Big 12 enters pivotal football season with new coaches, pang for success

Twelve years have passed since Vince Young triumphantly ran over Southern California and the Texas football team won a national championship for the Big 12 Conference.

That’s a long time.

And it feels even longer because of the conference’s failed attempts to establish a national presence since that fateful night at the Rose Bowl. Oklahoma reached the BCS title game in 2008, Texas made it back to the BCS title game in 2010 and OU qualified for college football’s playoff in 2015. Other than that, the Big 12 has settled for close calls like Baylor and TCU in 2014.

The only conference that has claimed to produce one true champion is the only power conference to twice miss out on the playoff.

Much will be discussed at Big 12 media days early next week in Frisco, Texas. New coaches at Oklahoma (Lincoln Riley) and Texas (Tom Herman), Heisman Trophy-quality quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Mason Rudolph, and the return of a conference championship game. All are important factors in how the Big 12 is perceived and where the conference goes in the future. But winning remains paramount.

The Big 12 took a step forward last season by posting its first winning bowl record (4-2) since TCU and West Virginia joined the conference. Can it take another this season? The question could be answered early as Texas plays USC, West Virginia takes on Virginia Tech, TCU faces Arkansas and Oklahoma visits Ohio State.

Nonconference success eluded the Big 12 last year. So did NFL Draft success. The conference produced just 14 selections, trailing the other four power conferences and the American Athletic Conference. The SEC led all conferences with 53 picks.

Another issue: Texas hasn’t been Texas.

Oklahoma president David Boren had the quote of the summer earlier this week when he suggested he was “philosophically in favor of a 10-win Texas.”

The Longhorns used to help the Sooners carry the Big 12 flag, but Texas has been mostly irrelevant since Mack Brown’s heyday. Charlie Strong totaled 16 victories in three years. Herman inherits a team that hasn’t experienced a winning season since 2013.

Kansas State and Oklahoma State are well positioned to challenge Oklahoma for a conference championship, and that should be enough to make for an exciting season. But a Texas renaissance is what many are quietly rooting for.

Still, another national championship or playoff appearance from any member would be a tremendous boon for the conference.

They could certainly remind folks of what the Big 12 has going for it.

Despite speculation the Big 12 will be vulnerable in the next round of conference realignment, the league is on stable footing until 2025, when its current grant of TV rights are set to expire. Talk of upheaval from league members has diminished, and talk of expansion has died.

The conference distributed $34.8 million to each of its 10 members last year, a number that lags behind the Big Ten and SEC but ranks above the ACC and Pac-12. Add in third-tier TV rights, which unlike other conferences is retained by each Big 12 school, and four schools (Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia) surpassed $40 million in league revenue last year.

Those numbers are expected to continue going up.

That’s good. A repeat of 2005 would be better.

This story was originally published July 14, 2017 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Big 12 enters pivotal football season with new coaches, pang for success."