Here’s your latest Big XII speculation.
Several reports indicate that Texas would be willing to share its Tier I revenue provided through the Big 12’s television contracts for football to help preserve the conference. That would not affect the $15 million provided each year to the school by the Longhorn Network.
But the key to keeping the Big 12 together still appears to be convincing Oklahoma to stay. The Sooners appeared ready to bolt to the Pac-12 with Oklahoma State in tow for most of the last week.
Even with the recent comments of OU president David Boren saying his school wouldn’t be “a wallflower” in a possible realignment scenario, the Sooners may be convinced to stay put after some initial apprehension.
“We just have to tap on the brakes and try to slow down,” a person familiar with the negotiations said. “There is still value in this conference. We all just have to realize that.”
This may already be obsolete, of course; indeed, it may be too little, too late. To be honest, I really don’t understand the mad rush towards 16-team super conferences. Speaking as a survivor of the WAC 16, there are many issues when there are that many schools. But then I’m also pretty sure that logic isn’t the driving factor here. Tune in tomorrow for another exciting episode of As The Conference Turns.
I’d think at some point West Coast members of the Pac-12 (or 14, or 16) would get a little tired of having to pay for athletic teams to fly to Oklahoma and back, as members in Oklahoma would get tired of having to fly to Washington, Oregon and California. Right now Hawaii is on a two-week road trip (UW and this week UNLV) because it’s just cheaper to stay a week than to come back to Hawaii and then fly out again. I can see the Sooners staying in the Bay Area to play Cal and Stanford on successive weekends; I can’t see the Bears and Cardinal wanting to stay a week in Norman and then going to Tulsa.
Hmmm…the smell of greed tearing apart a good conference.
Linkmeister, I wouldn’t worry too much about the costs involved in travel. Probably more related to the back-and-forth logistics of long-distance travel eating up time. These guys only care about $$$ first, then convenience as an after-thought. Student fans unfortunately get left out of the equation as they aren’t apt to drop the $ necessary to fly when they used to be able to make it a road-trip cross state or to an adjoinging state.
Greedy mofos. And I count my alma mater UT in that mix. I am surprised that A+M is finally growing up from being the needy little angst-ridden sibling and trying to get out of the house on their own two feet. Too bad it will turn out with them being Vanderbilt II in the SEC.