Just an Update

Hey guys, I'm back. I told you I'd have a post on Friday. Probably not the Friday you were thinking but hey, it's still Friday. Anyway I don't have a KU post on here for you, I just thought I'd give you guys an update of where I've been. Well I've been home, doing my online school, and not much else. I've kind of flaked on the KU posts as of late but I'm going to try to do better in August. "But Tyler, August is weeks away?! Why so long?" Well mystery voice in my head, I am going to be helping my parents to set up my grandparents 50th anniversary, in Leavenworth. 3 1/2 hours away from Hutchinson. My current schedule looks like this

July 11th-July13th - In Leavenworth for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers Concert
July 14th - 16th - Home but doing my online schooling
July 17th - 26th - In Leavenworth working to help with the Anniversary.
July 27th - Home

So as you see, I won't be here for most of the month (But all this can change if I get a job which I am trying to do) so August is the best bet for me to be back. See you then

-Tyler

The Big 12 Super-conference!

Yes, you read that title correctly. The Big 12 (if they follow my idea) could, in fact, go from looking at its demise, to being the very first super-conference!
Orangebloods.com, who has been on top of every story concerning the Big 12's unsteady future, reported yesterday that Dan Beebe (the commissioner of the Big 12) has pulled out everything he can to keep Texas, and the rest of the south, from jumping ship. Beebe has told the the 10 schools that are left that he can keep the conference a TV deal that would pay each school up to $17 million, which is what the SEC pays out. It's also reported that he told the schools they would be able to have their own TV newtorks, which Texas has been wanting for a while and if they jumped to the Pac-10 would not get. SEC, check. Pac-10, check. This deal has stopped Texas in their tracks and they appear to now be leaning to stay in the Big 12 and save it from extinction. Now Beebe has to deal with A&M, who said they would love to save the Big 12 and would stay if they didn't get much of an offer from another conference. If A&M stays, the Big 12 is saved. Now onto my plan.
Lets say the Big 12 is saved and they stay together. They now have the super-conference card in their hand. With the Big 12 staying together, the MWC won't get their BCS bid like what was expected. The Big 12 can stop this from happening again and merge with the MWC and become the first super-conference. How great would that be? This would be a HUGE slap in the face to the Pac-10 and Big 10 if the Big 12 became the first super-conference. The MWC would take up the deal to merge with the Big 12 in a heart beat. Adding Boise State has already shown that they want to be a BCS conference and merging with the Big 12 would guarantee them what they wanted. Now I'm not for sure how a 20 team conference would work, but here is what I think they could do.

Football - They could creat four sub-divisions in the conference with five teams each. They could have the North, South, North-West and South-West. Here is how these divisions would play out.

North - KU, KSU, ISU, Missouri and Wyoming
South - Texas, TTU, OU, OSU and A&M
North-West - Boise St, Colorado St, Air Force, BYU and Utah
South-West- Nevada, TCU, San Diego St, New Mexico, and Baylor

They would each play their division opponents (4 games) 2 Non-Conf opponents (6 games) then 2 teams from each of the other 3 divisions (12 games)

The Championship game opponents would be decided by #1 North vs #1 North-West and #1 South and #1 South-West. Then the winners of those two games would face each other in the Big-20 championship game.

Basketball - 30 games on a schedule would equal 19 conference games and 11 non-conference games. They would alternate home and away games every year and play every team once. Then in the tournament, they would take the top 12 teams and do the usual Big 12 conference tournament.

This is a great idea and would secure the survival of the Big 12 forever.

-Tyler (PS, I promise Wednesday I'll have something that has to do with KU and KU only)

Mountain West Super Conference

The Mountain West Conference is making its bid to become a major BCS conference. A few days removed from confirming Boise State to the Mountain West they have began another search. As we know Nebraska and Colorado are for sure gone with Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State being pursued by the Pac-10. Some North schools are getting in on the realignment and jumbling of the NCAA's major conferences. Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri may have just found a home. They are on the radar for the Mountain West Conference. Leaving Iowa State and Baylor homeless in the conference aspect of college sports. If these teams are continuely being pursued and join the MWC here is a look at what the Mountain West, Pac-10, and Big Ten could possibly look like in 2011-2012.

Mountain West:
Air Force
Brigham Young (BYU)
Colorado State
Kansas*
Kansas State*
Missouri*
New Mexico
Texas Christian (TCU)
Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV)
Utah
Wyoming

Pac-10:
Arizona
Arizona State
California
Colorado*
Oklahoma*
Oklahoma State*
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
Texas*
Texas A&M*
Texas Tech*
California at Los Angeles (UCLA)
Southern California (USC)
Washington
Washington State

Big Ten:
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska*
Northwestern
Ohio State
Pennsylvania State (Penn St.)
Purdue
Wisconsin
* possible additions to conference

KSU vs. KU rivalry if KU goes to Pac-10

The University of Kansas could quite possibly be heading to the Pac-10. What will happen to the Wildcats of Kansas State if there in state rival moves to the Pac-10? First of all if KU heads to another conference will KSU follow or head there seperate way. Kansas State has not been one of the main names mentioned in the conference shake-up. What would happen to the Sunflower Showdown if KU heads to the Pac-10?

Personally I believe the rivalry will still be there among the top rivalries in college sports. What I think will change about the rivalry is the implications put on the rivalry. For several years in both football and basketball the sunflower showdown has had national exposure and has been very important in Big 12 rankings and National rankings. For example this years basketball Big 12 championship game was between the two rivals. Kansas State was looking to end KU's streak of dominance and quite possibly earn themselves a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Lets take a look at some of the memorable sunflower showdown games. Here are some of the most important Sunflower Showdown's of the past decade:

Basketball:
2010 Big 12 Championship: Kansas 72 vs. KSU 64

January 30,2008: Kansas State 84 vs. Kansas 75

January 30, 2010: Kansas 81 vs. Kansas State 79 (OT)

Football:
1995: #14 Kansas State 41 vs. #6 Kansas 7

2004: Kansas 31 vs. Kansas State 28

1987: Tie 17 to 17

These scores show how great the sunflower showdown is. This will not change even if KU moves to Pac-10 and leaves Kansas State behind.

Wildcat Weekly Wrap-Up

In this weeks headlines you did not see much of Kansas State University being talked about in all of the Conference jumbling. What you did hear was that several of K-States long time conference foes are no longer within the Big 12.

Nebraska: Heading to the Big Ten. Will begin conference play in Big Ten in 2011-2012 academic year. Part of the original Big 8 and has been a part of the Big 12 the whole time, 14 years.

Colorado: Heading to the Pac-10. Will begin conference play in 2012 academic year.

Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State: Being pursued by the Pac-10 to form a "super conference". This decision is headed by the University of Texas based on the fact that they produce the most revenue in all of college football. It is believed that if they go the rest of the schools listed will follow. That is if A&M does not bail on there fellow Big 12 school Texas and go to the SEC.

Kansas State Fans don't worry we have one more year of Big 12 play and have solid recruits coming in for the 2010-2011 football season:

4 star:
Adam Davis DE 6'1 249 lbs. (Hutchinson CC)
DeMarcus Robinson RB 5'9 192 lbs. (Wichita Northwest High)

3 star:
Billy Cosh QB 6'2 196 lbs. (Gambrills, MD)
Kyle Klein ATH 6'5 205 lbs. (Loveland, CO)
Tre Walker LB 6'4 208 lbs. (Olathe North High)

Basketball:
*** Freddy Asprilla C 6'10 280 lbs. (Miami Dade CC)
Shane Southwell SF 6'6 220 lbs. (New York, NY)
Will Spradling PG 6'3 170 lbs. (Shawnee Mission South)

KU could be closer to finding a new home thanks to A&M

Yesterday I posted that KU had two options opening up for them if the Big 12 collapses, the Pac-10 and the MWC. I also said that the MWC was the conference that KU was likely going to end up at, and I still think that's the case, but today the Pac-10 has gained some ground.

Like I said yesterday, Texas A&M is still not sold on the Pac-10 and is still considering the SEC as their new home. While A&M isn't their first choice, the SEC is still considering adding them. The Pac-10 then came out and made it clear that if A&M didn't decide soon, that KU was going to get their invite to the Pac-10. While, geographically wise, this doesn't make much sense, KU will have to accept the invite if it comes their way, as they really don't have any other choice. They need a conference and having a firm, stable conference to go to is more important right now, sadly, than their rivalries with KSU and Missouri.

Sure the MWC seems like the better choice and if they decided to go their they could bring KSU and Missouri with them and keep the rivalries going (which they can still do if they go to seperate conferences), and they wouldnt have to face OU and Texas every year in football, but if the Pac-10 decides to offer KU an invite, they have to accept. That way they will belong to a strong conference and make the money that this conference realignment thing is all about.

Hope you all have a good weekend and I'll see you on Monday!

-Tyler

KU Weekend Wrap Up!

Welcome to the first ever edition of the KU Weekend Wrap Up on KU vs KSU! The weekend wrap up will be about past KU events that took place that I (Tyler) didn't blog about.

KU AD Lew Perkins Retiring as KU AD In 2011 - Amid controversy coming from every angle imagined, KU Athletic Director, Lew Perkins, announced this week that he will step down from his position as AD taking affect September 4th, 2011. Lew Perkins, who has been KU's AD since June of 2003 and had a reputation of cleaning up programs who had been on probation, has had his hands full since September of 2009 when a number of fights between the Basketball team and Football team broke out. After that he had to deal with head football coach Mark Mangino after reports came out that he was mistreating players. Recently he has had to deal with the recent ticket scandal and then found himself in the middle of a blackmail scheme involving athletic equipment he had been given.

Darrell Stuckey was named Big 12 male Sportsperson of The Year - Finally some positive news for the Kansas Jayhawks, KU DB Darrell Stuckey was named Big 12 Male Sportsperson of the Year. Stuckey, a former All-Big 12 first team selection, was selected in the 3rd round by the Chargers and was one of KU's biggest contributors during his career at KU. He started every game his sophomore season and played a total of 45 games for the Jayhawks. He had a total of 295 tackles, eight interceptions and 11 TFL (tackles for loss). He also made a contribution off the field by being involved in community service and visiting local elementary schools in Lawrence and Kansas City often. He was also named male athlete of the year by the Kansas City Sports Commission.

KU Basketball Team Hurting - A Blue-Red scrimmage between the KU basketball team during Bill Self's basketball camp led to many injuries. Marcus Morris got hit by Thomas Robinson and sent Morris tumbling to the floor. Morris had to be helped off the floor with a deeply bruised tailbone. Robinson later ran into Markieff Morris at full speed. Robinson suffered a broken nose while Markieff suffered only a cut lip which needed three stitches. Two other injured Jayhawks are incoming freshmen Royce Woolridge and Josh Selby. Selby suffered a broken pinkie in a pick up game and Royce Woolridge tweaked his knee in a pick up game.

Recruits of the Week (This part will be any about any players who committed to play football or basketball for KU, but for this week, I'll cover all recruits. Click the names to see more stats.)

Football - 2011 recruits

Michael Cummings - QB, Killeen TX, 6'0/196 lbs, ***, 24th ranked QB, 4.58 40.
Jake Love - LB, Tonkawa OK, 6'0/195 lbs, ***, 58th ranked LB, 4.52 40.
Chris Robinson - CB, Lake Mary FL, 5'9/170 lbs, No ranks available, 4.43 40.
Victor Simmons - Safety, Olathe KS, 6'1/185 lbs, ***, No position rank, 4.52 40.
Dreamius Smith - RB, Wichita KS, 6'0/205 lbs, ***, 40th ranked RB, No 40 time.

Basketball - 2010, 2012

2010-
Josh Selby - PG, Baltimore Maryland, 6'2/183 lbs, *****, #1 ranked player in class and position.
Royce Woolridge - SG, Phoenix AZ, 6'3/175 lbs, ***, No position rank, 120 in class.

2012 -
Zach Peters - PF, Plano TX, 6'9/235 lbs, N/A, N/A