Daily Bears Report 10/18

Today’s Events

Men's Tennis, vs Harlingen Futures, All Day

Women's Golf, vs Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational, All Day

Women’s Golf

• Baylor women’s golf is in fifth place after shooting 15-over-par 591 in Monday’s first two rounds at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational at University of Texas Golf Club. From Baylor Bears dot com.

The Bears (+15) are 21 strokes back of tournament leader Miami (-6). Kent State (+2), Texas (+8) and UNLV (+14) are also in front of Baylor, while BU leads SMU (+17), Texas Tech (+20), Tulane (+26), Minnesota (+30), Texas State (+30), Tulsa (+34), New Mexico (+43), Notre Dame (+43) and North Florida (+44).

Baylor and Texas are the only teams in the 14-team field with all five players among the top 40 individually. Maria Vesga and Amy Lee are tied for 13th place at 3-over-par 147 after both players shot 2-over 74 and 1-over 73, respectively, on Monday. Evelyn Arguelles is tied for 15th place at 4-over following rounds of 3-over 75 and 1-over 73. Dylan Kim is tied for 20th place at 5-over, andMaggie Beth Byers is tied for 32nd at 7-over.

Tuesday’s final round is an 8:45 a.m. CT shotgun start. Vesga will begin from the fifth hole, Lee will begin at No. 6, Arguelles and Kim will tee off on No. 7 and Byers will begin from the eighth tee. BU players are paired with golfers from fourth-place UNLV and sixth-place SMU. Live scoring is available at www.birdiefire.com. Follow @BaylorWGolf for updates throughout the season.

Football

• Baylor football cornerback Ryan Reid was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Reid, a senior, had two interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown to help Baylor defeat Kansas 49-7, Saturday in Waco.

The Dallas, product set a new career-high with the two INTs and upped his career total to five with his first return TD.

In the first quarter, Reid picked KU QB Ryan Willis and returned it 64 yards for a score to give BU a 14-0 lead. In the second quarter, the senior repeated the feat and brought that interception back 52 yards to set up the Bear offense at the KU 19.

The 116 INT return yards are the most by any FBS player in a single game in 2016 and were just 14 yards shy of the school single-game record of 130 by Charles McClanahan at Missouri in 1974.

Reid was part of a BU defense that had four turnovers on the day and set a school record for combined interception return yards (170), which broke the school record of 160 vs. Rice in 1956. He also helped BU limit KU to 217 yards of total offense and only 134 passing yards.

The San Angelo Standard Times says Big XII’s playoff hopes rest with Baylor and West Virginia.

The Big 12 has hardly been mentioned in any playoff discussions.

Yet Baylor and West Virginia remain very much alive for a spot in the postseason.

The Bears (6-0, 3-0 Big 12) and Mountaineers (5-0, 2-0) have quietly racked up impressive seasons so far and they're each shooting up the Top 25 .

The Comeback says there is extreme separation at the top of the playoff poll.

No, the title of this post is not just referring to Alabama. Most analysts and pundits right now think that Alabama is head and shoulders above everyone else in college football right now. And, that very well may be true. But, the top spot usually finds ways to work itself out. Even if Alabama runs away with the No. 1 seed, there are still three more teams that will make the Playoff, two of whom will have a chance to beat Alabama for the national championship. No, the separation that I am talking about is far more extreme than that.

• Former All SWC Guard Bently Jones honored posthumously. Jerry Hill with the Baylor Bear Foundation has the full story.

Bentley Jones packed a lot of punch in a 5-foot-9, 165-pound body.

“Back in those days, you couldn’t use your hands,” Bentley “Bubba” Jones said of his dad, who died 10 years ago. “Nowadays, you can grab them. As long as you don’t tackle them, you don’t get called for holding. He called it a flipper, but it was a forearm shiver. . . . He could hit you right in the mouth and just stymie you.”

Jones shivered his way into unanimous All-Southwest Conference honors as a senior co-captain for the Baylor football team in 1948 – the smallest all-conference lineman in the league’s history – and now joins the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame posthumously.

“He was a quiet man, but he liked adulation,” Bubba said. “So, he really would have been proud of this, to go along with being an all-star coach in 1960 and being inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Honor; that was really big. And this just would have been the icing on the cake for him. He would be tickled to death, I promise you.”

Football slide show from Baylor.

Big XII Expansion

The Big XII is getting richer for doing nothing. The Big XII is living the dream. From SBNation.

"Ten is the right number" for a thing with "12" in its name, and the Big 12's hemming and hawing has inconvenienced people to the point of suits taking offense. In other words, the Big 12 remains the Big 12.

"Based on multiple sources, SB Nation can confirm at least six schools presented expansion candidacy in person with the league, although the total number is thought to be higher," Steven Godfrey wrote Monday. "We've also obtained marketing materials sent to the Big 12 by Cincinnati, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UCF, and USF."

These things happen, and not paying these schools the courtesy of a token vote once expansion was clearly off the table isn't the most egregious of all snubs. And while this doesn't necessarily destroy the conference's future, it does leave the question of what happens once its current revenue-sharing deal ends in only eight years.

John Werner of the WacoTrib says Big XII made big mistake not to expand.

Like actors auditioning for a blockbuster movie, schools across the country lined up to make their pitches to join the Big 12. BYU came knocking with its traditionally strong football program that has a national championship on its resume.

A hot Houston program inquired with its talent heavy recruiting base that could help fend off SEC schools from slipping into Texas to grab high school players.

A good Cincinnati program that could open up the Big 12 to a great Ohio recruiting base wanted in. So did schools like Memphis, Central Florida, Colorado State and Connecticut among many others.

But after the Big 12 presidents met Monday in the Metroplex, the league’s presidents decided unanimously to stand pat at 10 teams. Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said there wasn’t even an expansion vote taken on specific candidates.

USA Today says Big XII’s meandering journey ended up in the right place: No expansion.

With straight faces, they insisted they hadn’t mashed the accelerator toward expansion back in July. And that the quasi-public way the process unfolded, all the way until the end, was actually positive.

It was all so … Big 12.

There was stumbling. And bumbling. And plenty of unintentional comedy. What else did you expect from the league that put the "fun" in dysfunction? But after everything, there’s also this: The Big 12’s presidents made the right call.

“Bigger is not always better,” said Oklahoma president David Boren, chair of the Big 12’s board of directors, adding:

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

More news clippings on this story.

Former military officers, senators, professors will meet to talk Big 12 expansion - The Washington Post, On Monday in Irving, Texas, the Big 12 will halt three months of fun guessing by deciding whether to expand.

Big 12 presidents decide to pass on expansion - WacoTrib.com: Baylor, GRAPEVINE, Texas — The smallest Power Five conference is not getting any larger. The Big 12 is staying at 10 schools.

The Big 12 Will Not Expand; Baylor Should be Pleased - Our Daily Bears, The league is staying at 10.

Big 12 expansion was a complete waste of time, which isn't much of a surprise - CBSSports.com, In the end, the Big 12 stood pat at 10 teams, and no one is better off for it.

UH rejected in Big 12 disappointment - Houston Chronicle, The University of Houston's campaign to join the Big 12 Conference was crushed Monday by the league's presidents, who ruled out expansion without discussing the merits of any individual applicants, including the confident, fast-rising Cougars.

The Big 12 owes a lot of people an apology | FOX Sports, The league made a mockery of conference expansion.

Big 12 passes on expansion for now. Here’s why - SBNation.com, Well, that was much ado about nothing.

Greater Transparency

The Baptist Standard says that Baylor Regents Chair acknowledges desire for grater transparency.

During the first homecoming weekend since Baylor University became embroiled in controversy over reports of sexual violence, the chair of the board of regents issued a statement acknowledging the public’s desire for “greater transparency,” but a homecoming parade entry not-so-subtly questioned the board’s intentions.

Some observers noted the university’s need to “rebuild trust” literally was on parade homecoming weekend. During the annual homecoming parade, the NoZe Brotherhood—a secret satirical society that has a decades-long, on-again, off-again history of acceptance by the university administration—drove a pickup truck dragging a rug, while brotherhood members frantically tried to sweep things under it.

KCEN TV 6 says secret Baylor brotherhood “sweeps” Homecoming with flagrant float.

During Saturday's 2016 Homecoming Parade, members of "The Noble NoZe Brotherhood," the group famous for pranks and publishing the satirical newspaper The Rope, mocked the Baylor administration, namely the Board of Regents, over the school's on-going sexual assault scandal.

"The world's largest Baptist University...not that much a fan of free speech 100% of the time," said the group's President, Brother "CocoNoZe Shrimp II," also referred to as the "Lorde Mayor."

By wearing wild outfits with a signature nose-and-glasses garnish, the "brothers" can be more expressive, and less conspicuous.

"There's a reason we wear disguises," said Brother "CocoNoZe Shrimp II."

Established in 1918, the self-proclaimed eldest group at Baylor has a long history of poking fun at the conservative college, and Homecoming 2016 was no exception.

"It's our job to keep everyone at Baylor from taking themselves too seriously," said Brother "CocoNoZe Shrimp II."