Reports: Big 12 has a shot
According to outlets, Beebe makes headway in fight to save league.
June 14, 2010
John E. Hoover
Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe's plan to save his beleaguered conference reportedly has come to light and is good enough that think tanks at Texas, Texas A&M and elsewhere — including Oklahoma and Oklahoma State — are listening.
Meanwhile Sunday, Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott continued his whirlwind face-to-face meetings with various members of the Big 12.
On Saturday, Scott boarded a private plane (registered to a University of Oregon booster) in Northern California that made stops in Oklahoma City, College Station, Austin, Lubbock, Austin again, and on Sunday night was scheduled for Kansas City, though the aircraft apparently remained in South Texas.
Scott is meeting with presidents, chancellors and/or athletic directors, though his precise intent hasn't been made known. On Saturday, he met with OU president David Boren and AD Joe Castiglione as well as OSU president Burns Hargis and AD Mike Holder. Oklahoma regents called a special meeting for Wednesday.
Texas and Texas Tech regents meet Tueday, and OU and OSU sources have said they will follow Texas' lead The Big 12's board of regents has a conference call scheduled for Thursday.
Beebe said last week he had spoken with consultants and network analysts who assured him that a renegotiated Big 12 television package would be every bit as lucrative as those in the Big Ten ($22 million per school last year), the SEC ($17 million) and even Scott's proposal for an enlarged Pac-10 ($20-25 million).
On Sunday, Beebe's plan was detailed by Orangebloods.com through unnamed sources. His proposal, starting with a renegotiated deal with Fox Sports Net next year, would pay schools $17 million starting in 2012, according to Orangebloods.com.
Also, Beebe expects to get liquidation penalties from the departure of Colorado and Nebraska — money withheld from those schools' television revenues over the next two years — in excess of $20 million. That money would be distributed to the remaining 10 schools.
And perhaps most significantly, Beebe's plan would allow for schools to pursue their own television networks.
Lastly, a 10-team Big 12 would mean nine scheduled league games, which would alleviate schools having to pay a huge guarantee to try to acquire a fourth nonconference foe.
"My plan is about what's best for the citizens in this part of the country and for the student-athletes and not having this section of the country with all its major institutions connected to conferences that aren't even here," Beebe told Orangebloods.com. "We shouldn't be a fly-over zone."
Another key could be Texas A&M. The Aggies are reportedly split between the Pac-10 and SEC, though AD Bill Byrne, mirroring comments from Texas AD DeLoss Dodds, has said his first priority is to keep the Big 12 together. The Houston Chronicle reported Sunday that A&M is expected to choose the SEC, though school spokesman Jason Cook said the Aggies are evaluating and "all options continue to be on the table."
A statement by A&M president R. Bowen Loftin said with the departure of Colorado and Nebraska last week, "the Big 12 is certainly not what it was," and said the school was "aggressively exploring our options, one of which is for the Big 12 to continue in some form," and acknowledged the school has had "extensive discussions with other conferences in the past two days."
SportsIllustrated.com reports that presidents at Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech have accepted invitations to appear Wednesday at a hearing before the Texas House of Representatives subcommittee on higher education to "make the case for why change is going to be a good thing," said State Rep. Dan Branch (R-Dallas).
Late Sunday night, the Austin American Statesman reported that Big 12 schools thinking about leaving for the Pac-10 must wait until after the Texas legislature's hearing, and that the Pac-10 has issued a Friday deadline for schools to decide.
The Kansas City Star on Sunday quoted an unnamed source close to the situation as saying the Big 12's chances are "significantly greater than 24 hours ago."
The Star also reported that officials at Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri and Baylor voted unanimously via conference call they would prefer to continue in the Big 12.