Big 12 Shuffling - Separating Fact from Fiction

Update 9/6/2011:


New info from several tweets: 
1. Pac 12 doesn't want to expand. They're happy with current situation...but
2. If Big 12 explodes with A&M's departure, they would likely accept OU and OkState even without Texas. A&M must move first, however.
3. Academics are a concern among some schools, although there is no hard AAU membership requirement in the Pac 12.
4. Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy was quoted as saying that it "didn't look like the Big 12 could be saved."
5. ACC denies last night's report that TX was joining their conference in non-football sports.
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Update 9/5/2011: 


Last Update - 10:52PM - ACC commish denies TX membership pending.... Last tweet from Chip Brown @ Orangebloods says Texas in "intense" talks with OU to "save Big 12 - may work, may not." I personally think UT is going to try and bluff OU on status of OU-TX game should TX go ACC and OU go west to Pac 12. I think its all a bluff - OU needs Texas, Texas needs OU now that A&M is gone (or will be shortly). We'll see how it all works out, but my money for  now still sits with the reports that seem to make the most sense - OU, Texas, Tech, and OSU to the Pac 12+, with a reworked LHN. We'll see. G'nite.


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Two reports emerging that indicate things are moving, but which direction is unclear. OKC sports reporter Dean Blevins from CBS affiliate KWTV-9 tweets that the Longhorn Network is the "only obstacle" to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Texas Tech moving to the Pac 12+, but that it "will be reworked." 

The other report that tends to work against this is that of Chip Brown at Orangebloods.com, wherein he states that Texas is working to salvage the Longhorn Network, and may be entertaining a move to the ACC! 


My personal opinion is that's a load of, ahem, "surplus bevo," with almost no chance of seeing the light of reality. Texas to the ACC makes no sense under nearly any theory. But we'll see. Ultimately, I think OU will lead the charge of the four named schools west in short order.

The ESPN (and other) message boards are rife with speculation about the final destinations of Texas, OU, and other Big 12 schools pending the apparent demise of that flailing conference. Amid the speculation is quite a bit of sheer nonsense, and I'd like to try to separate some of that fiction from the facts:

• Myth 1: OU is in secret talks to go to the SEC.

Simply untrue. Aside from athletics, OU president David Boren has been working hard to improve Oklahoma's academic standing with more endowments, better research, and better faculty. Oklahoma, as a university, already has a higher ACT entrance requirement for its incoming freshman than the average of the SEC. Earlier this summer, Oklahoma is reported to have made unofficial contact with the Big 10 about membership, but was declined because Oklahoma is not a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. New member Nebraska was admitted just before it lost AAU standing. That means OU's academic future is west, with the Pac 12. Beyond that, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops has been nearly drooling over the prospect of Rose Bowl conference title games and California recruiting. Bottom line? The SEC is not on OU's radar.

• Myth 2 - Texas really wants to go independent.

This is the silliest one of them all. The catalyst for all the nonsense in the Big 12 is the Longhorn Network. It prevented the Pac 10 bolt last year, and it was the concession Dan Beebe made to keep the Big 12 intact over the last year. Texas must have the conference affiliation to keep the presumptive value of the Longhorn Network as a "future carrot." Without it, Texas as an independent is faced with the prospect of scheduling week after week of second-tier leftovers on a football schedule where prime players in prime conferences already struggle to fill one or two out-of-conference slots each year. Conference alignment is vital to Texas' future with the Longhorn Network.

• Myth 3 - Texas can keep Oklahoma in check by threatening the future of their rivalry game

Before Texas A&M pulled up stakes and left the Big 12, that would likely have been true. Now, however, a Texas threat to abandon the Red River Riot rings hollow, as it would deprive Texas of is lone remaining natural rival. Surely, Oklahoma needs the Texas rivalry for recruiting purposes in Texas, but Texas now needs the Oklahoma portion of that fight almost as much.

That's a summary of the biggest red herrings out there for the moment. Any others?