Anyways, Chip Brown from Orangebloods.com reports OU may apply to the Pac-12 by the end of the month.
Oklahoma will apply for membership to the Pac-12 before the end of the month, and Oklahoma State is expected to follow suit, a source close to OU's administration told Orangebloods.com.
Even though Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said Friday the Pac-12 was not interested in expansion at this time, OU's board of regents is fed up with the instability in the Big 12, the source said.
The OU board of regents will meet within two weeks to formalize plans to apply for membership to the Pac-12, the source said.
Messages left Sunday night with OU athletic director Joe Castiglione and Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder were not immediately returned.
If OU follows through with what appears to be a unanimous sentiment on the seven-member Oklahoma board of regents to leave the Big 12, realignment in college athletics could be heating back up. OU's application would be matched by an application from Oklahoma State, the source said, even though OSU president Burns Hargis and mega-booster Boone Pickens both voiced their support for the Big 12 last Thursday.
There is differing sentiment about if the Pac-12 presidents and chancellors are ready to expand again after bringing in Colorado and Utah last year and landing $3 billion TV contracts from Fox and ESPN. Colorado president Bruce Benson told reporters last week CU would be opposed to any expansion that might bring about east and west divisions in the Pac-12.
Currently, there are north and south divisions in the Pac-12. If OU and OSU were to join, Larry Scott would have to get creative.
Scott's orginal plan last summer was to bring in Colorado, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and put them in an eastern division with Arizona and Arizona State. The old Pac-8 schools (USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State) were to be in the west division.
Colorado made the move in June 2010, but when Texas A&M was not on board to go west, the Big 12 came back together with the help of its television partners (ABC/ESPN and Fox).
If Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were accepted into the Pac-12, there would undoubtedly be a hope by Larry Scott that Texas would join the league. But Texas sources have indicated UT is determined to hang onto the Longhorn Network, which would not be permissible in the Pac-12 in its current form.
Texas sources continue to indicate to Orangebloods.com that if the Big 12 falls apart, the Longhorns would consider "all options."
Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe held an emergency conference call 10 days ago with league presidents excluding Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M and asked the other league presidents to "work on Texas" because Beebe didn't think the Pac-12 would take Oklahoma without Texas.
Now, it appears OU is willing to take its chances with the Pac-12 with or without Texas.
There seemed to be a temporary pause in any possible shifting of the college athletics' landscape when Baylor led a charge to tie up Texas A&M's move to the Southeastern Conference in legal red tape. BU refused to waive its right to sue the SEC over A&M's departure from the Big 12, and the SEC said it would not admit Texas A&M until it had been cleared of any potential lawsuits.
Baylor, Kansas and Iowa State have indicated they will not waive their right to sue the SEC.
It's unclear if an application by OU to the Pac-12 would draw the same threats of litigation against the Pac-12 from those Big 12 schools.
Originally Posted by KChiefs1:
Solid reporting. How far is Arkansas from Florida? How far is Texas A&M from Florida? How far is Mizzou from Arkansas? How far is Mizzou from LSU?
It's Ivan Maisel - he's pretty reputable.
Arkansas, A&M are worth the increased travel time. Mizzou is not. [Reply]
Originally Posted by kstater:
The comments are....interesting.
ESPN has gotten ridiculously derogatory towards MU and it needs to stop. Before the season they were hyping up MU and ever since this talk has started, they have yet to say one positive thing about them. John Anderson, one of your lead anchors and one of many of your own MU alumni, is a special guest at our 100th Anniversary of Homecoming this weekend, if you have any dignity left, please refrain from forcing him to talk crap about his Alma Mater this weekend! [Reply]
Originally Posted by KChiefs1:
Solid reporting. How far is Arkansas from Florida? How far is Texas A&M from Florida? How far is Mizzou from Arkansas? How far is Mizzou from LSU?
It's Ivan Maisel.
But its also just another opinion. Until the stay or go is official you might well get used to this. [Reply]
So lets say SEC doesn't start SEC Network & pool Tier 3 rights....since Big 12 granted Tier 1 & 2 rights like SEC, wont we be making about the same in Big 12 then? And we wont have to double our budget to be competitive in SEC or pay exit fees...
I know SEC is alot more stable...but does anyone really think MU will be left out of a BCS conference IF Big 12 falls apart & we go to bigger conferences?
I hate Texas & them being above everyone else...but even if they were to show HS content on LHN and all that BS....would it really change anything? Mizzou will never out-recruit Texas in Texas anyways...
Originally Posted by Priest31kc:
So lets say SEC doesn't start SEC Network & pool Tier 3 rights....since Big 12 granted Tier 1 & 2 rights like SEC, wont we be making about the same in Big 12 then?
To be fair to the SEC, no I don't think so, but the difference will be fairly small after 2015. Since that extra money is not divided among Mizzou fans, the difference won't be enough to care about if you can keep the Texas pipeline and win the Big 12 north. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Priest31kc:
does anyone really think MU will be left out of a BCS conference IF Big 12 falls apart & we go to bigger conferences?
I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I don't believe there's a chance in hell that the Tigers would be a wall flower while 63 other schools get dance partners. [Reply]
Originally Posted by frazod:
I don't really care what happens anymore - it would just be nice if we would start WINNING SOME ****ING GAMES. :-)
Somebody kill me now, I am feeling compassion for the Mizzou fans. :-)
I checked the schedule, and don't see any more Western Illinois or Miami of Ohio's on there, but I would say they got a pretty good shot November 26th.:-) [Reply]
The only way this makes sense is if there is no possibility that Mizzou goes west and the east AD's are saying "N. F. W. we're flying to Columbia", but I don't know what option B is, if distance was a deal-breaker.
If the alternative is WVU then maybe its a little closer for the east schools, but if you look at a map, it isn't much. This theory is stronger if the alternative was Clemson or FSU, but we've been beat over the head repeatedly for a while that the SEC won't expand in states where they are in, so you'd have to assume that assumption was false all along. [Reply]
