Big 12 Optimistically Moving Toward Uncertain Future

DALLAS -- With his league all but crumbling around him, Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe managed last month what could become the greatest save in college sports.

Colorado and Nebraska had already broken away from the 14-year-old power conference and now the nucleus was next as Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Texas Tech all weighed options from the Pac-10. The formation of four 16-team super-conferences seemed inevitable with the anticipated move.

But Beebe came through with the ultimate Hail Mary catch that included increased television revenue and more for the major league players despite two fewer teams and the almost certain loss of the Big 12 Football Championship Game.

Beebe, himself, described the scenario as being down 21 points in the fourth quarter with four minutes remaining.

---

---

"That is kind of what it felt like from time to time," Beebe said this week during the Big 12 Football Media Days. "People said 'Did you think it was going to be a losing cause?'

"It was perseverance and playing to the final whistle and playing as hard as you can. I'm an optimist."

The question, however, that has been the proverbial elephant in the room this week has been how long will Beebe's optimism hold together a seemingly weakened Big 12?

Beebe and the coaches who will remain a part of the 10-member Big 12 following this season all tried during the three-day media preview to put a positive spin on what is obviously a dip in perception with nationally respected Nebraska heading for the Big Ten and Colorado on its way to the Pac-10.



But one has to wonder how long before another conference comes after a Big 12 school or two. There have to be some uncomfortable bedfellows after Missouri openly flirted with the Big Ten this summer only to not be invited, and Texas remains the crown jewel that the Pac-10 and Big Ten would still love to capture.

Beebe became uncharacteristically testy when pressed about the perception that his conference is fragile, at best.

"I can say this over and over and over again, and I still see many of your writing statements about not believing that and this isn't really going to hold together," Beebe said. "Other than just sitting here telling you that and you observing others in our league saying that, you're going to have to see it happen over time.

"So I'm not sure what else we need to do," he continued. "I guess we can get all the athletic directors and board members up here and sing 'Kumbaya,' and maybe that would help some of you. I'm not sure that is going to happen until we just observe it for a few years."

The problem Beebe and the Big 12 face, however, is a lack of concrete evidence to back up the promises. There are offers of a more lucrative deal coming from ESPN/ABC to make the new format make sense with Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M all taking in $20 million a year in league revenue, but no actual numbers to this point. There is a said pledge for the 10 remaining schools to stick together but nothing has been placed in writing.

First-year Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville, a longtime member of the SEC, was given a written reprimand earlier this month for expressing concern over the long-term viability of the Big 12. Longtime Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops admitted Wednesday to being excited when he heard that two Oklahoma schools and the Texas schools might be headed west to the Pac-10.

"Initially disappointed but then when it seemed inevitable kind of excited," Stoops said when asked what went through his mind as he watched all the conference realignment talk unfold last month. "The different venues, different opportunities, playing some games out West was exciting. Who knows? Playing a possible championship in the Rose Bowl would have been cool.

"I always look at opportunities as kind of exciting, even though it was different."

Stoops compared the direction of the new Big 12 to where the Pac-10 and Big Ten had been for many years as other major conferences staged lucrative conference championship games while the two traditional powers did not. The NCAA requires conferences to have at least 12 schools to play a conference championship football game.

"They did it for over 10 years and no one seemed to have a problem with it," Stoops said. "They got used to seeing us in this form, but we are in a different form now. But obviously there are still a lot of strong teams in this league."

Most would argue against Stoops on this point. For most of the decade, Texas and Oklahoma have ruled the Big 12 from the South division. The safe money is that trend will continue in the expected in the new format in which league teams will have to play nine conference games and winning the Big 12 title will likely mean having to beat both Texas and Oklahoma in the same season most years.

Either UT or Oklahoma has won the Big 12 championship eight of the last 10 years to represent the conference in the BCS while they've combined to win the last six straight. Since the 2004 season, Texas and Oklahoma have combined to go 65-7 during regular-season conference games against the other eight remaining Big 12 schools.

Adding to the anticlimactic feeling is the fact there is a strong commitment to keep the annual Texas-Oklahoma Red River Rivalry Game in early October to keep the tradition of playing at the Cotton Bowl at the close of the Texas State Fair alive.

But Stoops insisted Wednesday that it is assuming too much to say the leaner Big 12 will be Texas and OU and then everybody else.

"I wouldn't be one to say that. In the end, I don't take it for granted like the media does," said Stoops, whose team has now lost three straight to Texas. "We have to play. So we've got nine teams to beat, so just beating (Texas) doesn't do it. You have to beat them to have the chance to be champion and we've done that a fair amount of times."

Texas coach Mack Brown went as far Wednesday as to acknowledge some schools have to improve their programs without naming any names. But schools like Texas A&M and Missouri have the resources to emerge as powers in the league and perhaps even Bill Snyder can summon the energy to make Kansas State a serious a threat again.

"When you take a league of 12 or a league of 10, it's going to take everybody," Brown said. "Very honestly the better everybody gets, the better the league is going to be and the better the games there are. So we need everybody to be good."