Why Texas Should Join the SEC

Wouldn't Jordan Hicks look good against LSU?

Before we get into this, be advised that I'm a Texas Longhorns fan.

I have burnt orange blood circulating throughout my system, and I'm as knowledgable about the realignment situation as the news and blogs I read. Therefore, I'm compelled to discuss the following possibility.

Texas should move to the SEC.

What about the Big 10? Aren't they the most prestigious conference in the land with the best academia of all the conferences?

Yes, the Big Ten/Eleven is in a prime position to elevate it's status even higher than it already is with the talks of expansion. It's decision to do so has caused endless speculation and scenarios, taking into account all the factors a school looks at when assessing it's conference obligations. Academics, logistics, politics and financial issues are all taken into account, without even mentioning the new games added to each schedule. The Big Ten has arguably the best academia of all the major conferences (the PAC 10 gives it a solid run), so the Big Ten will only take the best academic schools in order to not lose that selling/pride point. Texas and Texas A&M are the only to Big 12 schools who would likely qualify for entry into the Big 10.

But here's the deal. The Big Ten is going to get Rutgers, which owns the New York City market. That's the biggest city in the U.S. if you didn't know, and by expanding the Big Ten into that market does nothing but provide financial positives for the conference. And while they'd love to have Texas and pretty much dominate the Northeast, Midwest and the Texas markets, Texas has to look out for it's own interests.

So what's wrong the Big Ten? What other interests?

Texas is a celebrity of the NCAA landscape. It's unique because it's reach extends all across the state, and since Texas is the most important state (in the eyes of Texans, mind you), Texas doesn't have to join a conference full of midwest teams far away. The two closest Big 10 schools to Austin are Illinois and Iowa, which is an easy way to say that every Texas team will have to travel a long, long way to play some games.

Now let's look at the SEC. They have Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss and Alabama within the distance it takes to get to either Illinois or Iowa, and it's the most powerful college football conference, period. According to a Burnt Orange Nation blog, Big Ten schools are an average of 1,206 miles away, whereas the SEC schools are only 836 miles away (the furthest away being Kentucky.)

The SEC, heck yeah! Why was this never mentioned before?

Academia is the most important factor when considering a conference switch. Suffice to say, the Big Ten's academia is a lot more prestigious than the SEC. It's been a foregone conclusion of the media so far to assume that Texas won't consider it. But working with some things, the SEC isn't as far behind as some may think.

According to the US News rankings of academic reputations, the Big Ten and PAC 10 both have five schools within the top 60, and the SEC has three. Should Texas and Texas A&M join the conference, that makes it five strong for the SEC, including a private school (Vanderbilt) to match Stanford and Northwestern.

Throw in the fact that the southern and western states are becoming more populated at the expense of the northeastern and midwest states, the politics and demographics for Texas to stay in the south simply make sense.

So what does the SEC have to offer?

Simple. Texas and Texas A&M joining the already elite conference would make the SEC an unbelievably competitive conference. Along with the 14 years the SEC has left in it's television deal with ESPN, Texas would perennially face OU, LSU, Ole Miss, Arkansas and A&M, mix in a couple of Florida/Georgia/Tennessee games a season.

Here's a look at possible 2012 schedules with the Big Ten and the SEC and tell me which one looks more promising in enriching Texas sports.

Provided by Burnt Orange Nation

Week	Opponent (Conference Games in BOLD)
Week 1	NORTH TEXAS
Week 2	@ Rice
Week 3	PENN STATE
Week 4	@ Iowa
Week 5	@ Nebraska
Week 6	Oklahoma (in Dallas)
Week 7	MINNESOTA
Week 8	@ Notre Dame
Week 9	MISSOURI
Week 10	ILLINOIS
Week 11	@ Wisconsin
Week 12	TEXAS A&M
CCG	Ohio State (in Indianapolis)

Compare that schedule with a Longhorn schedule in the SEC:

Week	Opponent (Conference Games in BOLD)
Week 1	NORTH TEXAS
Week 2	@ Rice
Week 3	ARKANSAS
Week 4	@ Ole Miss
Week 5	WYOMING
Week 6	Oklahoma (in Dallas)
Week 7	@ Georgia
Week 8	MISSISSIPPI STATE
Week 9	LSU
Week 10	FLORIDA ATLANTIC
Week 11	@ Texas Tech
Week 12	TEXAS A&M
CCG	Alabama (in Atlanta)

In short, Texas moving to the SEC would provide tremendous financial profitability with the ESPN contract and the allowance of Texas to start the LSN, or Longhorn Sports Network, a 24/7 Texas Sports television network, which would be unavailable with the Big Ten's network.

What do you guys think?

David Justice Is The Reason I Love Baseball

I can thank David Justice for my love of baseball.

Yes, that David Justice, former Atlanta Braves great who once married Halle Berry (?) is one of the most important links to my childhood baseball memory bank.

I was never a Justice or Atlanta Braves fan, although his homer in Game 6 was clutch in the '95 series against Cleveland.

It was a different Justice Game 6 homer; it was hit by my brother Jeff.

We played every sport, depending on the season, which meant the summer days of sitting at home until the parents got home from work went by quicker with a classic game of whiffle/tennis backyard baseball.

Without the luxury of 18 friends or a field to play on, our backyard became Morton Park, a righty's paradise with the gray monster (the actual two-story house) running from left to left center, which accounted for a lot of doubles (since it hit off the wall it couldn't have been caught).

We'd pick our teams by scanning the box scores in the Sports page and using their lineups. We "became" these players for the sake of reality, which meant you had to hit lefty if he was a lefty. This is how we got better at hitting left-handed.

We started with a whiffle ball, but graduated to the tennis ball which made for more realistic pitches at the expense of some hard-hit balls slamming the glass screen door. Somehow it never broke, though.

The game was played on the honor system. If we hit a groundball towards where shortstop would be, it was up to the pitcher to make the call. Would it get through the hole or was it just a routine grab? This was the way to play, it just made sense to us.

Well, I usually had a tough time beating Jeff because I was nearly three years younger than him. Occasionally, I'd get a win here and there, but I sported a sub-.350 win percentage. I was the Nationals of Morton Park.

But come World Series time, the stakes were higher and I had one more game to clinch it, up 3-2.

Sam - Cleveland Indians

Albert Belle was a stud and along with a young Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome, the Indians had had a potent middle of the order to go with the speedy Kenny Lofton atop the lineup. My personal favorite lineup to use at the time. Dennis Martinez was on the hill for the second time in the Series.

Jeff - Atlanta Braves

Marquis Grissom, Chipper Jones, Jermaine Dye and Mr. Justice all served a dangerous threat, but getting through Greg Maddux and John Smoltz was never easy. (I usually killed Tom Glavine though, not sure why)

Game 6

In the 5th, Albert Belle had a three-run shot and Thome added a two-run shot to put us ahead 8-3, chasing Maddux from the game. Martinez was efficient, if not spectacular through seven.

But he inched back with a couple of homers, and I headed into the ninth clinging to an 8-7 lead. Carlos Baerga led off the ninth with a double and my Paul Sorrento brought him home with an RBI single to give me a little breathing room.

Crazy old Jose Mesa came in to seal the deal. He was lights-out for me all series long, and I was so confident that I started to get a little antsy.

That antsyness didn't bode well for me as I lost control of my curveball. I walked the first two batters before getting a double play. With a runner on third, I walked Fred McGriff and David Justice came to the plate.

Yes, he hit a home run on a 2-2 pitch. But this was no ordinary home run. This one was absolutely smashed to dead centerfield, and my brother ran his victory lap. When we went out front to find it, it was four houses down and across the street, a monster shot.

He would easily ride the momentum of that home run and coast the next day in Game 7.

It doesn't matter now that I lost that game, in fact, nobody else in the world but us two know about it.

It destroyed me to lose that game. I'm convinced it's why I'm obsessed with old stats, obscure players and many other facets of baseball nerddom.

Thanks, Mr. Justice. Thanks.

Here's a cool video of the Expendables. Great band you missed on Tuesday.

An Introduction And A Stab At Chris Davis

Me with a blog.

I can't say how many times I've considered starting a blog only to have my tremendous lack of attention keep me forgetting to get one started. I toiled for a little while trying to figure out a good title for my blog, trying to be more creative than what I usually settle with, which is my name followed by a 23. Here are just a few ideas I threw out there:

• Rise & Fire
• The Black Hole of Chris Davis's Swing (seriously considered this one)
• Where the Wild Words Are
• Objective Brevity
• The Ballpark Way

And then one day the ole smart phone played "Let The Beat Build, Bitch" by Lil Wayne, of which I've been a huge fan of since my deployment to Iraq. I remember getting ready for work every morning and having that song get me started.

As an aspiring sports journalist, it seemed to fit my style while incorporating a major part of journalism within the four words. I dropped the "Bitch" for obvious reasons.

I'm sure you've noticed that the URL is theballparkway, and that's because letthebeatbuild has been taken (by someone who has never posted anything, I might add). I liked The Ballpark Way since I plan to talk quite a bit about those Texas Rangers that I hold so dear.

So now that you've listened to me diatribe about such an exhilarating subject, let me start this bad boy off by saying thank you for stopping by and I hope you guys enjoy my words, thoughts and whatever random crap I post.

Make sure you stop by or subscribe to my feeds to get the latest on my oddball observations.

Look at LeBron lose this battle to Rajon Rondo yesterday. Rondo is pretty good, by the way.