Welcome to Tuesday Takes, where I give you four takes from the Big 12. It was a jam-packed week full of exciting news, but several things caught my attention over the last few days.
The Big 12 Will Have Three Top Ten Picks
The NFL Draft starts this week, with round one kicking things off on Thursday. Normally, it’s rare that we get more than two first-round picks from the Big 12, but things look dramatically different this year.
Forget about three players in the first 32 picks; the Big 12 is going to have three players in the first ten picks. That’s right, Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey, Utah tackle Spencer Fano, and Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson will all hear their name called quickly. This is going to be a historic draft for the Big 12 upcoming.
Oklahoma State Put Their Money Where Their Mouth Is
Typically, I would say this about football or men’s basketball when it comes to Oklahoma State forking up money for players. However, what happened this past weekend is something I didn’t see coming at all.
The women’s basketball program got a huge commitment from All-American Audi Crooks. Audi was the number one player in the transfer portal, ranking second in Division I in scoring (25.8 PPG) and field goal percentage (64.9) this past season.
This was a massive get not just for head coach Jacie Hoyt but also for the program and, for that matter, the entire athletic department. It’s not often that the number one player available ends up in Stillwater, but I do wonder how much they had to shell out to get her.
$100 Million Dollar Rosters Are Insane
Last week, Yahoo published an article discussing the idea of college football programs having $100 million-dollar rosters. Yes, you read that correctly, $100 million dollars.
I remember a couple of years ago when $20 million was a lot, and this year reports have already been made that there are,, in fact, some schools with $60 million worth of players on their rosters right now, which is mind-boggling.
In a world where schools are already paying a ton of money for facilities and upgrades across the board, I just wonder where they get all this money from? It’s already bad enough that it costs tens of millions of dollars right now to put a team together, and if the sport gets to the point where schools are paying $100 million for one team, then what in the hell are we doing? When will it stop?
The NCAA Needs to Say No to Expansion
One of my favorite articles every week is Postscripts, done by our own Matthew Postins. This week, he brought up something I completely forgot about: the NCAA wanting to expand the tournament to 76 teams.
I understand it will bring in more money, but why water down one of the best postseason formats even more? It would be one thing if it got more mid-major teams in, but I already know that won’t happen.
My guess is that we get more Power 4 teams in that probably don’t deserve to be there in any way. There are so many great mid-major conferences that only get one bid each year. I know times have changed and that the days of the Cinderella teams are behind us, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are still some great teams out there who can compete at a high level if given the opportunity.
But until we give them that opportunity, we will never know. If the expansion were to help those teams, I would be all for it, but I know that’s not the case here.
