[KChiefs1]

http://www.columbiatribune.com/weblo...alf-of-big-12/

UPDATE, 6:30 p.m. KANSAS CITY — A bizarre day at the Big 12 meetings just unofficially concluded in an elevator. Commissioner Dan Beebe and Texas President Bill Powers abruptly canceled a news conference that was originally scheduled for 5 p.m. and pushed back to 6 p.m. ... then pushed back until Friday.

"There will be no further comments until the conclusion of tomorrow's meetings," Beebe told a crowd of reporters in the pavilion floor of the Intercontinental hotel.

This truly is the Panic on the Plaza.

As reporters continued to fire questions at Beebe, mostly in response to the Pac-10 expansion report, the commissioner smiled and said, "I used to be an investigator, so I know how to ask all the good questions." And with that, he stepped into the elevator, the doors closed and the college sports world froze for at least another day.

Interpret the abrupt exit at your own risk — there are plenty being floated here — but it doesn't exactly inspire hope in the future of the Big 12.
As I wrote earlier, Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione was the day's most vocal advocate of the conference, marking the second consecutive day that Castiglione was the most forceful speaker here.

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UPDATE, 5:20 p.m. KANSAS CITY — It's starting to get surreal at the Big 12 meetings. Do the 40 or so print reporters here have a front-row seat to the crumbling of a conference?

Around 4 p.m., athletic directors began emerging from the afternoon's meetings and were immediately met with the report that the Pac-10 plans to raid the Big 12 of half its membership.

Neither Missouri's Mike Alden or Oklahoma's Joe Castiglione were aware of the report from Orangebloods.com. Castiglione initially debunked the news as more of the same speculation that's come to define this story, but eventually, the Sooners' AD openly began addressing the possibility that doomsday is coming.

"I came here to talk about the Big 12," he said in a crowded hallway. "That’s all we’ve talked about."

Later, though, Castiglione moved the scrum of reporters into a room, took the podium and showed a rare glimpse of vulnerability on the topic. Asked if Oklahoma has been contacted about joining the Pac-10, Castiglione answered, "Not yet. Hopefully, we don't have to be."

Pressed further on his way out of the room after a lengthy Q&A session, Castiglione was asked again about joining the Pac-10. "If another situation develops, then we'll have to start considering those things," he said, no doubt referring to Big Ten expansion as the "another situation."

Asked several times, Alden declined to reveal any specifics from today's closed-door meetings.

"Guys we don’t talk about the things that go on during those meetings," he said. "You know better than that. again, that stuff goes into speculation, rumors all that stuff. But we don’t make comments on what goes on during our meeting."

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KANSAS CITY — Congratulations, Chip Brown. You have succeeded in raising the collective blood pressure of a few dozen sportswriters who have otherwise been spending the last few hours sitting on their rumps chugging Diet Coke here in the bowels of the Intercontinental hotel at the Big 12 meetings.

While the Big 12 athletic directors and CEOs met behind closed doors on Thursday afternoon, Brown unloaded this bombshell at Orangebloods.com, the Rivals.com site that covers Texas: The Pac-10 is prepared to invite six Big 12 schools with hopes of launching a conference-wide television network through Fox. Brown reported that multiple sources have indicated that the Pac-10's wish list includes Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado.

That report is sure to create commotion once afternoon meetings break here in Kansas City. Unless the school officials are tuned into their smart phones or laptops during their meetings, some are likely to get blindsided by the report in a few short hours. (Should we all yell "SURPRISE!" when they walk out of their meeting room?) Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe and Texas President Bill Powers are scheduled to address the media here at approximately 5 p.m.

Asked yesterday if he could imagine Texas A&M joining the Pac-10, Athletic Director Bill Byrne expressed skepticism.
"There’s a two-hour time difference," he said. "And the travel between Eugene" Ore., "and College Station is 2,400 miles. That’s a long way, sports fans."