In what has the appearance of a move of sheer desperation, Texas Tech University President Lawrence Schovanec, Baylor University President Linda Livingstone, and Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby met by videoconference Sunday afternoon with University of Oklahoma President Joe Harroz and University of Texas President Jay Hartzell to discuss the Sooners’ and Longhorns’ impending move to the SEC.
"“The meeting was cordial, and the Executive Committee expressed a willingness to discuss proposals that would strengthen the Conference and be mutually beneficial to OU and UT, as well as the other member institutions of the Conference,” Bowlsby stated. “I expect that we will continue our conversations in the days ahead and we look forward to discussing thoughts, ideas and concepts that may be of shared interest and impact.”"
One has to wonder if this meeting was just a courtesy on behalf of the Texas and Oklahoma leadership who were willing to hear the Big 12 Executive Committee out like a spouce who has already decided to file for divorce may give their partner one last chance to plead their case while knowing all along that the dye has been cast.
Many Texas Tech fans would like prefer that Schovanec concentrate more on finding a suitable landing spot for his university rather than trying to plug holes in a dam that is certainly failing. But for now, it appears that this conference is still willing to kowtow to its two disgruntled blue-blood programs and it’s been reported that the league is willing to give UT and OU an even more disproportiate share of the conference pie than they already receive, which would seem to only exacerbate the problems that got us into the current situation to begin with.
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But even then, the league still won’t be able to match what the SEC is going to be able to offer. Such an offer would improve those two schools annual payout to over $56 million, almost $20 million more than each member school received this past academic year. Still, that number most likely won’t be high enough to top what the SEC will offer.
For right now, the Big 12 is certainly on life support and this meeting was an essential move by the conference as eventhough the league appears certain to see OU and Texas jump ship, due dilligance had to be done in order to see if there’s any way the league can be salvaged in its current iteration.
Perhaps the hope is just that Texas and OU could be kept in the fold until the conference’s grant of media rights expires in 2025. That would at least guarantee the other eight programs in the league a payout of nearly $150 million as the deal currently stands. That would be a nice nest egg to put away while allowing the other schools in the conference ample time to find soft landing spots.
Of course, Texas and OU have shown that they have no interest in doing what is best for the rest of the schools in the Big 12 so why would anyone expect them to throw their conference bretheren a bone now? Ultimately, this train is much too far down the tracks to turn around now and it would be stunning for Texas and OU to suddenly have a change of heart. But at least Schovanec and the Big 12 Executive Committee can say they did something to try to right the ship. It’s just too bad they waited until it was already sunk before taking action.