KANSAS CITY – The contradiction is impossible to ignore.
At the start of the final interview session at the Big 12 Conference’s annual spring meetings, Oklahoma State President Burns Hargis announced the league will distribute $19 million to eight of its member schools.
The $19 million payout, Hargis announced, is an all-time high for Big 12 schools.
It’s also almost $5 million more than what Florida State will receive from the Atlantic Coast Conference for 2011-12.
Yet nearly an hour after Hargis announced the record-breaking Big 12 payouts, he said he did not think the ACC would get left behind in the ever-increasing arms race in big-time college football.
“I think the ACC has some members who play football at a very high level,” Hargis said. “Television networks are going to want to televise their games. People want to see them. And they are, arguably, as good a basketball conference as there is.
“I don’t think anybody gets left behind,” he added.
Hargis – and others from his league – may say it, but it certainly appears that FSU and the rest of the FSU are in danger of falling behind the Big 12, PAC 10, Big Ten and SEC.
The Big 12 payouts are skewed this year because of the revolving door in the league’s membership. Texas A&M and Missouri, who move to the SEC this fall, were given no money for the 2011-12 fiscal year.
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