Leave it to Oklahoma president David Boren, to date the loudest and most adamant opinion sharer in the Big 12 expansion saga, to flip this thing on its head the other direction.
Talking with reporters on Thursday in Norman, Oklahoma, Boren gave a very feet-on-the-ground, rooted-in-reality indication of exactly where the Big 12 Conference stands — at least through his eyes — concerning the idea of expansion.
His message, in short: “I think we kind got out ahead of ourselves,” Boren told reporters. “Somehow, the speculation got out ahead of the reality.”
[CBSsports.com’s Dennis Dodd wrote this terrific recap of Boren’s meeting with the media,][1] and, although the OU president’s comments don’t by any means put an end to the idea of expansion, they certainly bring things back a level or two and further promote the idea that nothing, perhaps other than more discussion, is imminent.
During the past week or so you’ve read a lot about the universities who have done the most “campaigning” for a spot in an expanded Big 12. [ESPN.com revealed that representatives from Memphis, Colorado State, Houston and Central Florida all recently contacted leaders in the Big 12][2] about the idea of joining the conference and went out of their way to explain what they could offer the Big 12 if selected.
However, one of the most interesting aspects of Boren’s Thursday briefing was his claim that as many as 25 universities have contacted the Big 12 in some way, shape or form to make known their interest in joining the conference in the future.
For a conference that so many claim is so vulnerable, that’s an awful lot of interest. Sure, all of those schools currently reside outside of the Power 5 — at least I presume that’s the case — but it’s clear that all of them see great value in the Big 12. Even if many of them also are reaching out to the Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC and ACC, it at least has to be considered a good sign that the Big 12 is still seen from the outside to be on the same level as those other conferences. And why wouldn’t it be? Uncertain future or not, the Big 12 still includes some serious power players in college athletics and has growing television deals worth big bucks with the nation’s biggest networks.
Just as Boren’s comments about the need to expand did not make it happen overnight, his most recent words of caution about putting the cart before the horse do not mean that expansion talk is going away.
What those words do mean, however, is that, before this thing is all said and done the Big 12 may actually wind up stronger than ever before.
There’s still a lot of work to be done and plenty of wrinkles to smooth out before getting to that point — expansion still looms, the Longhorn Network/Big 12 Network issue is very real and talk of bringing back a Big 12 title game in football doesn’t figure to go away quietly — but if a guy like Boren can come around like this in a relatively short period of time, there’s no reason to think the Big 12 Conference’s other most pressing issues can’t be taken care of as well.
“This is the kind of decision that has to be reached by consensus,” Boren said of expansion. “It’s not the kind of thing you say, “OK, by a vote of 8-2, we’re going to do this.'”
Bingo.
I know the 80 percent vote, though a lot, is all it would take to get certain items crossed off of the Big 12’s potential to-do or want-to-do list. But, if you ask me, it would be a wonderful show of solidarity if the conference demanded — either in writing or otherwise — that all issues up for a vote require unanimous support to pass.
That not only would ensure that any changes would be of an all-for-one-and-one-for-all mentality, but also would put the conference on more stable footing than ever heading into the future.
[1]: http://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/behind-the-hype-oklahoma-president-calms-down-big-12-expansion-talk
[2]: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/15502359/documents-show-big-12-flirting-houston-memphis-ucf-colorado-state-expansion
