The last several weeks have been packed with a ton of exciting changes.  For starters, I’ve moved from north Dallas to downtown Austin.  I love Dallas and have will always have fond memories, but I think I’ve always belonged in Austin.  Now that I’m (finally) here, I’ve had the chance to begin exploring the city and get familiar with downtown, try a ton of great places to eat and to drink, and, oh yeah, set up our 2nd Street District Gameday Cloth store.

This weekend is our Grand Opening.  If you are around, please come by all weekend for fun and giveaways.  From 1-4 Saturday we will have live music from Luke Betchner, our friends at Treaty Oak Distilling Company will be providing drinks and our friends (and neighbors) at Cantina Laredo will bring by some tasty treats.  We will also be raffling off some really cool things will contributions from Hari Mari, GWear and the 2nd Street District (among others).  Stop by and feel free to bring a friend or three.  See you this weekend!

There might be a storm brewing, is this the end of the Big 12?  The past couple of weeks have brought on some interesting news regarding conference alignment and these rumors just got more intense.  Several weeks ago I read about University of Texas being courted by the Pac-10.  Now, Big 10 is publicly looking at expanding and many people expect them to extend invites to several mid-west schools.  They pretty much hold the keys to the conference alignment and now there are reports they have extended an invite to the following; Notre Dame, Missouri, Nebraska, and Rutgers.  These reports are currently not validated, however if they are true, then the Big 12 will change substantially or be eliminated.

I predict University of Texas will be the first to go – either Pac 10, or possibly SEC.  I see the SEC as a long shot for Texas, but Texas A&M might be a good fit.  They are full of tradition, have a national following, and it would be a great Texas presence for the SEC.  This would probably either dissolve the Big 12, or they will have to look to smaller schools such as SMU or TCU to fill the role.  Unfortunately this would make the Big 12 a weaker conference and the other members will look elsewhere.  At the end of the day, the whole thing is about money and to be honest a Big 12 without UT could not survive.

Personally, I think change is good for college sports every so often.  Look at TCU; they are going to be at the top or close to the top of the rankings for 2010, yet they are in the MWC.  Eventually they will get the opportunity to be in a large Top Tier conference.  I’m sure some people will say they can’t compete, but I think they could not only compete, but be very successful.

If the conferences do change significantly, can we figure out how to divide into equal numbers and call them conferences?  This will make a playoff system much easier.

Thoughts…

This week is the NFL Combine where elite college athletes are invited to show both their physical and mental skills.  Hopefully everyone has improved their 40 times and Wonderlick tests.  With today’s technology does the combine even help pro teams find their draft picks?  I read that most pro teams these days are 90% sure of their pick already.  The internet allows coaches to see the athlete’s game speed by watching game film, which can truly be different then the forced track and field event labeled as the combine.  The NFL is all about money and at least the Combine gives them something to show on the NFL network.

We are rooting for Colt McCoy this week because of not only his heart shown throughout his career at Texas and the way he ended his college career, but because of the commercial he did for one of our brands we carry.  Check it out:

Here are some other invites that we will be following:

Shawnbrey McNeal from SMU

Sergio Kindle from Texas

Jerry Hughes from TCU

Emannuel Sanders from SMU

Jordan Shipley from Texas

Jason Fox from University of Miami

A week ago we went to the SMU – Memphis game and SMU beat Memphis.  This was a huge victory for them and the fans rushed the floor.  We were able to capture this.

Some people refer to Signing Day as their Christmas.  It is a huge day in not only for the athletes, but the dedicated alumni who follow.  Here are a couple of schools with links to their live coverage.  We’ll add more throughout the day:

Baylor Bears

SMU Mustangs

For those of you that think this is Christmas, here is a gift, 10% off Gameday Cloth with the coupon code signingday10 today only.

Okay, so I read an article yesterday on how the Big 10 is looking at realignment and if they do, the other major conferences will be reconfigured as well.  My vote for the conference restructure is to bring back the Old Southwest Conference.  This year, TCU ended up in a BCS game and SMU is making serious headlines with a huge Hawaii bowl victory.  Many people talk about money and how both programs wouldn’t pull enough in, but think about alumni from UT or Texas A&M located in the Dallas area.  How many of these dedicated fans wouldn’t go to these games either in Dallas or Fort Worth?  I dare say there would actually be more competition in football coming from these schools than Baylor is putting up right now.  Yes, Baylor beat Texas in basketball this past weekend, but SMU pulled out a great victory against Memphis and TCU is rising again.  Here is a great article, http://tinyurl.com/yz63hoc.

I’m not saying they can be competitive with Texas right now, but both schools have serious football momentum and their basketball teams will only get better.