Because without him, there may be no Baylor, athletically, as we know it. When Texas A&M was headed to the SEC in September, Starr stepped out on his own, threatening legal action against the SEC and Texas A&M. Baylor was eventually joined by Kansas State and Iowa State (at least) in keeping open their right to sue. It was in part a tactical move, but a powerful one -- a litigious Starr is a dangerous Starr.
"Judge Starr was one of the heroes of conference realignment this past fall," Baylor AD Ian McCaw said. "He made a very courageous decision to introduce potential litigation into conference realignment."
At one point it looked like the Big 12 was close to breaking up, with A&M headed out the door and both Texas and Oklahoma checking out the Pac-12 again. During a 30-minute call with CBSSports.com in September, Starr mentioned on background a dizzying number of legal options available to stiff-arm the SEC.
The action slowed the conference realignment train enough for everyone to catch their breath. The move was impressive. Had the Big 12 broken up, Baylor faced the prospect of not having a BCS-level conference home. Think of going from bringing in $20 million per year based on future media rights contracts to maybe $2 million per year playing in Conference USA.