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Message: [QUOTE="jostar1, post: 1771551, member: 1737"] Guerin Emig ‏@GuerinEmig · 12h12 hours ago Humored by #Big12Expansion, humbled by a West Virginia injury and sickened by Hope Solo. It was quite a week. [URL='http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/ousportsextra/guerin-teed-it-was-quite-a-week-humored-by-big/article_5d184496-4d64-5dc3-8fea-3d083343fa8d.html']Guerin-teed it was quite a week: Humored by Big 12 expansion, humbled by a West Virginia injury and sickened by Hope Solo[/URL] This is from the article: Visit Lawrence on a fall Saturday. Grab a bite downtown on Massachusetts Street. Stroll the prettiest campus in the Big 12 Conference. Drop by Allen Fieldhouse and see if Bill Self left the door unlocked. It can be an exhilarating day. Just know that if you use your football tickets and spend three hours inside Kansas’ half-empty stadium, you’re liable to require a joy transplant. Kansas’ average attendance last year was 27,282. The next-worst figure in the Big 12 was Baylor’s 46,190. That gulf, besides KU’s pitiful record since Mark Mangino left town, makes it pretty obvious that the Big 12 puts up with Jayhawks football solely because of Jayhawks basketball. KU football besmirches the conference. There’s no other way to say it. Remember that attendance figure. Assuming you have been to KU’s Memorial Stadium the past seven years, remember how depressing that feels compared to going literally anywhere else in the league for a game. What I’m about to show you are 2015 average attendance figures from several of the 18 schools reportedly interviewing to join the Big 12 (a salute to ESPN.com’s Brett McMurphy for the scoop)... South Florida: 26,578 Air Force: 26,026 Colorado State: 24,917 New Mexico: 23,528 Arkansas State: 23,007 Tulane: 22,930 SMU: 21,043 Northern Illinois: 13,942 All worse than Kansas. Here’s more... UCF: 30,065 San Diego State: 29,066 UConn: 28,224 All comparable to Kansas. And... Cincinnati: 37,096 Houston: 33,980 Boise State: 33,612 Those last three programs could make the Big 12 better on the field — they’re certainly better than Kansas — but the attendance figures don’t add up. All three play in 37,000-40,000-seat stadiums, so it’s not like there’s room for major growth. I am reminded of the classic Sesame Street tune “One of These Things Is Not Like the Others.” Change “one” to “18” and you’ve got the theme song for Big 12 expansion. You just have to laugh. You just have to hope that Bob Bowlsby and his board of directors have an end game in mind that is more sensible than laughable, meaning one that involves expansion of a different kind (lawyers and TV execs working 24 hours a day to cut a Power 5 deal nobody knows about) or no expansion at all. Would it be embarrassing to double back after pressing forward so publicly? Yes. But not as much as adding another four teams from a group being outdrawn by Texas high schools. [B][SIZE=4]Guerin Emig[/SIZE] [URL='https://twitter.com/GuerinEmig'][SIZE=4]@GuerinEmig[/SIZE][/URL] [/B] Sports columnist for the Tulsa World. [/QUOTE]

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