The Big 12 has stated that it wants to expand, but it remains unclear which teams they are going to pursue.  In a little over 16 months this once proud conference has lost its elite status and now has become a giant mess struggling to hang on.

Here is a timeline of events that caused the Big 12 conference to be in its current state of possible dissolution.

May 10, 2010

Reports begin to come out that the Big Ten conference is looking to expand and the conference extends offers to the University of Missouri and the University of Nebraska from the Big 12.

June 9, 2010

The University of Nebraska accepts the Big Ten’s offer and agrees to join the conference becoming the twelfth team.

June 10, 2010

Shortly after Nebraska decides to the leave, the University of Colorado decides not to stick around in the Big 12 and bolts for the Pac 12.

July 15, 2010

The turmoil about the Big 12’s future continues, but the conference ultimately announces that the ten teams that are left in the conference are going to stick together.

April 4, 2011

The University of Texas and ESPN announce that they are going to launch a 24-hour network dedicated to Longhorn athletics that will be called the Longhorn Network.  This deal will pay the University of Texas $300 million dollars over 20 years.

July 18, 2011

The Longhorn Network officials drop the bombshell that they intend to show high school football games. This news does not sit well with the rest of the teams in the conference and especially not with Texas A&M.  This is what gets the ball rolling for Texas A&M to find a new conference and causes them to actively pursue going to the SEC.

August 11, 2011

Much to the liking of all the coaches in the Big 12 and around the country, the NCAA announces it will not allow high school events to shown on the Longhorn Network.

August 14, 2011

Texas A&M applies to join the SEC but it gets “declined” by league officials, though many people think that the only reason that they were denied was because of the legality of the issue and that it will be only a matter of time before Texas A&M joins the SEC.

August 31, 2011

Texas A&M makes it official and notifies Big 12 officials of their intentions to look for a new conference for next season.

And that is where we stand today.

Every conference that is thriving in college football is sharing int massive profits, and unless the Big 12 decides to share its money equally it is going to find it difficult to attract schools it wants to join.  There is also talk that Texas and Oklahoma could bolt for the Pac-12.

Last offseason it was Texas that was the key to saving the conference, and a year later they are school that could ruin the conference for good. Stay tuned, as the saga of the Big 12 is far from over.

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* – Nebraska fans photo credit:  Christian Randolph via Husker Extra

Leach was fired at Texas Tech based on false statements made by Adam James, who is the son of former football star and college football analyst Craig James.  Craig James claimed that his son was forced to practice with a concussion and had been locked in an electrical closet for three hours.

In an excerpt from Leach’s new book it reveals that Adam James was lying about the whole incident and he admitted this under oath.

According to Pincock’s statement, he specifically told James not to go into the electrical closet by the media room. James admitted under oath that he ignored Pincock’s instructions. He admitted that he let himself into that closet and that he shot a video — a video that would start a firestorm of allegations — because he thought it was funny.

Craig James became so enthralled in his son’s lies that he went on a personal crusade to get Mike Leach fired.  Craig James went to the Chancellor of Texas Tech University to spread his son’s lies and demanded that Mike Leach be fired.

According to both his and Anders’s depositions, Craig demanded that I be fired. Hance called me and said that Craig had phoned Anders to complain about his son being forced to play before his concussion was healed, which was simply not true. I explained the situation to Hance, and also told him how often Craig called up the Tech coaches to lobby for more playing time for his son. I told him that Adam had been a constant discipline problem and that I planned on cutting him from the team. Hance told me not to cut Adam.

Things got worse for Leach when the company that Craig James worked for, ESPN, reported this story in an extremely biased way that made him look guilty of these false accusations.  This story was reported on pure speculation and had not been based on facts. Once they reported this story the public had automatically assumed that Leach was in the wrong and needed to be fired.

The actions by the two James men have caused them to embarrass not only their reputations but the reputation of Texas Tech.  Both Craig and Adam James need to be held accountable for their actions that led to the firing of Mike Leach.   It will probably never happen, but the two of them need to make a public apology to Mike Leach and admit that they were in the wrong for getting him fired.

Texas Tech claimed that the Adam James incident was not the reason that Mike Leach got fired, but it certainly was not because of his team’s lack of success.  In all ten seasons that Leach was the head coach at Texas Tech the Red Raiders made it to a bowl game.  Leach turned Texas Tech into perennial contenders to win the Big 12 South every season and won a total of 84 games.

This incident will forever tarnish the credibility that Craig James will have as a member of the media.  The James name is already taking a hit in the public’s view and this ugly incident is the first thing that people think of about Adam and Craig James.

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* – Mike Leach photo credit: via 6magazine 

* – Adam James and Craig James photo credit: via La Late

Geez, a guy gets to double-digit wins one time and his mouth turns into a news making megaphone.

Who knows, maybe Mike Leach has always been like this; but like his beloved pirates who are all the rage in the news right now, stories of Mike Leach’s megalomaniacal attitude and controversial comments have been quite plentiful this offseason.

First, there was the tense period of contract negotiations between Mike Leach and Texas Tech after the Red Raiders won 11 games in 2008. Ultimately, despite an unnecessary pissing match between Leach and the school, they agreed on a 5-year extension to keep Leach in Lubbock through 2013.

Then, during this weekend’s NFL draft, Mike Leach had some choice words for Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini. After Tony Grossi of the Plain-Dealer reported that the Browns had been turned off by Michael Crabtree’s purported “diva attitude” – not citing Mangini as a source or with any direct quotes, mind you – Leach had this to say (courtesy of our friends at Shaver Sports, via the Sporting Blog):

“Crabtree as a receiver has been more successful than that guy has been as a coach. … I think he took it upon himself to figure that in a few minutes he had all the expertise on the subject of Michael Crabtree that he needed. And so we’ll see how those non-divas up there in Cleveland do this year.”

Well alrighty then.

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I know that a coach has to, and should, stick up for his players. However, it seems to me that there just might be a more tactful way to do it, especially since Leach is basically trusting Grossi who is trusting a source – it’s not like the words came straight from Mangini’s mouth. Either way, Leach came across sounding like the kid over in the corner of the sandbox who has trouble getting along with the other kids.

And the coach sounded even more like that in the most recent report of unnecessary comments by Leach, this time concerning a player from a school in his own sandbox state. For whatever reason, Mike Leach decided to take what most people are interpreting as veiled shots at former Texas A&M QB Stephen McGee, who by all account is a nice, upstanding young man – albeit one who never totally lives up to his high school hype.

I am sure that a major reason for Leach’s comments was the fact that McGee was drafted while Tech QB Graham Harrell was not, despite Harrell’s college production dwarfing that of McGee’s. (And in the irony of all ironies, Graham Harrell ended up signing a free agent contract with the Browns.)

Anyway, here is what Leach had to say about Stephen McGee (courtesy of Deuce of Davenport, via the Dallas Morning News):

“I’m happy for Stephen McGee,” Texas Tech coach Mike Leach said. “The Dallas Cowboys like him more than his coaches at A&M did.”

Now look, there is nothing in that statement that is inherently awful. However, Mike Sherman and Stephen McGee took offense to the comments. And with Leach’s track record, plus the Tech-A&M rivalry, they probably have good reason too.

With Sherman still trying to win over the Texas A&M fan base, and McGee probably feeling a bit defensive about his underwhelming college career that he hopes to turn around in the NFL, I can see how they might be taken aback by what Leach had to say. Moreover, whether what Leach said was that bad or not, why not stay focused on your program? More than anything, it just seems pretty tacky to me.

Said Mike Sherman in response to Leach’s comments about McGee:

“I don’t understand Coach Leach’s comments about Stephen McGee,” Sherman said Monday. “He was named our starter until he got injured. I’ve always believed in Stephen’s character and I’ve always believed in his talent, and I always will. I see him having an outstanding NFL career.

“Coach Leach is in no position to comment about my relationship with Stephen McGee.”

For his part, Stephen McGee showed one of the reasons why so many NFL scouts were high on him as a potential second-day sleeper in the 2009 NFL Draft; he showed that he has something in abundance that Leach apparently lacks: class.

“I don’t know where that comment came from or who it was directed at,” McGee said. “But I am shocked because my time at A&M was very special to me. Obviously, I got injured, and many people think that Coach Sherman benched me. That’s just not true.

“If I had a son today and he was a college quarterback, I would send him to Coach Sherman or Coach Fran without any doubt, without any question, first and foremost.”

And Leach’s response?

“…based on all the fuss and commotion on this, I can’t help but wonder what round Coach Sherman would have drafted Stephen McGee, given the fact he was once a head coach in the NFL.”

As for an apology?

“I’m not sorry for what I said,” Leach said. “I’m sorry if they feel offended.”

After reading the quotes, too big of a deal is probably being made of this latest Leach story. Stephen McGee and Mike Sherman probably need to get their panties unbunched and not get so defensive.

The truth is, Mike Leach knows that he will always face an uphill battle staying relevant out in Lubbock with the majority of the national attention in the Big 12 being showered upon Austin and Norman, OK. And honestly, that’s one of the things that makes Leach perfect as the Texas Tech coach. He’s brash, outspoken, and has proven he can win there consistently and attract national attention to a campus that isn’t typically on the national college football radar screen.

But boy is Mike Leach acting emboldened now that he has his 11-win season, was a hot commodity for every major coaching vacancy this offseason, and now has a new contract. Or maybe he’s always been saying things like this and I’m only now paying attention because of the three aforementioned reasons have increased his profile and because his previous quote about Mangini and Crabtree pierced through the noise of this draft weekend for the Browns.

Either way, something tells me his bosses at Tech are smiling, even if they’d never say so publicly. Leach can’t be vanilla like Mack Brown is at Texas, otherwise Tech will fade right back into the third and fourth tiers of college football relevance. But if Michael Crabtree does turn out to be a diva in the NFL, we’ll have a pretty good idea of at least one example he is probably following.