Reports Have the Big-12 Losing Big to the Pac-10
Daniel C. Cameron
Assistant Publisher
Friday June 11, 2010
The Oklahoman, Tulsa World, , Orangebloods.com and others all reported June 11 that Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech and Texas A&M could all be announcing their departure from the Big-12 as early as Tuesday.
According to newsok.com, sources inside the University of Oklahoma have confirmed that OU will be heading to the Pac-10, but is waiting for the Texas regents to make their decision.
The Pac-10 offices are holding comments on any shifts beyond their announcement that Colorado has joined the conference beginning 2012 out of respect for the different schools and the decision makers therein. It seems that and OU are both waiting on Texas for the big decision.
The Texas regents are scheduled to meet Tuesday on this.
Despite local news outlet reports, seems to be taking a conservative angle with the press on the subject. Gary Shutt, Oklahoma State director of communications released the following statement Friday evening: “As we noted yesterday, we will need to evaluate our options and opportunities in light of today’s announcement by Nebraska and Colorado’s announcement yesterday. Our desire has always been to keep the Big-12 Conference together, and we have worked toward that end alongside several other Big 12 institutions. We are pleased Oklahoma State University has opportunities and we believe it is a reflection of the strength of our overall athletic and academic programs. We believe the investments we have made during the past five years to upgrade our athletic facilities, especially football, as well as several new and upgraded academic and research facilities have placed us in a good position.” Shutt’s mentioning of opportunities implies that ’s options are open.
According to the Tulsa World report, athletic directors at Texas A&M, Texas, OU and all seam to be one big package. However, there are various blog rumors, including OU going to the with Texas joining the -10.
Further rumors state that Texas A&M is reticent to join the -10 and may be interested in joining the . Even more discussion out of Orangebloods.com says that the Aggies’ wavering may open an invite to Kansas from the Pac-10.
In a teleconference June 11, Dan Beebe stated that the Big-12 Conference is going to do what they can to hold onto the remaining ten teams.
In response to the rumored potential of a few ‘superconferences,’ Beebe stated, “if there are going to be four 16 member conferences, there is going to be a great rift.” Beebe recognized that as the conferences stand today, many institutions feel slighted. He went on to say that he believes things are relatively fair. However, if the larger institutions separate themselves even further huge disparities will be created.
As Friday June 11, 2010 closes business, OU, , Texas and Texas Tech all seem to be on board to move to the Pac and will await an official scheduled formal invitation from the -10 sometime Tuesday. With the reports out of OU and saying that it is all but done, the only potential holdout looks to be Texas.
Nebraska applied for membership to the Big-10 officially as of June 11. Big-10 commissioner Jim Delany told Dan Beebe, Big-12 commissioner, that the Big-10 will accept the application. As of that afternoon, Nebraska has been officially accepted into the conference and will join the Big-10 July 2, 2011 in all sports and will begin play in 2011.
News from outside the conference has Boise State joining the Mountain West June 11.
Updated 06-13-2010
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