their disagreements into our nation’s courtrooms.  One entity trying to force it’s will upon another is not okay in my book.  And our court system is filled with enough nonsensical lawsuits already.

Therefore — even though I believe the SEC is just fine as a 12-school collective — I’d like to see Mike Slive tan the hides of the Baylor Bears at this point.

Still, let’s look at Kenneth Starr’s power play more closely.  Is Baylor’s president trying to hold the Big 12 together with his legal posturing?

No. 

A thinking man would realize that any league already held together by duct tape and chewing gum isn’t going to be strengthened by adding spite to the mixture.  Think the schools in the Big 12 despise and distrust one another now?  Wait until they’re forced to spend more time together because of a Baylor lawsuit.

Litigation is not a long-term solution for the Big 12.  And Baylor isn’t likely to win any lawsuit against the SEC, either.  Too many Big 12 officials have already publicly stated a) that Colorado and Nebraska hurt the league when they left and b) Texas’ huge cash advantage is the root of all Big 12 evil.

But while BU likely couldn’t prove tortious interference against the SEC, Orangebloods.com reports that “multiple sources” as saying Baylor would consider a lawsuit against Slive personally.  Frivolous or not, that kind of threat is likely to give any conference commissioner pause.

But if keeping the Big 12 intact isn’t the angle, what are Starr and his Baptist Bears up to?  Well, clearly they want to make themselves more attractive to other leagues on the expansion front.  With Baylor threatening to muck up the waters, might Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas, for example, force the Pac-12 to accept BU rather than Texas Tech?

Probably not.  While some Sooner, Cowboy and Longhorn fans might be cheering Baylor for slowing their schools’ race to the Pacific Time Zone, it’s doubtful that administrators at those schools are pleased with BU’s stunt.  Royalty doesn’t like to be pushed around by peasants.

More likely, Baylor officials think they can attach themselves to Texas A&M and the SEC.  Baylor isn’t attractive enough to draw an invite on its own, so it could be looking to enter the SEC’s warm, calm waters like a remora riding on the belly of A&M’s shark.

If the SEC truly wants to land Texas A&M — and if the league truly doesn’t want to be sued — it should consider adding Baylor, too.  The Bears aren’t a member of the prestigious AAU, but they are a well-ranked school on most lists.  (According to US News & World Report’s rankings, Baylor would tie Alabama — #79 nationally — as the fourth-best school in the SEC if admitted.)  League presidents would go for that.

But from an athletics standpoint, the Bears would fall near the bottom of the conference in terms of tradition.  Also, with Texas A&M’s enormous alumni base, the SEC would already be able to claim the biggest Texas television markets.  So Baylor would likely bring little to the table moneywise.

But let’s play some number games anyway.  If the addition of A&M brought in enough money for the SEC to cover the costs of adding Baylor, then the SEC might be wise to consider such a move. 

Let’s say you want some apples.  You can either have five or none.  But to get five, you have to give someone else two.  It’s not the five apples you’d hoped for, but three apples would still beat none, right?

Ah, but even if the SEC stood to make a profit by adding Texas A&M and Baylor… the odds of Slive and his conference presidents being strong-armed by Starr and his band of whiners from Waco are slim to none.

Just as Baylor can’t hold the Big 12 together via spite, it can’t force its way into a new league using that method either.  Shotgun weddings don’t often last.

Fifteen years ago, Texas politicians forced Texas and A&M to drag Baylor and Texas Tech into the Big 12.  (It just so happened that Texas’ governor was a Baylor grad and the state’s lieutenant governor was a Tech grad at the time.)  How well has that shotgun wedding worked?

This time, no one’s around to save Baylor’ bacon.  As a result, they’re threatening to take the SEC — and perhaps Slive — to court.  How weak.

Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are looking after their own self-interests.  But they’re leaving Baylor with options to do the same.  Schools have always looked out for their own best interests.  Including Baylor.  But Starr and BU — incapable of taking care of themselves — are now going the lawsuit route, closing off options for everyone else.

So here’s wishing nothing but the worst for the school and its athletic programs.  As if the realignment debate weren’t nasty enough already, now the wackos from Waco are threatening to get the lawyers involved.

Could this story get any worse?

Oh, yeah.  It could.  If the SEC caved and invited Baylor to tag along with A&M.  Thank goodness that’s not going to happen.