Dan Beebe says the Pac-10 has "fair-weather" fans

So the Big XII survived being swallowed up by the Pac-10.

You know what else survived?

The Big XII-Pac-10 Hardwood Series.

As we wrote back in April when the dates were announced, once you get beyond the most dedicated fans, very few people that were even aware that the Big XII and the Pac-10 have a Hardwood Series. That's what happens when a twelve game series is chock full of uninteresting match ups and takes a month to finish.

That may change this year.

Obviously, there is the realignment drama. Most thought Texas was going to lead the charge of six Big XII teams to the Pac-10. Many believed this spelled the demise of the Big XII. Instead, depending on who you read and where you've read it, Texas manipulated Larry Scott and the Pac-10 in order to dump Colorado out west and rake in as much money as possible next season, eventually establishing their own network.

That alone adds quite a bit of intrigue to a series whose most interesting matchup is between a team (Missouri) whose coach flirted with another team (Oregon).

And thanks to Dan Beebe, things have gotten even more interesting.

SI.com was able to uncover an email that Beebe, the commissioner of the Big XII, sent out to his member schools on June 1st. In this email, Beebe tries to convince Big XII members to commit to the conference, using a variety of methods. One of which is to describe the fans of Pac-10 schools as "fair-weather".

"For those considering possible membership in the Pac-10, I hope that full consideration is given to the student-athlete and fan experience," Beebe wrote in the email. "I grew up in Pac-10 territory and although there are outstanding institutions in the conference, the facilities and fair-weather fans are a disappointment. I suggest that the fan support for their regular-season games and championships, and the accompanying image that projects, should be carefully examined." (Ed. Note: Our emphasis added.)

Now, the Pac-10 was down last season, and given the amount of talent leaving the conference and the lack of incoming all-americans, its difficult to expect anything different next season. But that doesn't mean that fan bases at Oregon or Washington or Arizona are any less vicious.

Especially when they come across that quote.

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Big XII/Pac-10 series schedule

The matchups for the Big XII/Pac-10 challenge have been released:


Nov. 27
-USC at Nebraska

Dec. 2
-Missouri at Oregon
-UCLA at Kansas
-Arizona State at Baylor

Dec. 3
-Kansas State at Washington State

Dec. 4
-Oregon State at Colorado
-California at Iowa State
-Texas Tech at Washington

Dec. 5
-Texas at USC
-Oklahoma at Arizona

Dec. 11
-Washington at Texas A&M

Dec. 21
-Stanford at Oklahoma State

There aren't a lot of overwhelmingly good games here.

Kansas State at Washington State should be entertaining, as the Wildcats are expected to be around the top 10 and the Cougars return a lot of talent. Arizona State at Baylor should also be a good game.

The most interesting matchup could be Missouri at Oregon, as Mike Anderson makes a trip to Eugene, where the Ducks pursued him for a while as a potential replacement for Ernie Kent. there is no way that UCLA can be as bad as they were this year, and they travel to Lawrence to take on fellow blue blood Kansas, who will also be a top 10 team.

That said, I doubt that anyone, except for the writers, bloggers, and most die-hard fans in the midwest and on the west coast, will even know this series is taking place next season.

Why?

Because the games are so spread out.

Part of the reason that this series was put into place was to try and capitalize on the success that the ACC-Big Ten challenge has had, while also guaranteeing every team in both leagues an out of conference game against a power conference team. But the Big XII/Pac-10 series will never, ever reach the level of the ACC-Big Ten challenge if they keep the games so spread out.

The ACC and the Big Ten do it right. The 11 games in that challenge take place over the course of three days and they are shown on the ESPN networks. It drives interest, and people actually care about who wins the challenge. While is carries the same amount of significance as a win in a preseason tournament -- which means basically none -- it does provide some bragging rights. The Big Ten won for the first time this season. I wrote about it here, as did just about every other college basketball media outlet and blog.

In the early part of the college hoops season, when it is difficult to generate interest with football season coming to a close, the ACC-Big Ten challenge provides a reason for casual fans to tune in.

The Big XII/Pac-10 series will never generate that interest under the current format. In the age of the internet, the average attention span of a sports fan is pretty damn short. When the entire NCAA Tournament takes three weeks to play, and every preseason tournament, with the exception the Preseason NIT and the Coaches vs. Cancer, which are played at multiple sites, is finished within four days at an absolute maximum, the Big XII/Pac-10 series takes almost a month to complete?

There is the potential to build some interest in this event, but that will never happen if the series can't be completed within a week.

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Jimmy V Week: Let's Get It Right

The ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The Pac 10-Big XII Series. And now we have the SEC-Big East Invitational. I love them. I think these competitions are great for basketball. Think about it. If these didn't exist, would we see as many great games during December, college basketball's down time, as we currently do? This year we get Duke-Purdue, UNC-Michigan State, Texas-UCLA, USC-Oklahoma, even games with so-so teams like Wisconsin-Virginia Tech or Penn State-Georgia Tech end up turning into classics on national TV during primetime.

Maybe I am a just too much of a junkie, but anytime you can get games on ESPN, it is a good thing for the sport. Fans get excited that for the games. Players get amped up for them. The families and friends of players at a school like Penn State or Virginia, who rarely make it on ESPN these days, get a chance to see their loved ones on national television in a game called by one of the people they hear talking about the sport every night. The same goes for the pre-season tournaments like the Maui and the Old Spice. It is a great thing for the sport.

So my question is, how come ESPN hasn't capitalized on this yet? I doubt that it is more than a few years away already, but how come the Pac 10-Big XII and SEC-Big East competitions haven't grown to the size of the ACC-Big 10 Challenge? Again, it may just be because I am a college hoops fanatic, but think about how great this could be.

What sports are on during the week right now? NBA games, but no one cares about the NBA until the last month of the season and the playoffs. NHL games, but no one cares about the NHL ever. You have the mid-major college football games, but most of those are done by the week after Thanksgiving. NFL plays games on Monday and Thursday nights, but the Thursday night games are on the NFL Network and the Monday night games have been mediocre at best this year.

ESPN is promoting this as Jimmy V week, and it runs from Dec. 3rd-9th, culminating in the Jimmy V Classic on the 9th. Why half-ass it? Here is my proposition (and all you ESPN folks, remember where you heard it first). Starting the Monday after Feast Week (i.e. the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend), start Jimmy V Week. Instead of just having a few games for the Pac 10-Big XII and the SEC-Big East, turn those into league wide competitions a la the ACC-Big 10 Challenge. Stagger them so that there are two marquee games on every night of the week, Monday-Friday, on ESPN and two more games a night on both ESPN2 and ESPN U. Six games a night over five nights is 30 games. As there will still be a few left over (by my calculations, with the size of each league there are 33 total games - 11 in the ACC-Big 10, 12 in the SEC-Big East, 10 in the Pac 10-Big XII), play them on Saturday afternoon (ESPN has basketball games on this Saturday as it is - Duke-Michigan and Miami FL-Kentucky).

Think about how exciting that would be. Think about the number of great games. Think about how much ESPN could promote that. Take this year as an example. Friday night, ESPN is airing Portland against Boston and ESPN 2 has the MAC football championship (Ball State against Buffalo). Again, it could be just me, but wouldn't you rather watch a game like UConn-Tennesee or Arizona State-Baylor?

Then, on the following Monday and/or Tuesday, hold the Jimmy V Classic. I know that ESPN would make money over hand and foot if this were to be implemented, but also think about how much money the V Foundation would make.

You could even take it a step further. The leagues with the two best records in their respective challenges will go head-to-head the next year. Third will play fourth, and fifth will play sixth. The way that two conferences are compared these days are you set up hypothetical match-ups between the best, the second best, etc. teams in each of the conferences, and see who ends up with a better record. So by having the two best conferences from the previous year square off, isn't that an easy way to settle the "who is the best conference debate"?

Yea, there are some logistical issues with that. For one, if the two best conferences play, then they are both likely to end up with a mediocre record that year, lowering their rank for the next season's competition. Also, if league's on opposite coasts (i.e. the Big East and the Pac 10) were to end up playing each other, travel could be come a big problem. Do you really want to fly a team from New York to California for one game during the week? Not only would it wreak havoc on the kids internal clocks, but it would be a big hinderance in class and study schedules with finals coming.

So it is not perfect yet, but tell me that this wouldn't be exciting for everyone associated with the sport. Continue reading...