Dave Ubben, a Big 12 blogger at ESPN.com, released some interesting poll results today.
The question? Ubben hypothetically asked his readership that if the Big 12 would look into expansion, which teams would fans most like to snatch from other conferences. Among the options -- which Ubben presented as pairs -- were TCU and Houston, BYU and Air Force, Louisville and Cincinnati, and (surprise) Arizona and Arizona State.
Apparently, people in Big 12 country do know a little something about the Wildcats and Sun Devils, because 39 percent chose the Arizona schools as their top pick, beating out BYU and Air Force, which came in at 28 percent in the poll.
Don't fear though. Ubben admitted that it was highly unlikely the Big 12 would be looking into expansion anytime soon. Plus, both schools would be crazy to ditch the Pac-10 (Pac-12 won't be official until July 1) with its new television contracts and promotional tactics.I only bring this poll up because while it does allude to two obvious facts -- ASU and UA are far larger schools and far more prominent athletically than the sorry, and random, options that Ubben gave as competition -- it goes to show that the Wildcats (I'll leave out any other compliments to ASU) do have an across-the-board strong athletic department. You can go down the list of teams that are often ranked in the Top 25 in the NCAA, if not the Top 10.
With the exception of the soccer team, it's hard to think of a squad that wasn't amongst the nations best in the past year or so.
At the very least, it's kind that Big 12 fans recognize this. Or maybe they just didn't want to think of bringing in the Horned Frog basketball team to their conference (has anyone ever seen them play?). Then again, I wonder if they could beat the Sun Devils.