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 DJ's left nut:
At some point we may be able to convince you that the KC area MU fans are little more than a significant minority of the MU fanbase at large.
Seriously - "MU" consists of a hell of a lot more people than the folks in KC that are going to be crushed by leaving. Columbia, MO is loving this. The St. Louis area fans are loving this.
If you're outside of the Kansas City area you simply do not care that they're leaving these rivalries behind.
In KC it's about a 50/50 split. Outside of KC, it's an 8-2 at best.
But I'm sure Kevin Keitzman is all to willing to give you the view of the common Missouri fan. He's clearly tuned in with them.
I admit I don't know but just how big is MU sports in St. Louis?
Is KK right in saying that the Cardinals and Rams are miles ahead of the Tigers when it comes to attention? More of an east coast scenario? [Reply]
But really, KSU fans and KU fans will still want to say the MU folks are butthurt or some shit like that. I'm not sure why - we got exactly what we were after. Near as I can tell, the MU fans are elated.
As to the rest of the IIX; y'all can have it.
Isn't it obvious?
Mizzou fans are butthurt because we've been trying desperately to get out of this shithole conference and join a better one that is more lucrative. Well now we are going to the SEC, the best athletic conference in the country, where we could make $30-40MM more annually in a stable conference.
We will also be part of the SEC Network which will significantly increase exposure and revenues. Not to mention the benefit of recruiting the talent-rich Southeast, playing annual games against the most tradition-laden programs in the country, joining the SEC Academic Consortium, etc.
I may have a different thought on a good part of this but if it were ONLY about football then WVU may be better to have than Mizzou. Basketball, while not an important piece of the puzzle is in favor of WVU (at least lately).
Academics is a landslide victory in favor of Mizzou.
The main thing we lose when Mizzou leaves is the television sets, and I honestly believe that the SEC wants them more for this piece of the equation than their football program.
Do I WANT to see Mizzou leave? No, but I don't think the Big XII is going to go under because of it.
I hate seeing the old rivalries die, but things change. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Wickedson:
I admit I don't know but just how big is MU sports in St. Louis?
Is KK right in saying that the Cardinals and Rams are miles ahead of the Tigers when it comes to attention? More of an east coast scenario?
The Cardinals are, yes. The Cardinals are more important than murders and wars in St. Louis.
He's dead wrong about the Rams. Hell, the Blues might be ahead of the Rams. The Rams are popular in STL when they're good and that's it.
St. Louis is very much a major Mizzou town. It's not an MU/KU town (they don't really care about the rivalry; it's about on par with MU/Illinois over there), but it's absolutely a major MU town. [Reply]
Originally Posted by |Zach|:
Missouri fans are overwhelmingly for this movie. Feed back to the University as well as sentiment amongst pretty much every group of fans I have seen backs this up.
I know you are not a big fan of reality though. You never have been.
I know I'm overwhelmingly outnumbered. But I think Mizzou's top 3 options are:
1. A viable Big XII (Adding of a couple good programs like TCU and WVU sure makes them look more viable than it appeared a month ago)
2. B1G. I've posted in this thread before and been told I'm an idiot, but in a perfect world I like how Mizzou fits in the B1G over how they fit in the SEC.
3. SEC.
I think too many fans (and administrators, frankly) are being blinded by the bright lights of the SEC. I don't think it's a good fit culturally or academically and I don't really like the match-ups athletically. I understand the "Big XII is broken let's jump ship while we can" mentality, but I just think the cons overwhelm the pros.
But it looks like we're going. Guess I'm going to have to start liking grits and sweet tea. [Reply]
