For Baylor, Ann Richards isn’t walking through that door, but Ken Starr is:
A threat of legal action by Baylor has, at least temporarily, held up Texas A&M’s move to the SEC. The SEC’s presidents voted unanimously Tuesday night to extend an invitation to Texas A&M to become the league’s 13th member, but that invitation is contingent upon all of Texas A&M’s Big 12 counterparts waiving their right to a legal challenge.
A source said Baylor had broken ranks with the remaining Big 12 members, which decided last week to waive their right to legally challenge a move by Texas A&M.
What changed? It’s a little hard to tell without exact time stamps, but:
- The Big 12 commissioners met Sept. 1 and told the SEC Sept. 2 (PDF) that neither the conference nor its member schools would pursue legal action. UPDATE: Or not? (Yet the letter’s text clearly states “the Big 12 and its members will not take any legal action,” emphasis added.) Also see followup posts.
- Late afternoon Sept. 2, before the Baylor-TCU game, Oklahoma’s president said that his university would decide its conference affiliation in the next three weeks. By Sept. 4, Oklahoma’s “sole focus” was on the Pac-12 – and Oklahoma State would be along for the ride. Maybe Texas and Texas Tech, too.
- Reportedly, Oklahoma was fine with a 10-team Big 12…until A&M made its move to disassociate with the conference Aug. 31.
- Oklahoma’s sudden eye-wandering created the impression that the Big 8+4-2-1 was certainly not going to expand, and the remaining glue was falling off.
- Kansas and Kansas State still have each other’s backs. Probably.
Which leads to this today from Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel:
Once A&M bolts the Big 12, the league is likely to fall completely apart. Scenarios and alliances change by the moment, but the four previous mentioned schools are likely to go west. Missouri is said to be on the SEC’s radar as a 14th member. If not, the Big East is reportedly interested in Mizzou, as well as Kansas and Kansas State.
Baylor and Iowa State may be left holding the (empty) bag.
Of course, Baylor had no problem ditching its old Southwest Conference partners back in the 1990s to join the newly formed Big 12. So don’t shed too many tears for the Bears.
Baylor is being ripped for getting lawyers and politicians involved. But Iowa State didn’t in the 1990s, and appears not to be doing so now. (Why not???) Right now, everyone at ISU and related governing structures are quiet. Very quiet. Too quiet.
As for the Big East situation it MIGHT still work out if the SEC goes after West Virginia as Team #14, reopening a space. (The other Big Integer, meanwhile, is sitting back and counting its money.)
I want to be wrong on this. I want to be horribly, completely, absurdly wrong. I will be the first to look back on these posts and breathe a sigh of relief and shake my head at the paranoia. But all I know is what I read in the (online) newspapers. Unless ISU and the Big Ten are running ships more leak-proof than the space shuttle, things look bleak.