Anyways, Chip Brown from Orangebloods.com reports OU may apply to the Pac-12 by the end of the month.
Oklahoma will apply for membership to the Pac-12 before the end of the month, and Oklahoma State is expected to follow suit, a source close to OU's administration told Orangebloods.com.
Even though Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said Friday the Pac-12 was not interested in expansion at this time, OU's board of regents is fed up with the instability in the Big 12, the source said.
The OU board of regents will meet within two weeks to formalize plans to apply for membership to the Pac-12, the source said.
Messages left Sunday night with OU athletic director Joe Castiglione and Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder were not immediately returned.
If OU follows through with what appears to be a unanimous sentiment on the seven-member Oklahoma board of regents to leave the Big 12, realignment in college athletics could be heating back up. OU's application would be matched by an application from Oklahoma State, the source said, even though OSU president Burns Hargis and mega-booster Boone Pickens both voiced their support for the Big 12 last Thursday.
There is differing sentiment about if the Pac-12 presidents and chancellors are ready to expand again after bringing in Colorado and Utah last year and landing $3 billion TV contracts from Fox and ESPN. Colorado president Bruce Benson told reporters last week CU would be opposed to any expansion that might bring about east and west divisions in the Pac-12.
Currently, there are north and south divisions in the Pac-12. If OU and OSU were to join, Larry Scott would have to get creative.
Scott's orginal plan last summer was to bring in Colorado, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and put them in an eastern division with Arizona and Arizona State. The old Pac-8 schools (USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State) were to be in the west division.
Colorado made the move in June 2010, but when Texas A&M was not on board to go west, the Big 12 came back together with the help of its television partners (ABC/ESPN and Fox).
If Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were accepted into the Pac-12, there would undoubtedly be a hope by Larry Scott that Texas would join the league. But Texas sources have indicated UT is determined to hang onto the Longhorn Network, which would not be permissible in the Pac-12 in its current form.
Texas sources continue to indicate to Orangebloods.com that if the Big 12 falls apart, the Longhorns would consider "all options."
Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe held an emergency conference call 10 days ago with league presidents excluding Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M and asked the other league presidents to "work on Texas" because Beebe didn't think the Pac-12 would take Oklahoma without Texas.
Now, it appears OU is willing to take its chances with the Pac-12 with or without Texas.
There seemed to be a temporary pause in any possible shifting of the college athletics' landscape when Baylor led a charge to tie up Texas A&M's move to the Southeastern Conference in legal red tape. BU refused to waive its right to sue the SEC over A&M's departure from the Big 12, and the SEC said it would not admit Texas A&M until it had been cleared of any potential lawsuits.
Baylor, Kansas and Iowa State have indicated they will not waive their right to sue the SEC.
It's unclear if an application by OU to the Pac-12 would draw the same threats of litigation against the Pac-12 from those Big 12 schools.
Originally Posted by Reaper16:
****ing Christ, HHG. The Longhorn Network is one of the biggest causes of the instability in the Big 12. Your performance in this thread makes me want to punch a hole in my monitor.
He is just waiting for someone ANYONE to explain why Mizzou would leave the conference.
In each of the last two years, the Big 12 has cheated death, but survival has come with pain and scars.
Three schools and counting are gone. So is a commissioner. Still, the Big 12 lives, without the conviction of other conferences, but the heart beats just the same. And the pulse figures to quicken this week with news on two fronts.
Missouri and expansion.
A decision for the ages may await the Tigers. Interest from the Southeastern Conference appears real, and the school’s Board of Curators’ meeting on Tuesday will address the issue.
That may be all they do, according to a Big 12 official. “My guess is they will do what Texas A&M did, what Oklahoma and Texas did when their boards met and give (Chancellor) Brady Deaton the authority to deal with the issue,” the official said. “I’d be very surprised if what came out of the meeting was news that Missouri made application and was accepted an offer from the SEC.”
If that’s the case, there would be more time to further consider a move — yes, everybody has realignment fatigue, but a possible decision this important shouldn’t be fast-tracked — or to have the Big 12 meet the concerns of Missouri.
But even if some Big 12 schools give or bend on issues — displeasure with high school content on Texas’ Longhorn Network remains a hot-button topic — would it be enough? Perhaps not.
The SEC, like the Big Ten and Pac-12, offers the kind of long-term athletic financial security that only exists in conferences that understand the greater good is achieved through an equal partnership approach.
The Pac-12 came to this notion late, but it’s there now, and it’s a reason why Texas and its network weren’t welcome.
The Big 12 is working toward this approach, and an announcement on equal revenue sharing of its largest TV contract income could come soon.
But twice having been driven to the brink of collapse, the Big 12 cannot assure long-term guarantees, no matter how many years of television rights are signed over to the conference.
Stability becomes the overriding factor, and the last people who could point a finger at Missouri are from Texas and Oklahoma, who only two weeks ago had saddled up for the ride out of the Big 12.
Other factors in such a monumental decision deserve discussion around the curators’ table. Goodness knows, the fans have flushed them out for weeks, and there are many reasons to oppose a move.
Joining the SEC ends the possibility of becoming a member of the group Missouri has long coveted, the Big Ten. The school has inquired several times over the years to different commissioners about membership. If college sports become super-sized as some project, perhaps the Big Ten reopens the expansion file.
But the SEC is a death-do-us-part commitment. No more dreamy-eyed looks at a region and school grouping that’s a better fit.
Competitively, the Big 12 offers the better home. Although Missouri has the fewest conference regular-season and postseason championships among Big 12 schools, several sports compete nationally.
And football would be fine. The SEC is the nation’s most ferocious conference — we all know that. But by most measures, the Big 12 has been the second best, and no worse than third, for most of its existence.
The football staff, however, would live in a new recruiting world, less in Texas, which has been so good to the Tigers, and more in the Southeast. Not to say Mizzou couldn’t pull it off, but as one recruiting analyst told me, the Missouri staff is as well-connected there as anybody outside the Lone Star State.
The two games in Texas have become a major selling point. The staff would need to come up with new sweet-talking lines.
Finally, for Missouri, there’s the Kansas City factor. With the basketball tournament and Border War game with Kansas at Arrowhead, we could be affected by a conference switch more profoundly than any other region in the state.
But that would be our tough luck. Missouri, if faced with a decision, has to act in the best interest of the school.
Whatever Mizzou’s future holds, the Big 12 seems determined to replenish. Rumors ran rampant last week that Brigham Young and the conference had come to an agreement, a story denied by both sides.
But BYU remains a favorite, a school that at some point in the last month, when it was becoming apparent Texas A&M would leave for the SEC, was seen as a schedule filler for the Aggies. Just plug the A&M holes on everybody’s schedule next year with BYU. It might not have been that easy, but perhaps a starting point.
If Mizzou also leaves, the Big 12 will need to move aggressively. Boise State would love to become a member, and although Big East presidents said Sunday that they would “aggressively pursue discussions” with expansion targets and change bylaws to make fleeing more difficult, no deterrent has prevented a move yet.
Big 12 interim commissioner Chuck Neinas is expected to make public comments today, and he’s as pro-Big 12 for Mizzou as it gets. Who knows where the story goes? Wherever it does, we’re in for at least another week of realignment competing for attention with great matchups like Saturday’s Missouri-Kansas State and Oklahoma-Texas games.
@sptwri Mike DeArmond
I'm told Deaton and MU are playing hard ball over changes they want made. Doesn't mean MU staying or not. But MU is not playing pattycake. [Reply]
Jesus HH, what is the point of you shitting all over this thread? Anyone with a functioning brain understands the allure of the SEC. It is the premier athletic conference in the country with unprecedented revenue upside. Continuing to play devil's advocate in this thread just makes you look clueless and devalues your opinion. [Reply]
Originally Posted by HolyHandgernade:
What's funny about that is this comes from an area that if this were a public "problem" they would call it "socialism". But, apparently socialism is OK as long as you're a conference.
I think a lot of the things you've said make more sense than many of my fellow Mizzou fans do, but this is a nonsensical argument. [Reply]
Originally Posted by HolyHandgernade:
Yes, we're all this dense. I'm glad you guys could settle on the stability issue and stomp up and down about that as if it was your original point. Sorry, but your reasoning sure sounded like envy to me. "Everyone else is doing it!"
Please refrain from posting in this thread. You have violated the "basketball" rule one too many times, plus you are so far away from reality you add nothing to the conversation. [Reply]
Originally Posted by eazyb81:
@sptwri Mike DeArmond
I'm told Deaton and MU are playing hard ball over changes they want made. Doesn't mean MU staying or not. But MU is not playing pattycake.
No offense, but MU demanding anything is laughable. I'd like them to stay in the conference but their demands should only be met if reasonable. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Saulbadguy:
No offense, but MU demanding anything is laughable. I'd like them to stay in the conference but their demands should only be met if reasonable.
Agree, but what is a reasonable demand? I'm not sure. I think Mizzou wants major concessions on LHN and I don't see that happening, so I think the rest of this is just fluff. Mizzou is going to have to show its hand soon. [Reply]
Originally Posted by eazyb81:
Agree, but what is a reasonable demand? I'm not sure. I think Mizzou wants major concessions on LHN and I don't see that happening, so I think the rest of this is just fluff. Mizzou is going to have to show its hand soon.
Mizzou is probably going "Hey, let's ask for *insert outrageous concession*, if they go for it - we'll stay. If they don't, we'll be able to say Texas didn't meet our demands and we can leave with a clear conscience." [Reply]
My money is on: Missouri asked for a *reach concession* and if it is rejected they'll stay anyway as long as a a little movement in the direction of the concession is achieved to allow Missouri to save face. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Saulbadguy:
No offense, but MU demanding anything is laughable. I'd like them to stay in the conference but their demands should only be met if reasonable.
Whatever demands they're making are most likely demands K-State would like to be making if only they had the leverage to do so. Mizzou doesn't have a ton of leverage, but they have some. Mizzou's retention is attractive to Texas for the same reasons Mizzou's acquisition would be to the SEC. [Reply]
Originally Posted by mnchiefsguy:
I look forward to your envy when KU is stuck in the Mountain West when Texas decides to take off and leave them behind.
Originally Posted by Saulbadguy:
No offense, but MU demanding anything is laughable. I'd like them to stay in the conference but their demands should only be met if reasonable.