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.
Using overall record winning % of teams in the 2022-23 season -- this is what a potential Big 12 Tournament week could look like in Kansas City come 2024. This is the men's records -- it would be 2 consecutive weeks with the Women's Tournament. pic.twitter.com/LCKNbAJ3Eh
Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider:
Looks like a great tourney.
It looks like a lot of fun. Even that first round has some big name teams with histories of being competitive. Potential is there for the Big 12 to have a basketball tournament on the level of the old Big East. [Reply]
Originally Posted by notorious:
This really sucks for the teams left behind. You guys can give each other as much shit as shit as you want, but this is not a good thing.
It's usually not when money/greed is put ahead of everything else. [Reply]
Originally Posted by WhawhaWhat:
It looks like a lot of fun. Even that first round has some big name teams with histories of being competitive. Potential is there for the Big 12 to have a basketball tournament on the level of the old Big East.
College basketball has been undervalued for quite a while now. I think we'll see the money balance out over the next decade or so. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Ocotillo:
Here's another reason why climate change is bullshit.
Academia, the loudest voices about climate change, have sanctioned these idiotic super conferences where Olympic sports and women's soccer are going to travel four to five time zones in a jet airplane all for the almighty dollar.
What's their carbon footprint going to be?
Universities have no room to stand upon critiquing the actions of an oil company. They're no different.
Originally Posted by Chief Pagan:
The only crowing I'm doing is saying I'm glad that it's the PAC12 falling apart not the Big12.
No, I'm not thrilled.
I'd rather go back to the original Big12, but that ain't happening.
There's no question all of this is bad, on balance, for the whole nation in terms of college football.
The Big Ten and the SEC are better off, but everyone else is worse. PAC 12 will either collapse or become a mid major type conference. The Big 12 took in some refugees who didn't have options from bigger conferences, but the Big 12 is not better off than before realignment began.
Nobody is winning here except the handful of elite schools in the 2 power conferences. It's not better for 90% of D1, it's definitely not better for fans, not better for the sport in general.
Of course, the people whose pockets are lined by all of this are the ones calling for the votes. [Reply]
Originally Posted by notorious:
College sports used to be a regional thing.
Throw that out the window and spin out on it.
True
I was rereading on the College Football Association, Ncaa doing the tv co tracts.
The NCAA threatened any team or conference that worked with the CFA with penalties. This led to the Supreme Court decision in 1984 allowing teams and conferences to negotiate on their own behalf
This started the dominoes to fall and where we are today [Reply]
I was rereading on the College Football Association, Ncaa doing the tv contracts.
The NCAA threatened any team or conference that worked with the CFA with penalties. This led to the Supreme Court decision in 1984 allowing teams and conferences to negotiate on their own behalf
This started the dominoes to fall and where we are today
Yeah kinda, but the reality is that TV/Streaming money is what really created the tidal wave. And then, greed took over. [Reply]
Originally Posted by :
I think it’s been enlightening to ask coaches and execs, anonymously, in several camps what concerns them most on the football landscape. The two most common answers: college football and gambling.
My big question about the college football crisis is: When did the NCAA just abdicate all responsibility about the future of college football and hand it to TV networks?
One club executive told me that’s the big problem. “It’s the wild west in college football now,” he said. “The NCAA has disappeared as a governing body. We used to have important conversations with them about rules and stuff that’s really important to the future of the game. Not now.”
