re: sCar/Ark fans, tell me about your move to the SEC in the early 90's

Not when it comes to the finances.

Broyles wasn't just tired of Texas but the rest of the SWC.

The SWC imploded because of not just Texas but the rest of the Texas schools that only cared about themselves and not the conference as a whole.

Yes and Arkansas still gets blamed for the collapse and in the last few years of the SWC and even called traitors. Every member of the conference got in as many licks as they could in games before Arkansas departed for the SEC.

The SWC could have survived and thrived but the ME culture destroyed it.

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Texas’ decision to monetize the third tier rights with ESPN—rather than exploring a Big XII-wide network similar to the Big Ten Network or SEC Network—was a blatant act of self-interest. Eventually, the LHN became both a financial asset and an albatross. Texas initially planned to show Texas high school sports on the LHN. This was shot down by the NCAA when multiple schools, prominently A&M, voiced concern. A&M announced their move to the SEC and Nebraska to the Big 10 shortly afterwards. In retrospect, the LHN drove away FAR more than it attracted, weakening the Big XII's brand and cohesion at a critical time.

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Lots of revisionist history here. The guy that eventually spearheaded the the B1G N initially was in the Big 12 and proposed the project to the B12. It never got out of committee as it was voted down due to the fact that the startup cost would in essence mean no tv revenue for the first 2 to 3 years of the project.

Only Texas and Nebraska (shocking I know) was willing to move forward because they had enough reserves. A&M, OU and some of the other old Big 8 schools could not survive that gap due to recent stadium expansion projects. You have to understand that no one knew the revenue potential as this was the first attempt at any type of conference network and the big costs was to retrofit all the facilities with tv infrastructure vs using the classic network tv equipment.

Texas and Nebraska went ahead and did the infrastructure projects anyway. Fast forward a few years, and the B1G has implemented the vision that the B12 vetoed. Texas then tries their limited in state only idea of the Lone Star network and approached A&M. Once again, infrastructure costs made it prohibitive for A&M (because once again, who would ever believe that a state or even a lone team could ever have their own network) and they said no. It would have been a 2-4 year timeframe to potentially even break even on it which was not really in A&Ms best interest.

Texas offered to subsidize A&Ms costs and it got misconstrued about Texas wanting A&M to be on the network for free or having Texas have more than a 50/50 split. So that idea got killed. Then ESPN decided to be insane and funny enough Texas already had the infrastructure and wanted the LHN facilities on campus to use for their RFTV program and was willing to subsidize part of the LHN on campus facilities.

It was stupid by ESPN, but then again it kept the B12 alive longer and not forced a major restructuring of all TV deals (including another SEC deal post the Mizzou/A&M move) so maybe it was the right call, but dumb from an image standpoint.

And all of this ignores why A&M, Nebraska, OU, Texas, and Kansas pushed for unequal revenue sharing or how third tier rights were super valuable for many of the old Big 8 schools or the ugly politics of the formation of the bastard child that was the early Big 12.

I can’t blame any of the schools or the moves they made and most of this is tied to the lack of vision of the old Big 12 higher ups and just weird timing.

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the SEC should've stopped at Ark and SC. It was the perfect amount of teams and fit. Money would never allow it however. lol money is the only reason they were asked in the first place. If it was about fit arky and usce wouldn’t have been the 5th and 6th choices respectively. They would of been first calls

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I’m sure other teams were offered before our teams but we were the only 2 that weren’t too chickenshit to join. Sure we were going to take our lumps in football, we knew it, but it’s been well worth it. No regrets at all.

While I do consider South Carolina and Arkansas full fledged SEC, I’m still old enough to confer them newcomers. But they’re still fully SEC.

Arkansas beat South Carolina 45-7, LSU 30-6 and top 10 Tennessee.

Yet lost to the Citadel, Memphis and SMU.

It just goes to show you that coaching matters at a place like Arkansas.

SC was actually not the first choice. Fla St at the time was a powerhouse and they turned down the SEC offer because they felt like the ACC was a gravy train.

Fast forward 32 years and FSU is still arse..

SC got the golden goose, took beatings and now are pretty respectable.

The move forced them to be accountable..

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I was young, but it excited me to see Arkansas play new teams in football and basketball. Three years in and Arkansas won the West and played in Atlanta. Basketball was really rolling though. Coming into the league and playing big games with Kentucky was great. The program never missed a beat coming from the SWC to the SEC. Then The Bud was built to replace Barnhill. Baseball at that time was not as popular as it is now...but Baum was built in the mid 1990's and then expanded again a few years later. Really enjoyed coming into the league with South Carolina and wished our football teams still played, as we did every year prior to the last expansion.

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I would also add that it helped quite a bit that Arkansas had a football history with Ole Miss and LSU prior to joining the league. So it was just a natural fit.

Going into the SEC with not much history against other teams, probably would have made the move a little more odd.

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Huge mistake for Arkansas.

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Are you WelchHog's alter?