Aggies: Be Bear Aware

I recently returned from a trip to Yellowstone National Park. It was an amazing experience where I was able to see bison, elk, wolves, and an abundance of other wildlife. Nothing was more interesting than bears in Yellowstone.

Bear Aware

Even if you don't see a bear, you see signs about bears. You are encouraged to be "Bear Aware" and learn how to deal with a bear should you encounter one. As an avid college football fan and Aggie graduate, I realized that what I learned in Yellowstone might be helpful to others who are following the A&M to the SEC saga. As a public service announcement, here are some things that I learned that I believe may help people properly deal with the rash of very public bear appearances recently.





Bears will Growl When Disturbed

First, bears do not react well when surprised. Hikers often wear bear bells to let bears know that there are people in the area. When a mother bear is caught off-guard, it tends to lash out at whatever startled it. Baylor President Kenneth Starr ("Papa Bear") and former Texas Governor Mark White ("Grandpa Bear") have done just that this week. In typical scared bear fashion, both have lashed out when the Aggies flirtations with the SEC became public. Kenneth Starr was apparently caught off guard by A&M's desire to look for a greener pasture. Starr cited the togetherness of the Big XII members last summer:

Of course, we celebrated with all Texans when the agreements were signed last year assuring a vigorous future for the Big 12, including even stronger ties among Texas A&M, the University of Texas, Texas Tech and Baylor University.

Assuring a vigorous future? Stronger ties? It seems that Starr missed the memo circulating among even the most casual college football fans that the Big 12 was poised to explode at any moment. No one knew when, but the ticking sound could be heard across the country. Yet, in spite of the unrest in the conference, Starr paints an unflattering picture of Texas A&M. He states that the Aggies are making a "rush to judgment" and hopes that "cooler heads can prevail."

A threatened bear is really more scared that anything. He growls, but he really doesn’t want a fight. Starr knows that the end of the Big 12 could be the end of Baylor's gravy train, but I’ll comment more on that in a minute.


Starr wasn’t the only bear on the prowl. Mark White is a little more direct in lashing out at the Aggies.
They don’t have to act childlike and run off somewhere … A&M has a responsibility to taxpayers in this state. If you can show me where the state of Texas wins on this deal, I’d like to see it. I thought we’d put this to bed for 10 or 15 years (last summer).
Waco either doesn't get the news on a regular basis or just flat can't interpret what the rest of us see plainly. The Big 12 is ailing and failing, so holding its stock is not a good idea. A&M is looking to sell before the value is dips lower. If the loss of big dog Nebraska and its sidekick Colorado doesn’t signal a downturn, I’m not sure what does.

Bears May Be Aggressive

A surprised bear may run aggressively at a hiker only to turn away at the last minute. A bear will make a loud noise by clamping his jaw down again and again in an effort to intimidate and scare off any threat. Bears don't usually want confrontation, but sometimes they get aggressive in the hopes of being left alone.

Enter Baylor graduate Ray Perryman and his Fantastical Fantasy Economics Impact Report. With the few days he had to prepare the "study" listing the economic impact of Texas A&M departing from the Big 12, the Perryman report managed to blame A&M for the economic collapse of Texas, the current market downturn, and any ill financial side effects of Obamacare. It is a marvelous read and will provide classrooms across America with an example of how to ruin your credibility with a poorly written document. Citing no sources and looking squarely at the costs of an Aggie departure, Perryman was able to provide a completely slanted and unsupported work explaining how A&M will ruin the Texas economy and cost Texans jobs. Never mind that another Texas school could be elevated to the Big 12 to take A&M's place to lessen any negative impact. Don't bother with figuring the economic boom that will result from increased SEC fan travel to College Station for half a dozen weekends out of the year totaling additional revenue in the millions just for football. None of that would help the wounded bear make his point. The Perryman Report is a desperate charge that falls short – way short – of doing any real harm to A&M’s changes of leaving.

Don’t Feed the Bears

The number one thing I learned about bears in Yellowstone was a catch phrase that the park rangers use. A fed bear is a dead bear. If you feed a bear, he will become dependent on a handout and will get into trouble. It is bear for a bear to fend for himself.

A Baylor Bear is a fed bear these days. Baylor wants the status quo because other conference members have gone out and killed the food and brought it back to Baylor for years. Football is the #1 revenue sport in the Big 12 and men's basketball is #2. While both sports are trending upward for Baylor (they went 4-4 in the conference in football and won a men's NCAA tournament basketball game for the first time in 60 years), the high water mark for Baylor is hardly enough to make up for being a bottom dweller in the league for marquee sports since 1996.

Baylor contributes little to the success of the conference’s flagship sport of football. The Bears have compiled a 18-101 conference record since the inception of Big 12 football in 1996. For this performance (just over a 15% winning percentage) Baylor pulled in $14.4 million to post a football operations profit of $1.89 million according to The Business of College Sports. That profit is used to run the successful tennis and women’s basketball programs at Baylor along with all other sports. Baylor failed to perform well, but yet it feasted on the fat of a successful conference.

But that is what conferences do, they share. If one school is down one year, it still gets to have a payday that it can try to convert into success the next year. Honestly, that success disparity in the Big 12 is the likely cause of the financial disparity. When only half of the teams have ever won a Big 12 football title and only two teams have won the crown in the past 7 years, the successful teams get a little tired of feeding the runts. Baylor’s outright last conference title was more than a generation ago in 1980. Before that, Baylor’s only other titles were in 1974, 1924, and 1922. Throw in a 5-way tie for the Southwest Conference title in 1994 and you have 5 titles in over 111 years of football.

While pulling the plug on the Bear’s money supply may seem unfair, as legal sports expert Kristi Dosh tweeted, “Texas A&M is not responsible for the local economy in Waco or Lubbock.” In fact, if an annual visit from either Texas A&M or Texas is the basis for funding the Baylor athletic department, it is time to diversify. Baylor was living in a financial happy place in the Big 12 bubble, but that when that bubble pops, Baylor will be sent scrambling. Every bubble pops. That is the nature of bubbles. Instead of trying to exist in a bubble forever, Baylor leadership would be much better off trying to build a solid foundation to weather the coming storm. Where will they live when the bubble bursts?

They have enjoyed eating because of the stronger conference members, but now one of those members is ready to move on to a conference where the revenue and the work are shared more equally.

Bears are Creatures of Habit

On my trip I learned that bears don’t like change. They roam the same areas, so if a bear was spotted in an area one night, there is a good chance it will be there again the next. Politics enabled Baylor to be part of the formation of the Big 12 in 1996 and they went to that well again this summer. What the Waco school does not realize is that the landscape of college athletics has changed while their leaders hibernated. Instead of looking for a good home when the conference explodes – or more accurately, implodes -- Baylor is content to keep their head in the sand and let other schools line their pockets. Baylor has been a punching bag for pay for the larger schools, but now one of those schools is tired of the fuss, tired of dealing with Texas, and is looking for a better deal.

Shame on Baylor for not charting their own course. They went back to a tried and true trick – appeal to "Baylor Nation" to involve the government in the process – but this time, it looks like it will have no impact. Silly ole Bear.

There have been many appeals to nostalgia to keep rivalries going for the common good. For Texas. For college football. For America. For goodness sake! TV money has changed the equation, so while the feel good notion of Baylor playing all of the regional teams for bragging rights is great, the TV powers want great match ups. A&M wants to leave for the best conference on the planet where every week brings a marquee game. The Bears may want the good old days to come back – personally, I love the old rivalries and even liked when everyone waited eagerly for a dozen bowl invitations to be extended in December to a handful of schools – but time marches on and Baylor needs to understand the new dynamic. Bears are creatures of habit, but they also need to adapt as the world around them changes or they risk becoming extinct.

If Baylor really wants to return to their nostalgic roots, now is the time to take action. Baylor can go start a conference of their own. Grab the University of Houston and talk to SMU. Try to get the band back together, if that is what you really want, Bears. What you’ll have is an incomplete band that look as pathetic as a second rate band touring well past their prime. And you will be missing a few key members. Some of the more successful members have parlayed that early success into something greater. They have moved on and won’t be coming back. Don’t expect Arkansas to jump at an invitation to your reunion tour. The SEC has worked out well for them financially, thank you very much.

So Aggies, be Bear Aware. Know the signs of a hurt bear. Know that a few bears will growl at you. You may even have a bear charge you only to turn away at the last minute. It is a bluff. Encourage the bear to find its own food and go on to do what you need to do.