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Yes, of course, you were just using the Pac and never really wanted to leave. Of course.
Yes, of course, you were just using the Pac and never really wanted to leave. Of course.
Oklahoma and Oklahoma State seemed headed to the Pac-12 on Monday.
By Tuesday night, their westward journey was halted before it got started.
What happened?
A high-ranking source from OU told The Oklahoman on Wednesday that both schools have actually been working behind the scenes to sell Big 12 reform to other schools in the conference.
“But frankly, we wanted the impression out there that we might go to the Pac-12 because that gave us some leverage,” the source said. “We were using that as leverage to say, ‘Hey, you want us to stay? Let's have some of these reforms.'”
Among the changes: removing of Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe; adopting common rules for individual networks like the Longhorn Network; phasing in revenue sharing from primary television rights; and requiring a commitment of rights of more than five years from conference schools, which would commit all of their game revenues to the Big 12 during that time and make moving to another league difficult to impossible.
Those are the main issues that the Big 12's board of directors will discuss during a meeting Thursday afternoon.
The OU source believes that many of the reforms have the support of enough of the schools' presidents and chancellors to be approved.
The behind-the-scenes lobbying of OU and OSU began gaining traction in recent days. Yet as it did, there was a sense their leverage might be slipping. The OU source said there was a shift in the mood of Pac-12 leaders, largely because Texas was pushing to get special concessions and exemptions for its network.
So, on Tuesday morning, OU and OSU let the Pac-12 know that it wouldn't be applying for membership.
“Really, we kind of hoped that the announcement ... wouldn't come for another day or so,” the OU source said. “Every day we had gave us a little more leverage to talk about these reforms.”
But the Pac-12 issued a statement Tuesday evening saying it had no intentions to expand.
“They put out their statement because they thought ... Texas was going to stiff them again,” the source said.
When conference realignment talk heated up in the summer of 2010, Texas started the conversation with the Pac-12, meeting with the conference for four or five months, approaching OU and Texas A&M and others about heading West.
Then the Longhorns abruptly ended it, according to the OU source, announcing they weren't going to the Pac-12 before they'd even notified the league's leaders.
“They really felt burned,” the source said. “They told us in the future they don't think they're ever really going to want to do business with Texas.
“They're very angry with Texas.”
But ultimately, reforming and stabilizing the Big 12 was the goal for OU and OSU all along.
“We've been playing a bit of poker,” the OU source said. “That hand was a lot stronger (Tuesday) than (Wednesday), but so many things are already agreed to.
“If they'll all keep their word at the meeting (Thursday), we will have some substantial reforms and substantial stability.”
Read more: http://newsok.com/source-ous-preferred-reformed-big-12-all-along/article/3606281#ixzz1YcUpz82n