As quickly as the rumors started, they stopped.
With the stroke of a virtual pen and a late-night press release, the seemingly inexorable move toward megaconferences came to a screeching halt late last night when the Pac 12 released a statement asserting its desire to remain at 12 members, eliminating the hope for OU and OSU to move from the beleaguered Big 12.
Now, all the dominoes that had started to align yesterday are back in their boxes.
Conference realignment will now stop with Syracuse, Pitt moving to the ACC, and Texas A&M moving to the SEC. Beyond that, a handful of leftovers will likely move to an again-rebuilt Big 12. Leading candidates making the Twitterverse rumormill are BYU, Louisville, and West Virginia. Missouri's prospective move to the SEC is almost certainly by the boards, as the Tigers' move was predicated upon the implosion of the Big 12.
Oklahoma released a statement late Tuesday asserting that it would look to strengthen the Big 12 by remaining as one of its members. Sources indicated that OU and Texas would meet this week to hammer out an arrangement that would keep both schools in the Big 12 for at least five years. BYU reportedly indicated their interest in joining the now-stabilized conference.
Who are the winners and losers in the Pac 12 decision? Clearly, Oklahoma president David Boren was left holding the empty bag of a gentleman's agreement with Pac 12's Larry Scott, losing the immense leverage he held to reform the Big 12 with the presumptive invitation to go west in hand. Now, it is hard to see Boren as anything but an unwitting pawn in a Pac 12 effort to gain Texas membership, but then discarded when it became clear Texas' terms were intolerable - most particularly, its revenue and LHN requirements. The other loser is Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe, who has reportedly been informed his services in that capacity are no longer desired. The clear winner is Texas, which now seems destined to keep its Longhorn Network and corresponding revenues virtually untouched, with only token concessions to allow OU some measure of face-saving.
As quickly as this story broke, now it ends, and now it looks once and for all we can get back to talking football. Actual football. And that should be a relief to everyone.
I thought all along that you were placing too much credence in this supposed "gentleman's agreement" with Scott. He had no ability to honor such agreement. Your answer to this was that the 12 Pac presidents would "do what Scott told them to do", which doesn't sound like any national-stage university president I can imagine. Stinks for OU, though.
ReplyDeleteHi, Anonymous. What I relayed regarding the "gentleman's agreement" was what multiple *very* reliable (legitimate) Oklahoma media sources had been reporting, and reporting in great detail. This wasn't some off-the-cuff notion. In fact, one of the prime local sports reporters that brought this issue out stood by his information quite candidly just this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteThe answer of the schools "would do what Scott told them to do" was an unfortunate way of phrasing the fact that there was every indication Scott would, if he believe it were in the best interests of the Pac 12, persuade the other conference members to go along with his recommendation.
It was Scott that pulled the plug on it, hence the late night release, and my further inference that the offer Boren had and relied upon was entirely fictional. Pac 12 wanted Texas.
Thanks for reading!