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 |Zach|:
Did Stewie ever drop these of nuggets of wisdom. I did some serious skimming.
Nope - he's moved onto instructing us all as to the intricacies of the commercial flight industry.
I'm waiting for some hard-hitting analysis on that particular front, but he assures us all that his vocation involved airlines so I'm confident that it will be coming soon.
Oh wait - he's also a useless prick, we've established that pretty strongly as well. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
And the circle completes itself.
How could I have been so foolish? Of course the airline chatter was just a way to lure me into your fiendish trap.
How could I have walked into the "The SEC is full of Hillbillies" slam, so deviously disguised behind the meandering prattling on of a vacuous shitheel?
I have brought shame on my house.
Circles? Huh? If that's how you see them.
It went from:
"MU is an academic institution and the Big 10 would love to have us!"
To:
"We love the SEC! We don't care that we're associated with shitty academic schools!" [Reply]
Originally Posted by Stewie:
Sorry that you spent so much time on my posts. MU belongs in the hillbilly conference. It's been quite apparent that when the Big 10 snubbed MU and Texas was a big bully that the tiggers would tuck tail and run. Now you can get a major in whittlin' and rockin'!
Awesome smack from a guy who's conference is adding West Virginia. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC native:
TCU has been making tremendous improvements in recruiting prior to the Big 12 move. That's only going to get better.
Patterson has been an expert at going to top recruits and saying, "You could go to UT and be maybe 3rd, 4th on the depth chart and who knows who'll they'll get next year. Or, you can come to TCU and compete to start from your first year."
Patterson is a great coach, and I have nothing but respect for what he's done at TCU (And I would argue the Mountain West has been better than the Big East the past 3-4 years, even).
TCU has done a great job identifying and using talent from the second- and third-tiers in Texas, and I expect that to continue.
Too bad for cat fans. Doubt Patterson ever leaves that job now that it's in a major conference. [Reply]