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 eazyb81:
Which is the same reason why it's hard for me to fault Anderson now that enough time has passed.
My beef with MA is that he always seemed to have a wandering eye. Every year, he tried to leverage a better deal by dropping hints that he was leaving. Take the better deal or don't.
Mizzou has a better offer from the SEC. We told the Big XII what we needed in order to stay, and we didn't get it. Deuces.
MA told Mizzou what he wanted. He got it, and he still bolted a year later with zero recruits signed. That asshole knew he was leaving, and he phoned in his recruiting efforts accordingly. [Reply]
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho:
That's one of my biggest regrets... wish Alden had been ballsy enough to go hard after Huggins. The job was open... and there was talk (from a prominent basketball-crazy booster I had a conversation with) that OJ Mayo might have come along to Columbia if Huggy landed there instead of Manhattan.
He still bolts Mizzou for WVU, IMO, but it would have been fun to watch Mayo, Beaseley and Walker together for a year.
eh, Mayo was looking at KSU pretty hard too, but obviously we didn't pay as well as USC. [Reply]
Originally Posted by eazyb81:
Right now I think it would be fun, but ask me again two years from now when he is clowning Haith.
Do you think he will stay at Arkansas?
Originally Posted by Saul Good:
My beef with MA is that he always seemed to have a wandering eye. Every year, he tried to leverage a better deal by dropping hints that he was leaving. Take the better deal or don't.
Mizzou has a better offer from the SEC. We told the Big XII what we needed in order to stay, and we didn't get it. Deuces.
MA told Mizzou what he wanted. He got it, and he still bolted a year later with zero recruits signed. That asshole knew he was leaving, and he phoned in his recruiting efforts accordingly.
I know how you feel. That is exactly what Eddie Fogler did to WSU, and it took one heck of a long time for them to recover. He left the cupboard totally empty. "Vanderbilt was the only school he would leave for."
Mizzou, is turning it around a lot quicker, and of course they are not a "mid major" so that helps. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Saul Good:
Is it just me, or has this thread lost it's hate?
Maybe its time to burn down Larry again.
I'm trolled out.
At this point, any 'smack' that can be laid has been laid. It's been responded to with varying degrees of success by several different parties and returned in kind.
This thread is really like watching Larry Johnson run. It burned brightly for a bit, served its purpose, but now its really just going through the motions, getting to the hole late and falling down after first contact.
Someone let me know when we start changing signage, then I'll be interested again. [Reply]
