UT will remain with Big 12 peers

With the final seconds of the clock ticking and a desperate Hail Mary as his only option, Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe found the University of Texas in the end zone to secure the future of the conference.

Texas and the remaining nine universities in the Big 12 will remain in the conference, following Beebe’s plan, which was announced Sunday and agreed upon Monday.

With television revenues driving negotiations of further conference realignment, or the lack thereof, Beebe’s proposed plan to double each team’s television revenue through a new deal caught the eye of Texas, which would be able to pursue its own television network.

Texas will make between $20 million and $25 million annually with the acceptance of the proposed plan, according to Orangebloods.com. Texas A&M and Oklahoma will also make roughly $20 million each.

Beebe’s plan involves the conference staying put with the 10 teams left after Nebraska parts for the Big Ten and Colorado joins the Pac-10. Also, there will not be a Big 12 championship football game because the NCAA’s rule that allows only conferences with at least 12 universities to have a championship game. In football, the sport that is dominating discussions, each team would play the other nine teams every year. The changes would not take effect until 2011, when Nebraska begins playing in the Big Ten. Colorado is expected to start participating in the Pac-10 in 2012.

“Texas A&M is a proud member of the Big 12 Conference and will continue to be affiliated with the conference in the future,” A&M President R. Bowen Loftin said in a statement. “As athletic director Bill Byrne and I have stated on numerous occasions, our hope and desire was for the Big 12 to continue. We are committed to the Big 12 and its success today and into the future.”

President William Powers Jr., men’s athletic director DeLoss Dodds and women’s athletic director Chris Plonsky have scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m.

Meanwhile at the Capitol, the House Higher Education Committee will hold a public hearing Wednesday to discuss the financial implications of the conference alignments of UT-Austin, Texas Tech and Texas A&M.

“The Legislature needs to be sure to monitor the situation and think about its impact on the universities and the people in the state of Texas,” said state Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, vice chair of the House Higher Education Committee. “I imagine that this is an issue that impacts many of our state universities and, so, to the extent that it impacts revenue for the universities, student scholarships, any kind of financial aid, those are overseen by the committee. Every school needs to assess what’s best for the school, the athletics programs and the students.”

State Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, who chairs the committee, said the purpose of the hearing is to provide some transparency on the conference alignments for the public and elected representatives.

“We will still have a hearing,” Branch told Sports Illustrated. “This sounds like a promising result. We’re grateful for all the good work done by our schools today. We look forward to having a dialogue Wednesday, but this looks like a very promising development for the state of Texas.”