Conference Realignment -- Big 12, PAC 10, Big 10, SEC

If you are not interested in Major College football, no need to read farther.

Politics has been taking a backseat -- way backseat -- to what is happening here in Norman and other towns in the Big 12. Some of the most read stories in The Oklahoman and the Austin American Statesman have been about where is the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas going to land in a conference.

Yesterday major rain hit the Oklahoma City metro area but the question was still being asked what was going on at the Big 12 meetings -- was it going to be saved or not.

Last Friday Nebraska bolted to the Big 10 blaming the Big 12 South especially Texas for their leaving. Tom Osborne pointed fingers at everyone but Nebraska for breaking up the Big 12. Total classless performance so much so that it has a lot of Sooner fans going to be doing "Hook em" Horns when Texas plays at Nebraska. The OU/Nebraska rivalry has been dead for sometime after the Big 12 formed. We will always remember that 2000 OU/NE game and their fans that were so sure we were gong to get beat bad and we won to go on to win the National Championship that year. Hope the obnoxious lady from Nebraska that sat in front of us enjoys Columbus, Ohio, and the Buckeye stadium fans.

Then on Friday Colorado bolted to the PAC 10 which they had been wanting to do for sometime. They were also invited ahead of the other five Big 12 schools because no one wanted to take Baylor along this time which they were required to do when the Big 12 formed by former Governor Ma Richards. This time Governor Perry was smart in staying out of all of this and letting the schools decide where they wanted to land in a Conference.

The funny thing in all of this is that Missouri who has been whining for years they wanted to leave for the Big 10. Reports out of Columbia actually had Missouri agreeing to leave for the Big 10 which started all of this movement of other Big 12 schools to other conferences. But Missouri had one slight problem as the Big 10 didn't ask them to apply -- that privilege went to Nebraska who applied and was immediately accepted.

Texas announced that if Nebraska was gone so were they -- PAC 10 was going to take five Big 12 South schools -- Texas, University of Oklahoma, A&M, Texas Tech, and OSU but wait. A&M decided they wanted no part of being Texas little brother any longer so they courted the SEC who by all accounts wanted Oklahoma including a piece in the Atlanta Constitution why Oklahoma should choose the SEC.

This has been about the only talk in this part of the Country of where everyone would end up. Then the Big 12 Commissioner, Dan Bebee, came up with a pipe dream of a plan to save the conference -- 10 teams, no championship. We thought it whould be DOA but then word came out that Texas was seriously considering the new deal. Eight hours later, the Bebee Plan is the basis for saving the Big 12 -- who would have thought.

No wonder OU and TX decided to negotiate because in the end they will be getting over $20M in revenue from the new deal Fox Sports put together after panicking about a Super Conference and what that was going to cost. Also Big 12 schools are allowed to have their own network which TX and OU are now exploring. We are still waiting for the final details but last night A&M was also going to share in getting $20 while the other schools left would get $13-17M which doubles what they had been getting. OU lead the Big 12 in revenue in 2008-2009 with Texas second. The two teams are almost always 1 and 2 in revenue. It seems the rest of the Big 12 schools recognize OU, TX, and A&M for saving the conference so they are being rewarded.

Lot of panic going on by various entities about a proposed Super Conference of the PAC 10 so for now the Big 12 will stay at 10 teams, no conference championship, play everyone in the conference, and play 18 games in basketball. Who knows what lies ahead but for now the Super Conferences are on hold and OU is sitting on a pot of cash they were not a week ago, looking to start their own TV network, and the OU baseball team is in the College World Series in Omaha. Great day to be a Sooner!