The Southern Baptist Convention has over 16 million members. It also boasts a mission statement:
As a convention of churches, our missional vision is to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations.
Perusing their web site this morning I didn't read anything about cock-blocking, but SBC-backed Baylor is pulling off one of the all-timers. According to a source close the ongoing Big 12 conundrum, one of the options now being considered by Texas A&M is to hit the pause button for a year on its desired move to the Southeastern Conference. Time to sort out the legalese of such a move, ya know?
That's right: A school that on Wednesday had planned a press conference/party down in College Station may now have to wait until June 2013 to leave the Big 12. If the Aggies ever leave at all.
It was only back in June 2010 that Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe saved his league with -- what else? -- money. The conference survived, thanks to TV deals that made all the schools richer. Fox recently agreed to a 13-year contract that pays the Big 12 $1.1 billion. And that's on top of the ABC/ESPN deal that gives the conference $60 million over eight years.
At the time, big money equaled solidarity.
Said Beebe, "We've got more cohesion than ever."
Added Texas president William Powers, "Now we have stability. We're in a far better position than we were three months ago."
Don't look now but that's all bullshit. The Big 12 is a mess.
Oklahoma is eyeing the Pac 12. Texas is considering going Independent. And A&M, according to its president, is being held hostage -- with Baylor holding the gun. Another Aggie joke: A&M has twice been on the verge of joining the SEC, but may not actually get to bolt until the 2013 school year.
If ever.
Baylor -- joined by Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State -- is basically threatening legal action on A&M and the SEC via a claim of tortious interference, saying the SEC is inducing the Aggies to break their contract with the Big 12. Sounds to me like a lot of tampering, but doesn't this happen all the time in sports? In life? You get married, but if someone else better comes along you get divorced and ... poof. Right?Problem here is the bitchy wife -- Baylor -- is threatening to "take everything!" if A&M leaves. The Baptists have the Ags by the balls. Baylor has big plans. Not just their "Don't Mess With Texas Football" campaign nor Robert Griffin III for Heisman. The Bears have designs on taking their $20 million from the TV contracts next year to renovate Floyd Casey Stadium. But without a Big 12, there is no Big 12 TV contract money. Follow?
I don't blame Baylor for trying to hold onto its paycheck. Without the Big 12 they will be college football nomads, left to roam into the lean pastures of Conference USA or the Mountain West.
Nothing looks good right now. Not A&M in the SEC. Not Texas seceding. Not OU out west.
And especially not Baylor as the new Christian kings of cock-blocking.
