All of this talk about the Big Ten adding Big 12 programs like Oklahoma State and West Virginia could be put on ice if the Big 12 has their prayers answered. With the writing supposedly on the wall and Oklahoma and Texas making their move to the SEC, Big 12 leaders are scrambling to try and please their top two members enough into reconsidering.
As noted by our friends at Sooners Wire, the Big 12’s executive committee met via conference call with the presidents at Oklahoma and Texas in an attempt to work out a way to prevent the two institutions from leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. It has been reported the Big 12 is prepared to give Oklahoma and Texas an even more significant cut of the conference’s revenue distribution if it means the Sooners and Longhorns will remain in the conference.
At this point, however, the effort may end up being futile for the Big 12. Even if Oklahoma and Texas were to make out even richer with an uneven conference revenue distribution largely in their favor, the long-term stability that could be found in the SEC is far more lucrative than the constant unsteadiness that has been in the Big 12 for years.
The Big 12 is now at serious risk of losing half of its original membership. Texas and Oklahoma are more than likely SEC-bound, where they would be reunited with former Big 12 members Missouri and Texas A&M. Colorado previously left the big 12 for the Pac-10 to help form the Pac-12. And, of course, Nebraska split ways with the Big 12 for a chance to join the Big Ten as its 12th member at the time.
We will have to wait and see the timeline for Texas and Oklahoma to make their pending moves to the SEC official. But when those moves are formally announced, expect plenty of conversation about what the Big Ten will do with the remaining Big 12 members searching for a life preserver in the conference realignment waters.
Whether or not the Big Ten should expand, there will be plenty of rumors floating around to keep us all pretty busy and engaged in the weeks to come.
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