Oklahoma regents will discuss conference realignment at a Monday meeting, based on the agenda posted today by school officials.
A decision by the school to leave the Big 12 (likely in conjunction with Oklahoma State), coupled with Texas A&M’s planned move to the Southeastern Conference, could doom the 10-member league.
The OU agenda said regents “will discuss potential legal ramifications of athletic conference realignment options” and “take any appropriate action.” Texas A&M’s SEC invitation, approved last week on a conditional basis, remains in limbo until Baylor and other Big 12 schools waive their rights to legal claims in regard to the move.
Although multiple Big 12 sources have said they expect OU to pursue membership in an expanded Pac-12, Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he remains hopeful about the league’s future because “there’s a legal basis for the Big 12 to go on and, certainly, I would expect that to continue.”
If the Big 12 remained intact for the 2012-13 school year _ without OU, OSU and A&M _ its remaining members could collect substantial withdrawal fees from the three departing schools. Based on projected revenues, league bylaws would call for A&M to forfeit roughly $28 million in revenues to play in the SEC for the 2012 football season. But last year’s departees, Nebraska and Colorado, negotiated departure figures at a much lower rate than those specified under league bylaws.
_ Jimmy Burch
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