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Insiders: UT, 3 others leaving Big 12 for Pacific-10
By BRENT ZWERNEMAN
College Station Bureau
June 11, 2010, 9:11PM
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TOM REEL San Antonio Express-News
The Texas A&M-Texas rivalry has careened into overtime following this academic year — and the stakes are sky high for the state’s two most prominent universities.
As the Big 12 Conference continues a crumble into apparent oblivion, the Aggies are mulling two tenders from power conferences while the Longhorns have apparently narrowed their replacement for the Big 12 to one — the Pacific-10.
UT, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are expected to announce their new destination early next week, according to two people familiar with the situation. The programs from the Big 12 South will join Arizona and Arizona State in forming a Pac-10 south division, along with departed Big 12 member Colorado, which announced its new affiliation with the Pac-10 on Thursday, the sources said.
Both UT and Tech have scheduled board of regents meetings for Tuesday. The Aggies are choosing between the new Pac-10 alliance or bolting for the Southeastern Conference, and no timetable has been set for a decision, two sources said.
On Friday as expected, Nebraska announced that it was splitting the Big 12 and bound for the Big Ten — with its new conference play scheduled to start in 2011, a year ahead of what many observers anticipated. Cornhuskers athletic director Tom Osborne, who won three national titles as the school’s football coach, said Nebraska sensed the Big 12’s dissolution and acted accordingly.
“As we read the tea leaves and listened to the conversations, some of the schools that were urging us to stay, we found some of them had talked to not only one other conference or two but even three,” Osborne told reporters on Friday. “And those were the same ones urging us to stay.”
Meanwhile Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe held a teleconference to discuss Nebraska’s exit and to address reports of the Big 12 south’s impending exodus.
“I’m going all the way to the final whistle,” Beebe said of his league still having — for now — 10 members. “I have every intention of holding together the 10 that we have.”
And if his league is reduced to half its original size?
“That’s going to be up to any remaining institutions as to what they want to do,” Beebe said. “I will work in whatever direction they give me.”
Over in Waco, Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw and president Ken Starr made their case on Friday for a 10-team Big 12.
“At this point we are focused on keeping the Big 12 together and maintaining the rivalries that we have enjoyed with our (three) Big 12 Texas brothers,” McCaw said. “Those traditions go over the last 100 years, and we certainly want to do everything we can to maintain those rivalries in the conference structure.”
For their part the Aggies are prepared to go their separate ways from the Longhorns, should they feel the SEC is a much better option than the Pac-10 model. But early indications are that A&M likely will wind up in the Pac-10, because of overriding concerns about academic standards in the SEC, considered the nation’s premier football conference, and to simply stick with its rival UT as conference foes.
In Austin, UT athletic director DeLoss Dodds declined comment before the Longhorns’ baseball game at Disch-Falk Field, but issued a statement concerning the latest conference shakeup, “Our goals and hopes all along have been to keep the Big 12 Conference intact. … We are entrusted with the responsibility of administering our university athletics programs. That requires careful examination of any and all options.”
In addition, the state’s House Committee on Higher Education will meet Wednesday morning “to discuss matters pertaining to higher education, including collegiate athletics.”
But, as State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio) said Friday, should the Texas Legislature try telling any of the schools what to do, “Any threats would be empty threats,” she said, since the Legislature no longer sets tuition rates (that’s left up to the regents), and also has its hands full with state budget issues.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/college/texas/7048932.html
By BRENT ZWERNEMAN
College Station Bureau
June 11, 2010, 9:11PM
.
TOM REEL San Antonio Express-News
The Texas A&M-Texas rivalry has careened into overtime following this academic year — and the stakes are sky high for the state’s two most prominent universities.
As the Big 12 Conference continues a crumble into apparent oblivion, the Aggies are mulling two tenders from power conferences while the Longhorns have apparently narrowed their replacement for the Big 12 to one — the Pacific-10.
UT, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are expected to announce their new destination early next week, according to two people familiar with the situation. The programs from the Big 12 South will join Arizona and Arizona State in forming a Pac-10 south division, along with departed Big 12 member Colorado, which announced its new affiliation with the Pac-10 on Thursday, the sources said.
Both UT and Tech have scheduled board of regents meetings for Tuesday. The Aggies are choosing between the new Pac-10 alliance or bolting for the Southeastern Conference, and no timetable has been set for a decision, two sources said.
On Friday as expected, Nebraska announced that it was splitting the Big 12 and bound for the Big Ten — with its new conference play scheduled to start in 2011, a year ahead of what many observers anticipated. Cornhuskers athletic director Tom Osborne, who won three national titles as the school’s football coach, said Nebraska sensed the Big 12’s dissolution and acted accordingly.
“As we read the tea leaves and listened to the conversations, some of the schools that were urging us to stay, we found some of them had talked to not only one other conference or two but even three,” Osborne told reporters on Friday. “And those were the same ones urging us to stay.”
Meanwhile Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe held a teleconference to discuss Nebraska’s exit and to address reports of the Big 12 south’s impending exodus.
“I’m going all the way to the final whistle,” Beebe said of his league still having — for now — 10 members. “I have every intention of holding together the 10 that we have.”
And if his league is reduced to half its original size?
“That’s going to be up to any remaining institutions as to what they want to do,” Beebe said. “I will work in whatever direction they give me.”
Over in Waco, Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw and president Ken Starr made their case on Friday for a 10-team Big 12.
“At this point we are focused on keeping the Big 12 together and maintaining the rivalries that we have enjoyed with our (three) Big 12 Texas brothers,” McCaw said. “Those traditions go over the last 100 years, and we certainly want to do everything we can to maintain those rivalries in the conference structure.”
For their part the Aggies are prepared to go their separate ways from the Longhorns, should they feel the SEC is a much better option than the Pac-10 model. But early indications are that A&M likely will wind up in the Pac-10, because of overriding concerns about academic standards in the SEC, considered the nation’s premier football conference, and to simply stick with its rival UT as conference foes.
In Austin, UT athletic director DeLoss Dodds declined comment before the Longhorns’ baseball game at Disch-Falk Field, but issued a statement concerning the latest conference shakeup, “Our goals and hopes all along have been to keep the Big 12 Conference intact. … We are entrusted with the responsibility of administering our university athletics programs. That requires careful examination of any and all options.”
In addition, the state’s House Committee on Higher Education will meet Wednesday morning “to discuss matters pertaining to higher education, including collegiate athletics.”
But, as State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio) said Friday, should the Texas Legislature try telling any of the schools what to do, “Any threats would be empty threats,” she said, since the Legislature no longer sets tuition rates (that’s left up to the regents), and also has its hands full with state budget issues.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/college/texas/7048932.html
