Texas to Big Ten? Commissioner Delany Says That's News to Him

In the first official word from the Big Ten, commissioner Jim Delany told a Chicago radio station Friday that the conference has not contacted any schools about possible expansion.

A report came Thursday that the Big Ten is attempting to lure Texas away from the Big 12. There has also been speculation the Big Ten was also considering adding Pittsburgh or Missouri to give the conference 12 members in order to divide the league into two divisions, which would allow for a lucrative Big Ten championship game in football each year.

"We haven't had any formal or informal interface with any institution," Delany said to WSCR, a Chicago sports talk radio station. "We hope that by spring or summer we will have an idea of what we'd like to do, if anything."

That is in contrary to a report that appeared in the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World Thursday that cited a Big Ten source indicating strong interest in Texas.

Most believe luring Texas away from the Big 12 would be highly unlikely considering the Longhorns' stature within the conference that was founded in 1996.

Regionally, it doesn't seem to make sense to join the mostly Midwestern league and Texas doesn't have a natural rivalry among teams like Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Illinois.

Delany, however, said Friday the Big Ten might be looking to expand its regional borders.

"I think the conference will continue to have a pretty significant geographic [element] to it," he told the radio station.

Still, there are a couple reasons why this move could make sense.

The Longhorns' athletic department aligns academically better with Big Ten schools than it does with the likes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Nebraska.

Texas also has not hid its disappointment, led by head football coach Mack Brown, with the conference after the infamous three-way tie rule in 2008 that sent Oklahoma to the Big 12 championship and subsequently to the BCS national title game despite the fact a one-loss Texas team had defeated the Sooners in head-to-head competition during the season. Oklahoma advanced to the conference title game by virtue of a having a slim edge in the BCS standings in December 2008.

But the biggest reason why the move could happen is television money. The Big Ten's lucrative Big Ten Network deal could become even richer with Texas and the millions of viewers it offers from the state of Texas.

The difference there could be in the Big 12, UT receives a larger take than most of its league counterparts because of more national television appearances and its higher profile. In the Big Ten, profits are divided equally among its members.

The Big 12 does not have its own network but does have deals with ESPN, ABC and Fox Sportsnet.

The Big Ten is currently under a 10-year, $1 billion deal with ESPN in addition to its 25-year, $2.8 billion contract with the Big Ten Network. Every home football game in the Big Ten is on television.

The Big 12, operating under a much more limited package, has an eight-year contract for $480 million with ABC/ESPN that runs until 2012. Still according to a report, Texas led the nation in 2007-08 in total and football revenue. The Longhorns' athletic department took in $120,288,370 total and $72,952,397.

Texas athletic director Deloss Dodds, through a school spokesman, declined to discuss the report that UT has received interest from the Big Ten because he does not talk about rumors. The Big 12 also said it would not comment on rumors.

But the Big 12 did say, according to its guidelines, any member wishing to leave the conference would have to give two years notice.

The Big Ten, meanwhile, is certainly looking to expand. A few years ago, the league tried unsuccessfully to get Notre Dame to give up its Independence. Most of the speculation in recent years has had Pittsburgh or Missouri jumping to the Big Ten.

Any move would likely cause a ripple effect among the six major conferences. Should Texas leave the Big 12, many believe Colorado would then bolt for the Pac-10. Missouri leaving could open up the possibility of a school like TCU joining the Big 12.

"So much of the speculation and reporting will not win a Pulitzer," Delany said Friday. "If (any school contacts) are occurring, they are occurring outside of my knowledge and awareness."

But this firestorm of speculation was set off by Thursday's report in the Journal-World. Fans and traditionalists across the country seem to have strong opinions one way or another about Texas possibly landing in the Big Ten.

Delany acknowledged to the co-hosts that he is not isolated and is very well aware of the speculation the rumors have started.

"I get that part of it," Delany said. "We've tried to put out the plan of what we're doing, our internal due diligence. We're not going to do it on C-Span.

"But you asked: Is [the speculation] hard on other institutions? It is. But before we began this process, I called my colleagues in Big 12 and Big East and told them how we wanted to handle it. We're trying to keep lines of communication open.

"I know it lights up the lines and gets ratings and puts the Big Ten out there in a public way, but it's not even a subset of what we're trying to achieve."