Pac 12 will not expand - now what?

Updates:


A few tidbits are emerging from the surprise decision by the Pac 12 not to expand:


* Conference leaders concluded they could not make a 14-team conference work (adding only OU and OSU)
* The Pac 12 would simply not agree to Texas' revenue demands
* Larry Scott realized that Texas could never be an equal with the other members of the Pac 12.


There is no light yet shed on the supposed arrangement OU president David Boren had with Scott giving assurance that OU and OSU would be accepted into a 14-team conference even without Texas. Now, this agreement clearly appears to have been nothing more than posturing to leverage interest from Texas, and once that arrangement wasn't going to work, Scott simply cast the OU agreement aside. 


OU is now in the worst possible position, having no leverage to enforce its demands for Big 12 reform, revenue sharing, or even a new conference commissioner. How OU regroups and approaches what looks like a damaged-goods future with the Big 12 remains to be seen.


Late word now is that OU and Texas are going to meet in the next few days to hammer out an agreement that will keep both schools in the Big 12 for the next five years. 


So much for realignment and superconferences.


The Pac 12 shocked the college football world tonight by releasing a statement that it will not be expanding beyond its current 12-team configuration. 


In a statement released tonight by the conference, the conclusion was reached that the Pac 12 was delighted with its current situation.


The overwhelming consensus for this release is that Scott was unable to garner the necessary nine votes to accept the presumptive group of incoming Big 12 refugees of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech. It would further suggest that the Big 12's future is far from terminal. 


The announcement came on the heels of a series of demands Oklahoma had made on the Big 12 in order for it to remain in the conference, with the Pac 12 the presumptive target. Now, with no clear alternative available, how OU would chart a future conference membership is unclear.




OU has released no formal response to this release.