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By Randy Galloway McClatchy Newspapers
Oklahoma gasps for air after Texas' blow to gut


FORT WORTH, Texas — Full credit here to the Children of the Corn, even though that was me some 16 months ago, saying Nebraska sniveled its way out of the Big 12. But it’s also me saying today that the Cornhuskers made a brilliant jump.

Next in line this morning for full credit would be the Texas Aggies. All that Reveille barking was up the right tree.

The message in both cases was simple and direct:

We don’t want our future in football, or anything else, tied to The Man in Austin.

Nebraska got out, and the Aggies are getting out. Both moves involved landing in much more stable football precincts.

Better and much more stable because there is no Daddy DeLoss guarding his Fort Knox-like vault.

Speaking of brilliance, Mr. Dodds is the best in college football in his watchdog role of protecting all things UT, no matter the big-picture consequences for others in his conference family.

It’s greed, it’s arrogance, it’s.…the American way. And certainly the University of Texas way.

Daddy DeLoss is a “(p-r-o-f-e-s-s-i-o-n-a-l”. He will hurt you.

Hello, Oklahoma.

The good folks in Norman were picking themselves up off the floor Wednesday morning, still gasping for breath after that blow to the gut that was delivered the night before.

The Sooners power-played DeLoss and Texas. They thought they could, and I thought if anyone could, they could.

Nope. They couldn’t. I was wrong.

The Aggies’ blueprint is the right way, the only way.

No power play involved at all with A&M. No negotiating, no far-end-of-the-bar deals over beers with DeLoss, and no threats.

The Aggies knew they didn’t want to be tied to Texas any longer, knew they were wanted elsewhere, and without a flexed biceps, or even harsh words, they said bye-bye to Texas University, so long to the orange and white.

Lesson learned this week by Oklahoma:

Have an option before you have threats. And don’t jack around for two weeks with your decision, giving idle chatter of it might be, it could be a move elsewhere, or maybe not. Not if UT changes its Longhorn Network monopoly, and also if DeLoss’ puppet is fired.

Was that supposed to be breaking news that Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe is DeLoss’ houseboy? If that was Oklahoma’s worry, why didn’t it come up a year ago, two years ago, or about five minutes after Beebe was hired? It appears Beebe will be fired, but that solves exactly nothing.

The Sooners talked a good game, and I personally loved the show of verbal muscle, but when it came to Jump City, the knees had no spring, and Oklahoma didn’t have the firm invite to move elsewhere.

“Elsewhere” in this case being the very much desired location of the Pac-Whatever out west.

Larry Scott, the commissioner of that conference, took a direct shot at Texas when he announced Tuesday night that the Pac-12 would stay with 12 teams because of the “culture of equality that we are committed to preserve.”

The University of Texas doesn’t do equality. It does greed.

Bottom line:

For the second time, Scott attempted to hijack Big 12 schools (four of them this time) for his conference, and with Dodds not budging off the Longhorn Network hangup, he failed again.

Word from out west Wednesday is Scott was “appalled” at the arrogance of DeLoss. Larry, Larry, Larry. Who the heck did you think you were dealing with?

Yes, the Pac-12 would have taken Oklahoma State and Texas Tech in the package, even if there was no desire to do so. But those two would be attached to Texas and Oklahoma, two of the biggest monsters in the business.

The other three were ready to go, and so was Texas, provided Texas got the final say on all the side deals.

A year ago, Texas was also ready to go, but Texas A&M was then in the package. It was the Aggies who killed that deal by refusing to move west.

The embarrassing news for Oklahoma late Tuesday night was the Pac-12 didn’t want the Sooners-Oklahoma State two-team package. Texas had to be involved. That’s why it’s very difficult at the moment to take a deep breath in Norman.

Exactly what the Aggies and Nebraska wanted to escape — being tied to DeLoss’ shoestrings — that’s where Oklahoma still finds itself.

Meanwhile, the word was already out that the Sooners had no desire for an SEC move because the school is attempting to raise its academic and football honesty image. One SEC official did say Wednesday that the conference had “issues” with considering the Sooners as a 14th team.

I wouldn’t, however, necessarily rule out the mutual interest.

It’s also a bit premature to say the Big 12 has been saved again, but if that’s indeed the case, the next question is, saved for how long? Last season, it was a conference operating on a foundation of quicksand, and at the moment the quicksand is even deeper.

When Oklahoma stepped out there the last two weeks with some strong words, it opened deeper wounds. Plus, the Sooners learned a valuable lesson:

Don’t talk tough unless you have guaranteed options. (See the Aggies.)

Otherwise, Daddy DeLoss will hurt you.