Doc: Big 12 money would be nice for UC
The University of Cincinnati didn’t want The Enquirer to see how hard its high-ups have been working to get the school into the Big 12 conference. Participants in this high-stakes game of musical chairs don’t want to be seen as needy or pleading or actively seeking an exit from their current leagues. Even if all the above are true.
UC shouldn’t have sweated the paper’s prying. All the documents obtained from a public records request – everything from e-mails to dinner receipts over the last 16 months – make UC look good. They show a university proactively chasing a spot in a league that would eventually pay the athletic department some $20 million more a year than it takes in now.
Inside UC's bid to join the Big 12
The math is as simple as the courtship is complex: The 10 members of the Big 12 made $26 million apiece last year, from TV money, NCAA tournament proceeds and bowl-game payouts. Each member of the American Athletic conference made $6 million.
Think of the lipstick that could buy for Ol’ Lady Nippert Stadium. The obsolete Fifth Third Arena might even add backs to all those upper-level seats.
When UC was wooing the Big East, the emphasis was on academics. Look, we’re going to be in the same classroom as Georgetown! It’s no different now: We’re going to ride same steer as the University of Texas! This is nice and high-sounding and, yes, it’s possible that UC’s academic reputation would be enhanced by the association. Perception is reality and perception is a powerful thing.
But it’s mostly about sports and getting paid.
What is UC hiding about Big 12 Conference?
And survival. You can’t ask Tommy Tuberville or any Bearcats football coach to compete evenly with the big guys when what’s in his program’s wallet wouldn’t cover the tip at Texas Roadhouse. If the Bearcats want to try to stay nationally relevant in football, they have to find a way into a Power 5 league.
For its higher profile and highly striving members, the AAC is a league of exiles seeking a way out. No one here would suggest that UC and Tulsa are a match made in heaven, or anywhere but in a smoky backroom called Desperate Necessity. This makes the fact that UC president Santa Ono picked up a $326.38 dinner tab for three at the Manhattan (KS, home of Kansas State) Country Club seem wholly reasonable.
Ono has been a busy guy over the last 14 or 15 months. He has championed the restaurants of Austin, TX, and made personal visits to every Big 12 president. Maybe he taught conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby how to tie a bow tie. To some, such lobbying might seem a little unseemly. But what are college athletics now, if not an occasionally unseemly money grab?
Ono’s approach is a welcome contrast to the way UC handled its last athletics upheaval. As seemingly half the Big East presidents (the football-playing half) actively sought to bail, the Bearcats preached loyalty and fidelity.
Well, so much for that.
From a story in Sunday’s Enquirer, by Jason Williams:
In a splashy brochure dated November 2014, UC shows how it compares to the Big 12 schools in 10 categories – including annual giving, National Merit Scholars, total research expenditures, enrollment and endowment assets. Cincinnati would rank in the conference's top 5 in each category listed, except the U.S. News & World Report rankings, which would put UC seventh.
More importantly, Cincinnati is a good-sized TV market. Its admission to the Big 12 would open up talent-rich Ohio to Big 12 football recruiters. UC basketball would be a good addition. If the conference also took Memphis or UConn, it could divide into two six-team divisions geographically, with UC, Memphis/UConn and West Virginia holding down the east.
The Big 12 has not been eager to discuss expansion, partly because adding members slices thinner the per-school revenue pie. And now that the conference has gotten the OK to hold a title game without adding members, it could be less willing to expand.
One of its power brokers, Oklahoma, seems to favor UC. The documents obtained show OU president David Boren as highly complimentary of Ono. The other big player, Texas, has not been as excited. And no one knows what ESPN thinks.
UC can’t control anything but its own effort. Ono’s effort has been worthy of the urgency involved. It’s all about the company you keep and the shoulders you rub. And making sure the checks cash. That’s important, too.