Gee questions the public process that led to the Big 12 sticking with 10 teams after expansion talksGETTY IMAGES
Incoming Big 12 BOD Chair E. Gordon Gee has his own "checklist as he heads into the conference's spring meetings" this week in Irving, though it is "not as ambitious" as outgoing Chair David Boren's foray into expansion and a football title game, according to Chuck Carlton of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. Gee, also president at West Virginia, said, "My goal has been to solidify the conference. ... Because we're small, we really have to do a great culture. We need to think together. We don't need to have divisions in the house. I work very hard on that." Carlton noted Gee was an "advocate for Big 12 expansion two years ago, although he now questions the public process that eventually led to the conference standing pat with 10 teams." Gee said, "I'm not certain it was the best way to do it. It was a little bit messy -- and I was part of the mess." Gee said that there is "upside to being the smallest power conference." Gee: "Intimacy gives us an opportunity to do something that a lot of other places can't do." Meanwhile, Gee still sees the "possibility of significant national realignment sometime in the next decade" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 5/27). Gee said, "We’ll remain very healthy as a league. I think we’ll negotiate very good contracts. ... For many reasons I feel good about where we are." He added, "Understand the Big Ten has 14 teams. Yes, I think the gap between the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 is starting to close. But what you need to more watch is what happens in about eight years, when the TV contracts are up" (CHARLESTON GAZETTE-MAIL, 5/29).
