The University of Oklahoma is now laying out hints of leaving the Big 12 Conference. Whether Oklahoma would really leave the Big 12 is another question, and one to which several other schools in the conference are paying very close attention.
According to ESPN, Oklahoma president David Boren has stated that multiple conferences have shown interest in drawing the Sooners and that a decision will have to be made. He also stated he expects to decide whether to leave the Big 12 or not during the next three weeks, drawing even more attention to the situation. By avoiding the question, Boren might have actually alluded to how unhappy Oklahoma is to be in the Big 12 right now.
Nebraska and Colorado left the conference over the past year and at the end of August it was Texas A&M that made an announcement of departure. The conference is starting to crumble, and losing Texas A&M brings the number of teams to nine. Maybe Oklahoma sees the writing on the wall and doesn’t want to be the only top-tier school left behind as other schools make moves first. This could make the school highly sought after by several conferences that would love to lure Oklahoma away from the Big 12 Conference.
Coming into the first week of the college football season, Oklahoma has been No. 1 at the top of both major polls. This is a school that is about as highly regarded as it gets in the football ranks, especially because of how well Oklahoma is able to draw prospects into the area. That would be a big “get” for a conference like the Big Ten, SEC, or Pac-12, and all three would certainly be expected to send offers to a cash-cow like Oklahoma. What the school has to decide is what would be a better fit than the Big 12 moving forward.
If the Big 12 does end up folding, it will be very interesting to see not just how the other conferences shift to invite more schools, but how the BCS handles the situation. Through September 1, 2011, the Pac-12 has 12 teams, the SEC has 12 teams, and the Big Ten has 12 teams. If Texas A&M goes to the SEC, it then makes sense for the SEC to also want Oklahoma to join the fold and push it back to an even number of teams spread between the two divisions.
The situation in the Big 12 has definitely moved towards becoming volatile and if Oklahoma bails on the conference, the world will start watching Texas very closely.