Column:For all those teams who chose to leave the Big 12, has it really gotten any better?

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Breakups are bad enough, but never so devastating as when it turns out your ex can get along just fine without you.

And if your new life is actually harder, well, maybe it’s time to rethink your position.

Given the circumstances and the season, then, let me be the first to extend an olive branch as well as an invitation:

Come on back, Texas A&M.

You, too, Nebraska.

We’ve got room for Missouri. We’ll even take back Colorado. And if I can’t get an amen on that, how about Arkansas?

In case you’re having a hard time keeping up, the schools listed above were once members of either the Big 12 or the old Southwest Conference. All left of their own volition. Most packed up because of grudges with Texas or felt the ground shifting under their feet. Maybe both. They were looking for stability and, God bless ’em, they found it.

But if all are better off financially — well, except for Colorado, mired in the Pac-12 muck — was it worth the price?

Because for the most part, they don’t win at football as much as they used to. And isn’t that the real bottom line in sports?

Consider the number of winning seasons each has experienced before and after their exits from the Big 12. Before it bolted for the Big Ten, Nebraska had 12 winning records in 15 Big 12 seasons. Since then? Only five in the last nine.

Missouri had 10 winning seasons in 16 years as a Big 12 member. Since then, it’s been four of eight in the SEC.

Colorado’s even worse off: one winning season in nine in the Pac-12 after six in 15 in the Big 12.

Arkansas bolted the SWC for the SEC 28 years ago because Frank Broyles was told the Razorbacks wouldn’t be included in any realignment that included Texas or A&M. The move saved the Hogs’ bacon. But as Broyles once told me, it’s never been the same since. Nearly three decades after joining the SEC, Arkansas has yet to develop a feud as blood-boiling as Texas. Of course, that’s the thing about leaving old rivalries. Anyone who was a senior at Arkansas when the Razorbacks left the SWC is still young enough to remember what it was like.

And it doesn’t help matters when you’re not as good at football as you were then. Arkansas competed for SWC titles. Even won it all in ’64. Since leaving the league of their youth, the Razorbacks have posted winning seasons half the time and only fleetingly competed for the top of the SEC West.

Which brings us to A&M. The Aggies are the only school among the expatriates with a better record in the SEC than the Big 12. They’ve produced a winning season every year as opposed to 10 in 16 Big 12 seasons.

But exactly how competitive have the Aggies been in the SEC West? This season’s fourth-place finish is the average. Only twice have they finished better. Came in third in Jimbo Fisher’s first season and second in 2012, A&M’s SEC debut.

You remember Johnny Manziel taking college football by the collar and shaking it silly. His win over Alabama remains one of A&M’s signature athletic moments.

If the Aggies had still been members of the Big 12 in 2012, they wouldn’t have had the chance to make history in Tuscaloosa. They also wouldn’t have had to play Florida in Johnny Football’s debut. Let me go out on a limb here. Considering that Manziel ran circles around Oklahoma in the 2013 Cotton Bowl, I’d say odds are good the Aggies would have gone undefeated in the Big 12 that season. And a 12-0 A&M — with a Heisman-apparent quarterback — would have at least been in the conversation for the BCS title game.

As it was, the 10-2 Aggies finished ninth in the 2012 regular-season BCS rankings, four spots back of 11-1 Kansas State.

Maybe it doesn’t bother Aggies that Johnny Football didn’t get an opportunity to play for everything. Maybe Jimbo can still deliver on the $60 million left in his deal. If nothing else, it might allow him to outlast Nick Saban. Even if he does, though, Dabo Swinney will be the next coach up at Alabama. And if not Dabo, then surely Kirby Smart.

The problem in the SEC is that it’s not just Alabama. Ed Orgeron may be only getting started at LSU. Gus Malzahn is always spoiling for something at Auburn.

What if Lane Kiffin finally grows up in Oxford?

Meanwhile, over here in the Big 12, they have some good teams. Coaches, too. If Jerry Jones doesn’t cherry-pick one, that is. Bob Bowlsby, the commissioner, says, top to bottom, this is the best the Big 12 has been in his tenure. Maybe so. Winning the conference title certainly got Oklahoma an invitation to the tournament, which is all the recommendation anyone needs.

Just the same, it seems safe to say it’s probably easier to win in this league than in the SEC or Big Ten. At least that’s what the records of the expats suggest.

So what do you say? Come back home! No one’s saying it wouldn’t be tough. First you’d have to swallow your pride, then get out of those pesky grant-of-rights deals.

The good news is, the Big Ten’s TV contract is up in 2023. The Pac-12’s expires in ’24. But, unless the lawyers get going, the SEC’s TV contract runs through 2034. That’s a long time beating your head against a wall.

Anyway, think about it. The Big 12 is far more stable these days. Practically boring. No, it doesn’t pay as much as the Big Ten or SEC, but it might be more fun. Oh, and DeLoss Dodds has retired, if that makes any difference.

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