The Morning Stake: June 4th

Photo via Kimberly Vardeman @ Flickr

There’s so much stuff going on with Baylor and the Big 12, I’m probably going to link to it, and also post to it after the weekend, when we’re all around our computers when we’re supposed to be working so we can discuss it.

Baseball

Texas Tech Downs Fairfield, 12-1. Texas Tech whipped up on Fairfield, 12-1 yesterday afternoon and New Mexico took down Dallas Baptist 12-6. Texas Tech will play New Mexico today at 6:00 pm while Dallas Baptist and Fairfield play today at 2:00 pm.

Basketball

Football

Allen is the Third Arrested. LAJ’s Gabriel Monte is the third former Texas Tech player to be arrested and admitted to the burglary of a safe full of guns:

A third former Texas Tech football player who reportedly admitted to police his role in a burglary at a Southwest Lubbock home where a safe full of guns was stolen was booked Thursday night into the Lubbock County jail.

Dakota Devon Allen, 20, was booked into the Lubbock County Detention Center about 11:30 p.m. on a second-degree felony count of burglary of a habitation. He was released about 2:30 a.m. Friday, jail records show.

Lauderdale Set to Return? Devin Lauderdale reports that his suspension is lifted.

Big 12 Adds Championship Game. CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodds recaps the news from the Big 12 meetings from yesterday and maybe, just maybe, the Big 12 isn’t as screwed as we thought it was:

We know its television partners have to pay the Big 12 as much as $1 billion if it expands by as many as four teams. That’s $1 billion ESPN and Fox theoretically won’t have at the same time the Big Ten goes to market to finalize the second half of its deal. Fox is reportedly paying $1.5 billion to the Big Ten for the first half of those rights.

But ESPN/Fox has to pay the Big 12 in expansion if it comes to that. They want the rights to the Big Ten. See how the Big 12 could upset a lot of folks by cashing in?

“I’m aware of that,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said, dryly. “It’s probably not fair to say it’s a zero-sum game, but it’s not unrelated.”

Oklahoma president David Boren said the discussion over adding teams was “ongoing.” He continued: “There was no feeling we’re going to slow our look at expansion.”

To that point, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany has mentioned he would like to have his deal done some time around the Big Ten Media Days in late July. Bowlsby said he hopes to have a decision on expansion by the end of summer.

ESPN wouldn’t pass on the Big Ten because it had to pay the Big 12, would it?

I think that would be a pretty significant power play.

It’s Still the Same Baylor.

Baylor introduced Jim Grobe as the head coach at Baylor university and, as ESPN’s Brandon Chatmon writes, it’s more of the same damn thing:

And yet, the bulk of the coaching staff — which wasn’t exactly cleared of any wrongdoing in the Pepper Hamilton report — is set to remain intact while several of the Class of 2016 signees, who are tied to a much different Baylor than they were when they signed with the program in February, remain in limbo despite at least seven of them looking to get released from their national letters of intent.

As Chatmon continues to opine, Grobe is keeping the entire coaching staff, despite the Pepper Hamilton report clearly stating “coaches” were responsible for some of the issues and they still continue to not respond to players and parents:

“We’re just going to follow NCAA guidelines with the national letter of intent,” Grobe said when asked directly if players who still want releases following their meetings with him would receive them. “The thing I didn’t want to do was knee jerk and do something really quickly and wish I hadn’t. And I don’t want parents and kids to hurry up and make a decision right now. I want everybody to calm down and think things through.”

That might be the best thing for the program, but this was supposed to be the “new” Baylor. And refusing kids’ desires to follow their dreams — even if that dream now doesn’t include Baylor — sure doesn’t sound like a new culture. It sounds similar to the path that put Baylor in the position where it changed its president, athletic director and program-changing head football coach in a matter of days.

In other words, football first.

Parents have resorted to this:

And if you haven’t seen the Ken Starr video from yesterday via Deadspin’s Diana Moskovitz, then you’ll see what appears to be a weak-minded individual who has no conscious about coming clean.

Man, I don’t care if we never win another game against Baylor. At the very least, I can say I’m not a part of this. This. All of this, is just embarrassing.

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