Well, it's been an interesting Monday morning thus far. Say what you will about the insanity in the college football world at the moment.... at least it's done a good job of livening up that morning coffee break!
Today we have an... odd scenario on our hands. Essentially, according to various sources in the Texas camp, the Big 12 either is or isn't about to die. Perhaps as early as today, we will hear announcements that both Texas is committed to keeping the Big 12 alive and that Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State are are headed to the Pac-10 (with Texas A&M to the SEC)....
Wait...... huh?
Chip Brown, he of "Texas to the Pac-10... in the next 5 minutes!" is tweeting that Texas has either accepted Dan Beebe's plan to keep the Big 12 together as a 10 school conference, or that they've accepted the idea of coming to the table (I wonder if the table is round....) to discuss the possibility of keeping the Big 12 together. He writes,
Here is the latest bombshell in college realignment: Texas willing to commit to 10-member Big 12. ..
My sources say Texas is committed to coming to the table with the 10 remaining B12 schools to see if there's consensus for the Beebe plan.
I'm not backing off this story about Texas willing to commit to a remodeled Big 12.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the twitter-verse, Joe Schad, of ESPN, says his Texas sources tell him that departure for the Pac-10 could occur literally at any second. All we know is that it is "imminent." They may decide to sneak up on us and issue a press release in the middle of the night. (Given what else has happened this week, would that really be THAT crazy? I didn't think so.)
The departure of Texas, Texas Tech, OU and OSU to Pac-10 is imminent, four Big 12 sources say
So far, we've had the news on Texas changing practically every hour, but we've never yet had it be the case that two completely contradictory plans are floating out there at the same moment in time. Unless they aren't contradictory...
Perhaps Texas' commitment to a "remodeled" Big 12 just means that Texas is committed to the Big 12 still existing.... without them. Sort of like in the demise of a relationship when one party says to the other that they only want them to be happy..... as long as that happiness doesn't involve them. Right.
The oddest aspect of all of this is that the person suggesting that Texas is NOT moving to the Pac-10 is Chip Brown, who previously was completely committed to that idea.
I still think that's it's more likely that Texas leaves than stays. Dan Beebe may be selling the conference schools on the idea that they could get almost double what they're getting now from their TV contracts, but that's an awfully big increase in one year. He'd really have to present some hard information to make that kind of a leap credible to the big money generating schools like Texas.
At the same time, if Texas A&M leaps for the SEC, does that change things? As I wrote yesterday, it's hard to see how a 9 member Big 12 can keep Texas from leaving. At that point, with three other schools already gone, Texas has all the cover in the world it needs to move to greener pastures without being accused of destroying the conference. Perhaps this "considering" of the Big 12 deal is just a stalling tactic to get Texas A&M to make the first move....