Bigger not always better in leagues

The Big 12 Conference celebrates the 10-year mark of its founding come Feb. 25. A lot of the kinks have been worked out of the machinery. Gone is the familiar, friendlier atmosphere of the Big Eight. But for all the drawbacks, the 12-school alignment seems considerably ahead of some of its neighbors.

It’s amusing to see conferences, such as the Atlantic Coast and Big East now facing challenging shakedown cruises due to recent money-driven expansions.

Many were apprehensive about the Big 12’s future 10 years ago. Now, so are ACC and Big East people squirming uncomfortably about the impact of a “bigger and better” philosophy. Terms such as “unwieldy” and “loss of a conference feel” pop up. Not difficult to see why. It happens.

In the old Big Eight, football teams met their seven compatriots once, then played them twice each for a 14-game basketball format. Came the Big 12 merger with Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech and football in particular got doggone convoluted.

Kansas plays five grid games with its North Division neighbors and then has three Southern Division foes to alternate with. The past two years, those southern games have been with Baylor, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M. For the next two years (ouch!) the south contingent is Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech. (KU could be much better next fall and not even match this year’s 1-2 mark against the South. A 0-3 wallop is not conducive to a giant leap to excellence.)

Sure seems a better system of alternation could be worked out. So far not much hope for such. Kansas is not the only school that prefers changes, but nobody seems to be doing much.

In basketball, Kansas plays its Northern Division buddies twice each, on a home-and-home basis, then encounters each of the six south people once, shifting courts every other year. Not ideal, but workable and getting more familiar.

Sadly, as much as players and coaches covet it, a regular-season league championship doesn’t mean a lot anymore to many fans, except for seeding in a postseason tournament that exists strictly because of the money. Even if a team wins the regular title and postseason trophy, zealots grumble if they don’t at least reach the NCAA Final Four. Like Kansas in ’97.

Why the dickens play all those games then be considered a flop if you don’t close with a 6-0 run? Principle clearly has been sacrificed for principal, with interest. Phog Allen often said he’d rather win a conference championship than a national title because “you live with conference people.” Boy, has that been bastardized in the exploding shag for shekels!

In the ACC, the membership will soon go to 12 with the addition of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College. In the future, playing every opponent would require 22 games, something no coaches want. A 16-game setup is due. One who will miss the current round-robin battles is traditionalist Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, who said, “The round-robin is the epitome of equity. I’m glad we have it this year. I wish we had it every year.”

North Carolina icon Dean Smith comments, maybe without a quick review of history, “It could cheapen the championship.”

Oh, yeah? The Atlantic Coast began cheapening the championship with postseason tournaments in 1954 — play your butt off for a full season, risk staying home if you don’t rule the tournament. Time was when ONLY the ACC tourney king made the NCAA meet, including 1957 when UNC won its first title edging Kansas.

Analyst Jay Bilas declares: “Expansion hurts basketball. … The ACC brand connotes basketball, first and foremost. Now, there will never again be an ACC regular-season champion. Somebody will be named champion and it will spur a bunch of discussion. But is it fair that the top teams in the league won’t visit your place in certain years? … Unfair? It borders on the ridiculous.”

Yet again, the ACC has worshiped at the Shrine of Greenbacks longer than anyone else. This expansion was to get more football frogskins.

Consider the Big East maneuvering. Bilas, the Dukie who may be the best in his broadcast field, speculates: “The great irony is that the ACC, by expanding (for football), may have made the Big East the best basketball conference in the country.”

Our better-established Big 12 might contest that. But the Big East could re-emerge as an unruly Godzilla.

For years, the Big East with its Georgetown, St. John’s, Villanova, Connecticut, Syracuse and such has had fine, often dominant, basketball. Now it’s taking in Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville and Marquette and South Florida. Cincy, Louisville and Marquette also have national titles in their bin.

The Atlantic Coast licked its chops at the prospect of getting the football clout of Miami, Va. Tech and Boston College. The jury is out on Big East football. Leaning in the gridiron direction has raised some notable eyebrows.

“I don’t want to use the phrase ‘slap in the face,'” says UConn cage coach Jim Calhoun. “But we felt like pawns in whatever was right for football. Back when we started, it was a league put together for the pure purpose of giving great, great basketball in the Northeast. We got away from that in this thing. It’s very difficult to handle for what most people would consider a pure basketball league. … How do we make sure it doesn’t become unwieldy, make sure it still has a conference feel?”

School officials are likely to drive Yogi Berra’s AFLAC duck crazy by telling Calhoun, “Forget the money, Jim; all we want is the cash.” It’s always that anymore.

Whatever its flaws, the decade-old Big 12 has to be overjoyed to be past the agony of such growing pains.