speaking from the Big 12 media conference this morning on his Sirius radio show, Full Ride, Rick Neuheisel had an interesting comment on how the Big 12 could build the marquee programs it needs to compete successfully with the top teams in the nation's two biggest conferences, the B1G and SEC.
He noted that behind its commissioner the conference has achieved a good deal of depth, but losing Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC robbed it of its two marquee programs and they needed to replace that element to drive its marketing and hoped for continued growth,
He said that basically, members of the Big 12 will take in roughly half as much money on which to operate as will members of the B1G and SEC. That means that pay for play - suggested to be tween 20 and 22 % of what each school takes in - will also amount to about one-half per player of what their counterparts in the top two conferences will be making. This creates a pretty insurmountable recruiting disadvantage for any and all schools outside the top two conferences.
Neuheisel said what he thought the B-12 should do is create a four tier payment structure in which the top four schools would get the largest share of money from the conference, the next four the next highest share, the next four the third highest share and the bottom four the lowest share.
This would not promote improvement by the cellar dwellers (a significant negative view) but it would enable the four top programs to pay salaries more commensurate with those elite players could make at B1G and SEC schools.
The other wild card open to the B-12 would be to actively recruit Clemson and Florida State into membership - part of Neuheisal's discussion with his co-host on Full Ride. But that would definitely require a scheme such as the one he advanced (see above) because Clemson and FSU wouldn't consider moving there unless they could realize a reimbursement level commensurate with those of members of the top two conferences.
Hope I caught the gist of his comments but it was an interesting discussion as he and his co-host awaited more action from the conference's media days event