Interesting take from an OU guy:
http://blog.newsok.com/berrytramel/2...ad_story_title
At the same time David Boren and OU were proclaiming the stability of the Big 12, Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton was saying he hopes the conference can stabilize. The vaunted granting of rights? Which theoretically “handcuffs” schools to their league? Deaton made no mention of it.
So something’s up and maybe rotten.
Here’s the good theory: Missouri has assumed the role of tough guy. Mizzou, with apparent interest from the SEC to be its 14th member, has a little leverage. Missouri leaving wouldn’t kill the Big 12; as I wrote the other day, I’m convinced nothing can kill this league, with the exception of an Obama jobs bill (that’s a shoutout to my pal Ross, who supplied me with that line too late to use in the paper).
But Missouri leaving would signal to the world that Big 12 stability is a joke. It would signal to prospective members that stability is all hat, no cattle. Just Longhorns in this league.
Anyway, maybe Missouri is the school now holding Texas’ feet to the fire, and Mizzou just might be the school fired up enough to do it. You know who’s been overlooked in all this stuff? Gary Pinkel. The Mizzou football coach twice has spoken up about the problems in this conference. He hasn’t called Texas by name, but everyone knows who he’s talking about.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Pinkel said Wednesday on St. Louis radio station KFNS . “Next year is it going to start brewing up again? I don’t know. It’s unbelievable. We’ve got problems in our league. OK? And we all know what most of them are. But we don’t solve them. We’ve lost three really good members in a year and a half and we think we’d maybe wake up and try and fix the problems so we can have a great league. Because until the problems are fixed, this stuff’s going to be happening and it’s going to go on and on. And it’s not a whole lot of fun to be a part of.”
Pinkel is not all that fun in a press conference. He’s not witty. He’s not gregarious. He’s not charming. But if you need someone to talk straight, he seems like your guy. Those comments mirrored something Pinkel said a few weeks ago. Sounds like he — and thus Missouri — are fed up.
So maybe OU stepped aside and Missouri assumed the mantle of telling Texas how the Longhorn ate the cabbage.
OK, now here’s the bad theory. Boren and OU jumped the gun, trying to save its own face. Not its skin. Its face. The Sooners come out looking bad this week. Let’s review:
1. Monday, OU empowers Boren to decide upon conference membership, and all signs point to the Pac-12.
2. Tuesday, an OU source tells me the requirements for OU to stay in the Big 12, including the removal of commissioner Dan Beebe and some Texas concessions, else the Sooners will go West.
3. Tuesday night, the Pac-12 says it’s not expanding.
4. Wednesday, OU says it decided not to go to the Pac and believes concessions are forthcoming.
5. Thursday, OU announces the league has signed over its first born and will be handcuffed together, concessions to be named later.
6. Simultaneous Thursday, Missouri says the league might stabilize.
So who knows? What a mess. Maybe Missouri told OU, you guys have run the relay this far, let us take it home. Or maybe Missouri said, uh, let’s not dismiss the SEC quite just yet.