Orangebloods.com's Chip Brown reports that Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe is working on an enchanced TV package that would entice the remaining members of Big 12 to stay together as a 10-team league once Colorado and Nebraska officially exit.
The key to the proposal would be increasing the payout to each school from $7-$10 million to $17 million annually, a level that the 12 Southeastern Conference schools enjoy.
But each Big 12 school would also be permitted to pursue its own television network, which appeals to the Texas Longhorns.
Meanwhile, there are multiple reports that SEC commissioner Mike Slive was in College Station on Saturday as Texas A&M officials wrestle with going west with Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to the Pac-10 or head east to the SEC. Brown reports that the regents votes appeared to line up 6-3 for the SEC, but with A&M carefully weighing a decision to cut ties wiith Texas.
Texas Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, was quoted in an article on the Houston Chronicle website that the SEC makes more sense for Texas A&M fans: “You can road trip to Mississippi,” he said. “You can't really do that to California.”
On the other hand, you can't see the University of Texas being part of a conference with the Mississippi schools. Maybe some of the recruiting success Texas and OU have had in luring California players to the heartland explains why those school look west to the future.
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