The Big 12 is shedding its marquee matchup when the Red River Rivalry is performed Saturday for the ultimate time underneath the league’s umbrella.
No. 3 Texas and No. 12 Oklahoma head to the Southeastern Conference in 2024, the similar yr the Big 12 expands to 16 colleges in what the league hopes will probably be a thrilling release of a brand new generation. But long gone will probably be its maximum hyped regular-season recreation, in conjunction with the Sooners’ annual Bedlam assembly with Oklahoma State in a league and not using a different rivalries on par with the ones two.
“The spotlight of college football” is in this recreation, stated Texas trainer Steve Sarkisian, who additionally had stops in the Pac-12 and in the SEC. He calls Texas-Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas “the easiest surroundings in faculty soccer” with the howling lovers cut up between orange and pink.
The storied collection dates to 1900 and it’ll belong to the SEC quickly sufficient. It’s one who the Big 12 should not rush to substitute, stated Vassilis Dalakas, a sports activities advertising and marketing researcher at San Diego State who focuses on rivalries.
For starters, large rivalries have a tendency to be born out of promixity. Like different meetings being unfold out underneath the latest wave of realignment, the Big 12 now spans 3 time zones. Proximity is extra of a problem.
“It’s a lot easier to sell the heat and passion of the rivalry when the two rival teams are nearby,” Dalakas stated. The panorama beginning in 2024 “is a peculiar state of affairs in faculty sports activities usually. And I feel it does is sensible to simply determine it out first, see how issues settle in the new fact.”
Rivalries additionally thrive thru longstanding traditions, bad blood, name implications and back-and-forth, nail-biting results. TV viewership pushes pastime way past state borders.
The Longhorns and Sooners test maximum of the ones bins. Every October, they play prior to greater than 92,000 lovers in Dallas about 3 hours from their respective campuses. Except for last year’s 49-0 win by Texas, the collection used to be made up our minds through 8 issues or much less in the 8 Red River conferences prior to that.
From a fan and crew standpoint, Dalakas believes the Red River Rivalry must retain its depth as soon as the groups head to the SEC.
To the Big 12, even though, “that is a big hit. That is a big loss,” he stated.
“Obviously, part of it is simply losing two marquee programs. But the fact that those two programs had a rivalry with each other added even more of an element of excitement, especially from a branding and marketing standpoint that at least in the short run will be hard to replace or replicate with some other clubs,” Dalakas stated.
The Big 12 is in fact nonetheless promoting the game involving the league’s only two ranked teams on X, previously Twitter. Both are unbeaten heading into Red River for the first time since 2011.
New rivalries could emerge for the Big 12 starting next season when it welcomes Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, becoming a member of 4 novices from this yr: BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF.
Arizona and Arizona State have performed each season since 1946. The winner of the Duel in the Desert is awarded the Territorial Cup. But most effective 3 conferences since 2000 have concerned a ranked crew. Then there’s the Holy War between Big 12 newcomer BYU and 2024 entrant Utah, that have met in 20 of the previous 23 seasons.
“That might be an opportunity for the conference to try to market an existing rivalry,” Dalakas stated. “Trying to manufacture a rivalry usually doesn’t work. Fans can see through that very easily. If the conference is trying to do something like that, my guess is it will fail pretty bad.”
The instant probability of a emblem spice up additionally may come from Colorado, which rejoins the Big 12 subsequent yr from the Pac 12.
Under first-year trainer Deion Sanders, Colorado received its first 3 video games, vaulted into the AP Top 25 and attracted ESPN and Fox pregame broadcast groups to campus prior to cooling off with losses to No. 8 Oregon and No. 9 Southern California. Over its first 4 video games, Colorado had the very best faculty soccer TV viewership two times and used to be 2nd two times throughout all networks, in accordance to Sports Media Watch.
The Buffaloes have ties with 4 present Big 12 groups who have been participants of the outdated Big Eight that dissolved in 1996 — Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State. But Colorado hasn’t performed any of the ones groups since 2016.
Having Colorado again in the league “might not create a rivalry, but it might create enough interest that can help drive viewership to the conference games,” Dalakas said. “And I do think they add a lot of value and excitement. There is something here to be gained even if it doesn’t involve a rivalry.”
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