PAC 16 UPDATE

Within the last 36 hours, Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott has visited Oklahoma City, College Station, Lubbock and Austin and met with officials from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. He is expected to fly to Kansas City and meet with Kansas officials, but that may not take place until tomorrow.

Scott spent approximately three hours in Lubbock and met with Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance, President Guy Bailey, Athletic Director Gerald Myers and other university officials at Jones AT&T Stadium. We likely won't know anything officially until Tuesday, when Texas Tech's Board of Regents is expected to vote on the Pac-10's invitation.

Level has been hitting the phones in a big way since this afternoon, and this is what we've learned of Texas Tech's meeting with Scott.

* The dollar figures that Scott shared regarding the proposed Pac-10 Network was described to us as "staggering," and notably more than the $17 million/year member institutions receive in the SEC.

* Texas A&M is in no way tied to Texas or Texas Tech in this deal. While the Pac-10 would like to add them as well, Scott will move on with or without them.

* Every source we spoke with emphasized how very, very beneficial this move would be to the entire university, not just athletics.

* Not much else will likely come out regarding this situation until Texas and Texas Tech's Boards of Regents meet on Tuesday



Looks like its a GO what is everyones thoughts?????

I trust Kent Hance as much as I trust Daryl Morey- In Kent we trust

Here is Where the current BIG12 commish stands at the moment.


It might be a long shot. It's probably the last shot.

But three different sources at Big 12 South schools being targeted by the Pac-10 told Orangebloods.com Sunday commissioner Dan Beebe's assurances that a new TV deal can be reached on par with the SEC's $17 million/school for the 10 remaining schools in the Big 12 is in play and being considered by Texas.


Associated Press

Dan Beebe's plan says the Big 12-Lite can get to $17 mil/school in its next TV deal in 2011.
The stakes for Beebe to somehow rescue the Big 12-Lite seemed to get a lot higher on Sunday as Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott and chief operating officer Kevin Weiberg conducted a tour of Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Texas before flying up to Kansas City (possibly to talk to KU officials).

Orangebloods.com reported Saturday that Texas A&M has the votes on its nine-member Board of Regents to join the Southeastern Conference and could be ready to make that move as early as this week.

So either Texas A&M will consider Beebe's plan to rescue a 10-member Big 12. Or A&M will most likely end 100 years of tradition with rival Texas by heading to the SEC, likely triggering a exodus west of Texas, OU, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and possibly Kansas.

A Big 12 athletic director and two other sources told Orangebloods.com that A&M president R. Bowen Loftin indicated to Scott and Weiberg in a brief meeting in College Station Sunday the Aggies were not interested in joining the Pac-10.

But A&M spokesman Jason Cook refuted that report and said, "Texas A&M continues to evaluate its options. At this point, all options continue to be on the table."

Orangebloods.com was able to confirm with a top source at Texas A&M that despite visits to College Station by SEC commissioner Mike Slive on Saturday and by Scott and Weiberg on Sunday, Aggies athletic director Bill Byrne was out of the state the entire weekend - at a family reunion in Idaho.

"As Bill Byrne and I have said on several occasions, our desire was for the Big 12 Conference to continue," Loftin said in a statement Sunday evening. "With the departure of two universities from the conference last week, the Big 12 is certainly not what it was.

"We are aggressively exploring our options, one of which is for the Big 12 to continue in some form. We have also had extensive discussions with other conferences over the past two days. We continue to evaluate our options in a deliberate manner as we work toward a decision that is in the best long-term interests of Texas A&M."

What a Pac-16 schedule might look like for Big 12 teams
06:20 PM CDT on Saturday, June 12, 2010

By KATE HAIROPOULOS / The Dallas Morning News
khairopoulos@dallasnews.com
Take a trek to Lawrence, Kan., and replace it with Los Angeles. Trade a weekend in Ames, Iowa, for one in Eugene, Ore.

The travel concerns raised by the potential jump of five Big 12 South schools to the Pac-10 aren't about upgrades in hip destinations or aesthetic appeal, but they do involve questions of increased cost for schools and fans, along with potentially more missed class time for athletes.

In order to minimize the downsides of the expansion that would form a conference stretching from College Station to Seattle, most travel would be restricted to divisional competition among two, eight-school divisions or some variation depending on the sport, according to a person familiar with potential expansion models.

In a 16-member conference scenario involving Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma St., the Big 12 South schools would join Arizona and Arizona St. and newly official Pac-10 member Colorado in one division.

Clearly, that's a wider geographical swath to cover than the current Big 12 South, but interdivisional trips to the West Coast and its two-hour time difference would be limited.

Football, played traditionally on Saturdays, would probably be most manageable. The Texas schools would travel to the West Coast once a year for a regular-season game.

For example, Texas A&M could play at USC and host Oregon St. one season and host UCLA and travel to Oregon the next.

This hypothetical scheduling format – which would still need vetting by athletic directors if this expansion indeed takes place – would feature three Non-conf games, seven divisional games, the two, rotating interdivisional conference games and a championship game.

Efforts would be made in scheduling, the source said, to take into account long-standing traditions, such as Texas-OU at the Cotton Bowl during the St. Fair and Texas-Texas A&M on Thanksgiving.

Men's and women's basketball, in the same hypothetical model as football, would rotate between annual trips to California and the Northwest, though the trips would feature two games. Basketball scheduling could also be more vulnerable to what a new TV contract requires.

But it's feasible that the schedule would allow for games – say on a Thursday and a Saturday – against California and Stanford on the same Western swing, or Oregon and Oregon St.. The traditional Pac-10 members are geographically well-suited to providing two games for one trip.

Basketball teams could play a 14-game set of round robin divisional play, along with a single round robin against four interdivisional opponents, creating an 18-game league slate.

In some sports, all regular-season competition could be limited to divisional play. Baseball teams could be broken into three, five-team divisions (Colorado doesn't have a baseball team). Texas, for example, in the East division, would never meet Stanford, in the South division, until the league's postseason.

An expanded Pac-10 could also stage some major, festival-like events surrounding single-event championships, such as track and field.

Prototype Pac-16 schedule
An illustration of what a Texas A&M football schedule could like if the Pac-10 adds five Big 12 South schools, along with new member Colorado. It is based on one model of how the Pac-10 could emerge.

orangebloods.com just reported Texas is likely to remain in the big12 and they are going to try and persuade the other 9 to do the same....

http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1094038

haha, seriously? that would be really anticlimatic