Big 12 Meetings Adjourn With No Commitments, Lots of Questions

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- No matter what Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe (above) says publicly, he came here to the league's spring meetings this week looking for commitments from all 12 members.

But the commish left empty-handed Friday.

Beebe received anything but assurances as the four-day Big 12 spring meetings broke off. In fact, the Big 12's loyalty issues may have become worse this week now that it seems not just the Big Ten is after members of the Big 12, but the Pac-10 may be about to join the poaching.

The Big 12, as we've known it the last 14 years, is either about to look quite different in the next couple of years or ultimately may not exist at all.

"It's critical, it's a critical time period," Beebe admitted of these next several months.

The athletic directors met earlier this week, then combined with the presidents to deliver recommendations, and on Thursday and Friday just the board of directors got together. It's safe to assume everything was discussed from conference championship sites to scheduling, but the only talk that mattered this week was realignment and how the Big 12 hopes to stay together.

The future of the conference hinges on the decisions Missouri and Nebraska have to make in the next several months about whether they will bolt for the Big Ten and the riches of the Big Ten Network. Both schools seem to be willing to listen if the Big Ten comes calling as it explores expansion possibilities.

So with Missouri and Nebraska electing to keep their options open, it appears the other coveted members of the Big 12 will, too. The Pac-10 is reportedly interested in extending offers to Big 12 members Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Colorado, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to form a 16-team league.

Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn has all but admitted he is anxious to hear what the Pac-10 has to offer.

All the while, the Big 12 members have been sitting at the table this week discussing the importance of solidarity and how to keep the conference intact. With so many rumors swirling it seems there has been little trust in those meetings, though Beebe insists otherwise.

"Absolutely and especially among the group I just left," Beebe said Friday after the board of directors meeting concluded the four-day festivities at the InterContinental Hotel. "The board members, presidents and chancellors, they deal with each other in a lot more than just intercollegiate athletics. They collaborate in research areas and other meetings and contexts for higher education. So I think there is an extreme amount of trust with the board, which is the ultimate authority in the conference."

Still there is no commitment to stick together. Instead, Beebe met with the media Friday and immediately started dropping convoluted words like "process," while answering very few questions about what has been decided so far.

But it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on. Missouri wants a bigger share of the Big 12 television pie, while Nebraska wants more equality for the North Division schools. Accommodating either would upset Big 12 powerbrokers Texas and Oklahoma and the conference might disband anyway.

So Beebe finds himself in the most delicate of situations.

Losing Missouri and Nebraska would almost certainly mean the end of the Big 12 because there are no comparable replacements out there that would deliver the St. Louis television market that the Tigers do or the national notoriety of the Cornhuskers.

At the same time, there is no Big 12 without Texas and Oklahoma.

Given those points, it seems the future of the Big 12 has never been more uncertain. Yet, Beebe was left by the board of directors Friday to put his best spin on the viability of the league without giving any tangible evidence of solidarity.

"I am comfortable," Beebe said. "There is a process we are going through, but based on the conversations that we had, I think we are in a very good position."

The problem isn't the perception the rest of the universe has of what has been one of the most elite conferences since its inception in 1996. The picture being broadcast is that the Big 12 is in serious trouble and that isn't the perception the league needs as it gets ready to negotiate a new deal with Fox Sports Net next April.

Beebe is banking on a television deal that would put the Big 12 on par with the ACC and SEC in terms of distribution to its members. But it's nothing more than a dream if Beebe isn't able to secure a commitment from Nebraska and Missouri before sitting down at the table to hammer out a TV deal to go along with a contract with ABC/ESPN that runs through 2015-16.

Beebe said more than once he was looking for commitments from members before this week's spring meetings concluded. He declined Friday to give a deadline of when he needed to know who is in and who is out. The logical answer is the scheduled October meeting of the board of directors, but Beebe wouldn't say that.

"The process that has been set is firm, but I am not going to engage in what that is," Beebe said. "That's just where it is going to sit."

In the meantime, rumors and speculation are going to continue about what conferences his members may be listening to. A report Friday morning had Ohio State president Gordon Gee and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany having an email exchange about luring Texas, with Gee going as far as to say he has had talks with UT president Bill Powers.

Conspicuously missing Friday was Powers, who was supposed to address the media with Beebe as chairman of the board of directors, but he didn't show apparently because of a traveling conflict.

Beebe, meanwhile, seemed unaffected by all the flirting from other conferences with his member schools.

"I don't blame those conferences for looking at our institutions," he said. "They are valuable institutions with a lot of great history and tradition and they add a lot. But I think we have a compelling case for why the Big 12 should stay together."

The billion-dollar question is what could he possibly offer that makes sense?

Should Texas, Nebraska or Missouri leave for the Big Ten, each school could stand to increase its conference take significantly to as much as $22 million per year. Should the Pac-10 deal take place, those schools could be looking at a similar growth in income.

Beebe, however, cautions that the net dollar figure may not be as high when you look at increased travel costs for sports teams, lost class time for the student athletes and not to mention the costs associated with leaving the Big 12 and the buy-in to a new conference.

"I think you have to peel back the onion and see if what you are talking about is what gets to athletics, and are there other expenses and costs," Beebe said. "We have had analysis and projections that looks like we are going to be every bit as well compensated in the future."

But even if that isn't completely accurate, what the Big 12 seems to have going in its favor are some complicated politics that makes movement for Texas and Oklahoma not so easy. The Big Ten, for instance, would love to take Texas and the millions of television sets the Longhorns have access to. But in order to do so, the Big Ten would have to offer memberships to both Texas A&M and Texas Tech because of state politics.

Texas A&M would be a good fit academically with the rest of the Big Ten schools, but Texas Tech would not because it doesn't share the same academic reputation.

Such complications might make it best for Texas to remain in the Big 12 and, should Missouri and Nebraska bolt, the league could form some type of partnership with the Pac-10 for television packaging purposes.

Beebe said Friday that a potential partnership with the Pac-10 had been discussed during the week at the athletic directors and presidents levels. The two leagues are already competing in non-conference play in men's basketball in what has become known as the Hardwood Series. A similar series could take place involving football during the non-conference portion of the schedule.

"There is a high interest and we will continue to explore those options," Beebe said. "There is a great affinity for those institutions. We have a Hardwood Series with them and there is talk of having a football scheduling alliance that could help both of our institutions' media package, plus have some quality games in September.

"There are all sorts of levels of cooperation that I think we could engage in with the Pac-10 that have been discussed with our members."

But as with everything else, there is no commitment.