As the Big 12 Conference takes heart stage this week, the league’s future — each short-term and long-term — stays cloudier than ever.
Media Days unfold Wednesday and Thursday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, and whereas there shall be loads of queries about backup quarterbacks and depth charts and tradition change and NIL, the Big 12’s simple underlying storylines are about membership.
Ten members in 2022. Fourteen in 2023 and 2024. Twelve in 2025.
And that’s simply what’s on paper at the second.
The June 30 bombshell that pushed USC and UCLA into the Big Ten Conference created shockwaves that despatched the Big 12 into scramble mode — a proactive hunt, actually, which is a pleasant change of tempo contemplating the league’s quarter century of reactive habits.
Soon after the news broke that the Pac-12 would lose each of its prime properties in the Los Angeles market, Big 12 management learn the altering panorama, foresaw the want for extra growth and went to work discovering the subsequent technology of Big 12 faculties.
Multiple reports had the Big 12 in the boardroom a number of occasions throughout the final two weeks, exploring a partnership with college representatives from Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.
No transactions occurred, and it appears nothing is imminent after what was mainly a fact-finding mission on the a part of each the faculties and the Big 12. The SEC and the Big Ten’s transfer to 16 members, nonetheless, give the Big 12 cause to consider extra growth is important, and this time, the Big 12 acted shortly.
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Those growth plans hit a possible roadblock when it was reported final week that the Pac-12 and the ACC are discussing a TV partnership that may reanimate the floundering Pac-12 Network and fortify the new-and-growing ACC Network — and sure go away the Big 12 as an growth bridesmaid.
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What this all means for Oklahoma (and Texas) is the risk of an earlier departure for the Southeastern Conference.
With their media rights contractually obligated to the Big 12 by way of the 2024-25 educational 12 months, Oklahoma and Texas have roughly 40 million causes to stay round the Big 12 for one other 12 months. But that buyout, vital because it sounds, could be negated inside two or three years by new cash from the SEC — and, in Texas’ case, ESPN nonetheless owes UT some $160 million for the Longhorn Network.
Money isn’t a leash that may maintain the Sooners and Longhorns.
For now, as the Pac-12 desperately tries to remain afloat, its members are little question contemplating their choices. Do they stick with a regional footprint, maybe including a Boise State or San Diego State, and kind a profitable scheduling alliance with the ACC? Do they recommit to one another after which attempt to pluck any Big 12 members who may be getting chilly ft over the league’s continually shifting membership? Or do they break formation, declare each college for themselves and splinter off into the shelters of the Big 12 and Big Ten?
Oklahoma followers desperate to get to the SEC needs to be rooting for one other spherical of Big 12 growth — and the sooner the higher.
If the Big 12 is ready to develop once more and reel in any Pac-12 faculties, that may placate a few of the Big 12 angst over shedding two flagship athletic departments, and that ought to enable them to let OU and Texas go away 12 months early — summer time of 2024.
Feelings in the Big 12 have been harm for occurring a 12 months now. As lengthy as everybody will get what they’re owed, one other spherical of Big 12 growth would facilitate an OU and Texas departure in 2024, and that may be good for everybody.
In each phrases and deeds, final summer time’s news has created awkwardness and embarrassment. When OU and Texas performed for the nationwide championship in softball, for occasion, nobody from the Big 12 workplace was in Oklahoma City representing the league. When OU and Texas brass met with different league members at Big 12 spring conferences in June, Bob Bowlsby mentioned they sat collectively in the boardroom “because we had to.”
If the Big 12 expands once more, it might create the good alternative for an amicable divorce. Best to maneuver on as quickly as potential.
story by The Texas Tribune Source link