The Big 12 will "not be adding any new members, ending a three-month expansion exploration with a decision that the league is better off with its current 10 members for now," according to Pete Thamel of SI.com. This "marks the end -- for now anyway -- of a protracted and public three-month period in which the league engaged with 20 potential schools, interviewed 11 of them and concluded at the end it was best off with no new members." Meanwhile, the addition of a conference championship game to the Big 12’s television contract "essentially opens a window for the league’s TV partners, ESPN and Fox, to construct a new contract that would include more money for the current schools." Neither ESPN nor Fox was "pleased that the Big 12 was going to use the pro rata clause in its current deal to get" an additional $25M per school. The conclusion to not expand "allows the league to potentially get more revenue and eliminate the pro rata clause from the television deal" (SI.com, 10/17). Oklahoma President and Big 12 BOD Chair David Boren said that the decision was "unanimous and no specific schools were discussed or voted on during five hours or so of expansion talk while Big 12 presidents and chancellors met" Sunday night and yesterday. Boren said that his interest in expansion was "tied to his desire for the Big 12 to start a television network." Once it was determined that the market was "not there for a network, his interest in expansion cooled" (AP, 10/17). Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said the process became "perhaps a little more of a sweepstakes than we thought it would be at the very beginning." Boren noted the conference would not completely close the door on expansion, but said, "We do feel it would be wrong to indicate it is an active agenda item. We don’t feel a need to expand for expansion’s sake" (K.C. STAR, 10/18).
STANDING TOGETHER: Bowlsby said that there was "more unity 'in this set of meetings than ever before.'" Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard said, "I feel really confident about the solidarity of the league. I look forward to moving ahead, now that this issue is behind us" (DES MOINES REGISTER, 10/18). OU AD Joe Castiglione said that the "definitive vote against expansion and vote of confidence by league presidents mirror the cooperation" among ADs (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 10/18).
CERTAIN UNCERTAINTY: USA TODAY's Goerge Schroeder writes the Big 12 presidents "made the right call." Given the available candidates, if the goal was to "strengthen and solidify the weakest of the Power Five conferences, expansion was never the right answer." Expansion also "would not have changed anything" unless the league's members "also agreed to an extension of their media grant of rights," which did not happen. Regardless of the number of member teams, the Big 12’s future "still comes down to what happens a few years from now, when Texas and Oklahoma evaluate their options" (USA TODAY, 10/18). In Tulsa, Guerin Emig writes the Big 12 "actually arrived at a sound decision to stand pat." But what happened yesterday "won't be enough to save the conference in another eight years when its grant of rights expires" (TULSA WORLD, 10/18). In Oklahoma City, Berry Tramel in a front-page piece writes if Big 12 schools "believe in this conference," they should "extend the grant of rights." A "true commitment to the Big 12 would be OU and Texas extending the grant of rights." Tramel: "You can't blame the Sooners and Longhorns for holding off. They need to know what shape this league will be in five years from now" (OKLAHOMAN, 10/18). In Ft. Worth, Jimmy Burch notes Boren characterized a rights extension as "something that does not need to be addressed until the current deals approach their expiration dates." Burch: "If I’m an administrator from one of the league’s eight schools not named Texas or OU, I’d be concerned by that stance as I pondered the long-term future of this league now that expansion has been scuttled" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 10/18).
