New Conference re-alignment thread

[Saulbadguy]

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.

[RustShack]

Bobby Burton is reporting OU/Texas been running distraction with Pac/ACC talk. Officials with Louisville, Cinci & Pitt have been meeting with the Big XII

[RustShack]

Can the Big 12 pull off the year's biggest comeback?

Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton is hopeful the Big 12 can stay together after Texas A&M leaves.

By Orlin Wagner, AP

Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton is hopeful the Big 12 can stay together after Texas A&M leaves.

Enlarge

By Orlin Wagner, AP

Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton is hopeful the Big 12 can stay together after Texas A&M leaves.

Even as Oklahoma weighs an exit that could push the distressed conference toward extinction, the chairman of its board of directors says he has gained confidence in the past week that it can survive.

Brady Deaton is heartened, he said, that OU and others are looking before they leap. "I think this period of just a bit more calmness and reasoning . . . makes us all feel as if the various issues can be dealt with in a rational way and in a way that's in the best interests of each of our institutions and the Big 12 - and of other leagues around the country," the Missouri chancellor told USA TODAY on Wednesday.

"I'm not Pollyannaish about it. I'm not naïve. But I'm looking at the factors that are important to the future of the athletics and the academics of institutions in the Big 12. And as we all assess them, my hopes are that more and more will conclude, as I have, that a continuation of a strong Big 12 is in all of our best interests right now.

"I am hopeful, let me say."

He didn't speculate beyond that on the league's chances of survival. It's teetering, with Texas A&M pointed toward the Southeastern Conference and multiple Big 12 officials telling USA TODAY this week that Oklahoma is conditionally pursuing a move to the Pacific 12.

Those officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the Sooners are exploring the financial parameters of Pac-12 membership and where they'd fit in its divisional alignment, as well as how open the league is to accepting them - almost certainly with Oklahoma State in tow. Texas, in turn, is weighing its own options, though the Longhorns have made it clear they prefer Big 12 preservation.

Nebraska and Colorado opted out of the conference a year ago. The Big 12 seemingly weathered that, but was destabilized anew by Texas A&M's pending departure.

"It's not what I think any of us want as a characteristic of our conference," said Deaton, a former agriculture economics and sociology professor who became Missouri's chancellor in 2004. "We've worked hard for a stable, strong, aggressive, fast-moving Big 12, and spent the past year looking at new ways in which we can be a more exciting league, one that's stronger in all dimensions, going beyond athletic competition and beginning to think about the ways in which we could strengthen ourselves in academic cooperation.

"To have that dialogue interrupted or altered by the range of considerations going on today certainly is a concern to all of us."

Chances of preserving the Big 12, slim or otherwise, hinge on somehow re-stabilizing the conference and convincing member schools that it's for good.

"That's the challenge that the Big 12 board has in front of it," Deaton said. "I think we have a pretty good understanding of the various tools and structures that would lead to that, but we don't have them all resolved."

He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he expected a decision from Oklahoma on its future within the next two weeks.

"I just have had an understanding that within 10 days to two weeks we were likely to have some indication of where things stood, but with no firm deadlines there," Deaton told the newspaper. "We're being patient and working together, and certainly right now we're in a little bit of a position where we need for Oklahoma to give us a sense of what they're thinking about and take it from there."

[RustShack]

The current upheaval is in the hands of those dentists and eye doctors and -- oh, here's a good one -- a Broadway and London theater producer.

Just a guess, but I'm betting Oklahoma's A. Max Weitzenhoffer cares a lot more about the West End than the end the Big 12.


It would be shocking if the first communication between Oklahoma and Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott was a call from one of these state appointees.


"Kind of alarming when you think about it," said a Big 12 source close to the situation. "The future of college athletics is going to be altered by these volunteer board members who are dentists, convenience store operators and the like. That's amazing."

It's no longer about geographic or (puh-leaze) academic fits. You're either a market or a brand. Nebraska is a brand. Georgia Tech, rumored to be a hot property, brings along the Atlanta market to some enterprising raider.


Southern California, Texas and Michigan are both. Woe to Baylor, Kansas State and Iowa State, which are neither. Good to know some university's future is being decided by a media consultant analyzing its Q rating.



The biggest frustration here is that no one seems to want to actually go through with it. Regents take note: Bevo isn't the only creature being led around by a ring in its nose. I talked to a Pac-12 source this week who told me there are at least eight conference presidents who are against expansion. The SEC presidents would have preferred to stand pat, but when Angelina Jolie, er, A&M knocks on your door you don't turn her/it away.

By 2012, the state of Texas could be home to schools in the Pac-12, SEC, Big East and Conference USA. That's not a football culture, that's an appetizer plate. Friday Night Lights being replaced by Saturday Afternoon Cable Listings.



There would be no center, anywhere. Silicon Valley would be as close to big-time football as Death Valley. The SEC's footprint would stomp the yard. The Pac-12 could be in ... Kansas. Nothing says Tobacco Road like Texas vs. Wake Forest.

This is what the dentist and eye doc are about to give us. Wonder if they know, or care.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by RustShack

Bobby Burton is reporting OU/Texas been running distraction with Pac/ACC talk. Officials with Louisville, Cinci & Pitt have been meeting with the Big XII

Wow, now that would be something.

[Mr. Laz]

so we would go to 11 teams with Cincy And Pitt?

why?

Unless adding Cincy and Pitt would help bring in BYU for the 12th ...


Cincy/Pitt are east and BYU is west, even further travel.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Laz

so we would go to 11 teams with Cincy And Pitt?

why?

Unless adding Cincy and Pitt would help bring in BYU for the 12th ...


Cincy/Pitt are east and BYU is west, even further travel.

The article mentioned Louisville in addition to Cincy and Pitt. Which makes for better geography and basketball, I guess.

[RustShack]

Originally Posted by Laz

so we would go to 11 teams with Cincy And Pitt?

why?

Unless adding Cincy and Pitt would help bring in BYU for the 12th ...


Cincy/Pitt are east and BYU is west, even further travel.

? We started at 12. We lost two last year. One this year. Adding three gets you back up to 12... not 11...

[RustShack]

So it looks like if we want 12; Louisville, Pitt, and Cinci are the choices. I think thats also assuming WVU goes to the SEC with aTm. Otherwise we just add BYU to get back up to 10.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by RustShack

? We started at 12. We lost two last year. One this year. Adding three gets you back up to 12... not 11...

yea, i just didn't see a 3rd team

lost Neb,Colo and A&M

adding cincy and pitt



all i was saying

what do Louisville,Pitt and Cincy bring to the financial table?

[RustShack]

Originally Posted by Laz

yea, i just didn't see a 3rd team

lost Neb,Colo and A&M

adding cincy and pitt



all i was saying

what do Louisville,Pitt and Cincy bring to the financial table?

Stability, so that we keep the current contract we have which is good money for all the schools. Not to mention the first tier contract that will be signed in a few years that potentially makes all 12(or ten) schools some of the highest paid in the nation.

[Reerun_KC]

Pittsburg and Syracuse are applying for the ACC...

[Infidel Goat]

Originally Posted by Reerun_KC

Pittsburg and Syracuse are applying for the ACC...

http://brett-mcmurphy.blogs.cbssport...32522/32035225

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Pittsburgh and Syracuse submitted letters of application to the Atlantic Coast Conference and are "likely gone" from the Big East, high ranking ACC and Big East officials told CBSSports.com.

Pittsburgh and Syracuse independently submitted letters of application to the ACC, a league source told CBSSports.com.

"There is no scenario where a president applies to a league and isn't admitted," a Big East official told CBSSports.com.

Me:

The ACC also upped the buyout clause for schools in conference to $20 million, so it looks like they are up to 14 teams. Most likely suspects to finish it off at 16 teams include UConn, Rutgers, Villanova (if football upgraded) with Notre Dame and possibly Texas (with a partner?) as outside possibilities.

Good gets for the ACC...

[Infidel Goat]

Originally Posted by Reerun_KC

Pittsburg and Syracuse are applying for the ACC...

I think that this increases the odds that the Big 10 will come calling MU and KU. If the ACC sticks together and takes some of the teams from the northeast, it likely means that the Big 10 has to look in the other direction.

Just my $.02...

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by Infidel Goat

I think that this increases the odds that the Big 10 will come calling MU and KU. If the ACC sticks together and takes some of the teams from the northeast, it likely means that the Big 10 has to look in the other direction.

Just my $.02...

[RustShack]

B1G would add ISU over KU and/or KState. None are their top options.