WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE BIG 12...

Texas A&M is scheduled to leave the Big 12 for the SEC. The Big 12 lost Nebraska to the Big 10 and Colorado to the Pac 12 this summer. Now Texas and Oklahoma have cleared a path for their departure as well.

What is happening to the Big 12.....

The truth is it is all about money or revenue for these schools. Regents at both Oklahoma and Texas gave their school presidents the authority to find new conference homes, if they so choose.

The University of Oklahoma is focused on staying in the Big 12 or moving to the Pac 12. This sounds a little like a university riding the fence. There is no way you can focus on both, either you are trying to stay or you are trying to leave. The Oklahoma president said that in order for Oklahoma to stay in the Big 12 the league must share television revenue equally among its members.

What many people fail to realize is that by Texas and Oklahoma possibly leaving the Big 12, all the other schools/teams will be impacted.

Take Oklahoma State for example. They have stated that if Oklahoma leaves the Big 12 for another conference they will follow. The two schools presidents have been working together to make sure that the best interests for both schools and the state of Oklahoma are achieved.

So if Texas and Oklahoma decide to leave the Big 12, teams like Oklahoma State and Texas Tech are likely to follow the richer, more powerful schools wherever they go. That would leave the Big 12 with only 5 teams. This would put the Big 12 in the same situation as the Big East, with only 5 teams after Pitt and Syracuse announced their plans to join the ACC.

There have been some unofficial talks about possibly combining the left over teams of the Big 12 and the Big East, but mostly just whispers.

Having Texas and Oklahoma talk about leaving the Big 12 is nothing new. They both flirted with the idea last year but decided against it. The Big 12 did put together a $1.2 billion dollar tv contract that would be split between the 10 teams of the Big 12. The league also decided against a conference network, similar to that of the Big 10 and the Pac 12. This network produces major revenue for those conferences.

The main problem right now with the Big 12 is they do not have equal revenue sharing, like most other power conferences. Revenue sharing is very attractive to schools like Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. This was definitely a deciding factor in Texas A&M leaving for the SEC. Members of the Big 12 were quite upset after Texas signed a 20 year $300 million dollar agreement with ESPN for the Longhorn Network. That revenue is not shared among the rest of the school in the Big 12.

Now Texas officials have stated publicly that they want the Big 12 to stay together, but will keep all options open. Again more fence riding. To be honest, Texas is probably just playing the wait and see game. If Oklahoma and Texas A&M do leave, Texas will have very little interest in the Big 12. If those teams stay, so will Texas. They already have the revenue in place.

The Texas Tech head football coach Tommy Tuberville made a very interesting comment. He stated "they would love to keep this thing together with all the other teams that have been with us." Seems like a simple statement. But does coach Tuberville actually mean that if a few teams leave (Texas, Oklahoma, A&M) they will leave too. Sounds like that to us.

There is a trend toward developing 16 team super conferences right now, especially after the ACC announced it was adding Pitt and Syracuse just a few years after adding Virginia Tech, Miami, and Boston College.

Super conferences may not be such a bad idea. This could get college football one step closer to the oh so needed playoff format. Of course revenue sharing among the members of a super conference is a must.

For the Big 12 to stay together they must start revenue sharing, add a Big 12 network, and add more teams. There is no reason why the Big 12 can not be a super conference themselves.

So lets see what is happening with the Big 12........