Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Should the rich fear the Big 12?

The Big 12 conference is still a functioning BCS conference, but barely. At the moment, Baylor seems like the only thing kiboshing the full break-up by threatening to sue to keep the conference together. Since pending litigation isn't a very good way to keep friends, it looks like the Big 12 is just about tits up, but what's really to blame?

I'm sure there's a case to be made that the pending dissolution has a lot to do with ego or geography, but I think the root cause of this now 2-year mutiny is income inequality. If Texas hadn't been predictably Texan and tried to grab a bigger slice than anyone else, would they be talking about possibly moving to the ACC in 2012?

Is it too much to call the collapse of the Big 12 a microcosm of the American wealth gap? Is it going too far to propose that the Big 12 serves as an object lesson in the dangers of top heavy economic architecture, which has the potential to establish a tipping point towards populist backlash against the rich? Probably.

Speaking as a member of the lower classes (i.e., 99% of Americans who don't fill their swimming pools with diamonds), we prefer to focus our attention on mascot buffoonery and cheerleader boobery than to think about things like economics or parallels to La Grande Révolution, so I think the rich in America are safe. Now, if income inequality leads to a pornography shortage, then we have a problem.

2 comments:

Jim said...

Well said sir.

FletcherDodge said...

Interesting take. My personal opinion is that it's more of a warning against unchecked overconsumption.

PS- Word verification for this comment was "chump"

 

Free Blog Counter