The old one has AIDS.
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.
Stay tuned.
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Originally Posted by Kiimosabi:
And yet KU makes a shit load more money than both K-State and Missouri even with that program at rock bottom.
Best case for the Purps is that the Rump stays together and we add BYU and a 10th. But even then all these schools (save for Kansas) are FB focused, even Baylor. They lost their top 2 draws and prob will lose a ton of recruiting potential in Texas.
Worse, the TV money prob drops from $35m to $15m. FB is very expensive to run. And since KSU makes 30m less than Kansas, that type of cut impacts them far more (margin pressure).
KSU is really f****, no matter what happens.
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A Big 12/Pac 12 “partnership”?
Link:
https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...ic-partnership
Originally Posted by :
Bob Bowlsby and George Kliavkoff, the commissioners of the Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences, are meeting Tuesday to discuss the viability of a strategic partnership between the conferences, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN.
The meeting, which was first reported by The Athletic, does not signify an expectation for an official partnership to materialize, only that both commissioners are vetting options for how to move forward in the wake of Texas' and Oklahoma's decisions to leave the Big 12 for the SEC.
In an appearance before the Texas Senate on Tuesday, Bowlsby raised the possibility of the Big 12 partnering or merging with another conference and, at Pac-12 media day last week, Kliavkoff told ESPN he wouldn't rule on a scheduling alliance with another conference or expansion.
"We're, on purpose, not reaching out and trying to poach any schools, but my phone has blown up -- absolutely blown up over the last five days," Kliavkoff said. "And I've got lots and lots of calls from probably every school you would imagine and probably a few you'd be surprised by. We're listening to all inbound inquiries, because it seems like the smart thing to do."
Kliavkoff's stance is that Texas' and Oklahoma's departures strengthen the Pac-12's national footing as the only Power 5 conference with teams in the Pacific and Mountain time zones.
"I think, over time, the dominoes will start falling as a result of the move by Texas and Oklahoma," Kliavkoff said. "And we're not determined that we need to expand in order to thrive; we can thrive at 12. We don't understand the paradigm that if someone else has 16, you need to have 16. It just doesn't make sense."
Tuesday's meeting comes roughly a month after Kliavkoff started in his role with the Pac-12. He was hired to replace longtime commissioner Larry Scott in May after previously serving as the president of entertainment and sports at MGM Resorts International.
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