After all this, nothing??

Update 1:23 CDT Sat: Orangebloods.com is reporting that the P12 is telling OU and OSU they have no expansion plans at this time, spinning that as an end to the presumed Sooner option of the Pac 12. I cast great doubt on that spin. Of course Pac 12 wants no part of predator perception, and of course Texas wants to make OU think it has no options. That this story comes from a Texas Rivals site makes me all the more suspicious - of course it would be a willing "mouthpiece" for such a spin. Does anyone really, really believe the Pac 12 wouldn't take an OU if they became available? 


Saturday morning brings with it the hope of *actual* football, not merely the public bickering and rumoring over whose team belongs with which conference. Yet in the shadow of the goalposts does realignment loom, and while there's not a great deal of new news on that front, we can take a moment to see where we are, and make a subject-to-change conclusion:

Right now, I have this sinking feeling we may end up right where we are now, with no big realignment after all.

Why? Baylor continues to serve as the roadblock to Texas A&M's departure, refusing to waive its rights to sue both A&M and the SEC for tortious interference in its conference membership activities. Simply put, if no resolution to the Baylor Stalemate is found, there may be no other option for the Aggies but to return, hat-in-hand, to a crippled and self-mutilated Big 12. It's been said that A&M's move represents the first domino in realignment, but if it never falls...nothing else happens. Even if Oklahoma re-ups with the Big 12, allowing A&M to depart, the big four-team prize of OU, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Texas Tech to the Pac 12 would have inherently been blown apart, leaving the SEC looking for a 14th team that it might not grab until next season, willing to play an unbalanced schedule in the near-term.

The other thing pointing in the we-go-nowhere direction is T. Boone Pickens' comment on ESPN last Thursday that suggested the Pokes were interested in staying in the Big 12. That could be taken one of two ways: That some sort of agreement was nearly hammered out, or talks were in a last-gasp phase. It could be that Pickens is riding point for a behind-the-scenes negotiation between OU president David Boren and, well, the rest of college football.

To cap it off, Pac 12 commissioner Larry Scott came out last night stating he personally was against conference expansion. But you and I both know that if the SEC does, in fact, jump to a 13th, and 14th team, there's no way on earth his conference would stand pat and not respond.

There is obviously critical momentum riding decidedly against the Big 12's survival, chief among them being the question of how this fractious, embarrassed, dysfunctional conference family could ever reconstitute itself into a cohesive, respected, collegial athletic entity. Nationally, the conference is a laughingstock, a target of unrelenting media ridicule, with bridges burned between high-profile members. UT and A&M have never been so close to outright armed conflict. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have expressed outright anger over apparent orchestrations from Baylor to put each, in their own way, in a bad light. With so much angst, how could anyone in this conference trust anyone else? And why would anyone on the outside want to join?

Regardless of the outcome, no one, repeat, no one looks worse or less competent in this fiasco than Dan Beebe who, besides carrying the title of worst sports leader this side of Bug Selig, has seemingly stood by and allowed the Big 12 to burn while he fiddles. Perhaps a "reincarnated" Big 12 could survive, but only if every vestige of Beebe's (lack of) leadership were vanquished from the books - as in new leadership, a new conference charter (with equal revenue sharing), even a new headquarters. How anyone nationally could perceive that as anything other than lipstick on a pig is beyond me.

Oklahoma still seems to hold the cards, but rest assured the Sooners won't make a move until the weekend passes, particularly considering this weekend includes services for its late, great Lee Roy Selmon. Until then, anyone - even yours truly - who says they know what happening is sniffing that smoke coming from that Big 12 fire.

And Dan Beebe is still fiddling.