Source: OU headed to Pac-10
University of Oklahoma sources confirmed Friday that the school is headed to the Pac-10 but will wait for Texas to make its intentions known. Oklahoma State sources also have also indicated they’ll follow Texas.
BY BERRY TRAMEL, Staff Writer, btramel@opubco.com
The University of Oklahoma is headed for the Pacific-10 Conference but will wait until Texas declares its intentions, an OU source told The Oklahoman Friday after Nebraska announced it will leave the Big 12 for the Big Ten.
The University of Texas board of regents have scheduled a Tuesday meeting for “discussion and appropriate action regarding athletic conference membership.”
Late Thursday night, OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said he was working to keep the Big 12 (now down to 10 schools) together.
But another Big 12 athletic director told The Oklahoman such a mission “seems like a longshot.”
The conference remains viable for the schools with the Pac-10 option — Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech and Texas A&M — only if Texas decides to stay. Castiglione’s mission to keep the conference together hinges on convincing Dodds to stay.
Good luck with that. A variety of reports have said Dodds told the other Big 12 athletic directors during conference meetings last week that without Nebraska, Texas would leave the conference, and a Big 12 AD said Friday that Dodds told him, “We don’t think the Big 12 without Nebraska is real viable.”
An OSU source said his school would wait and watch what Texas does, that OSU is linked to both OU and Texas. “Wherever they go, that’s where we have to go,” the source said. “Texas has the most cards in this, if not all of them.”
A variety of OSU sources, as well as Castiglione, continue to say they’ve had no talks with Pac-10 officials.
Well rats. I was hoping for the SEC option. Course, this is still an unnamed source.
“Late Thursday night, OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said he was working to keep the Big 12 (now down to 10 schools) together.”
Yeah, he said that. But, he also said: “Whether we can convince people that staying together (big 12) is a good option, I don’t know.” Castiglione said he couldn’t comment on whether a 10-team Big 12 would be a better option for OU than the proposed addition of six Big 12 teams to the Pac-10 because he hadn’t seen that proposal and still hadn’t talked with Pac-10 officials. And, then this: “We’re aware of what’s going on,” Castiglione said. “We know we’ll have the opportunity of a couple of other conferences to consider our options.”
Other sources have said that OU has asked the SEC for an invitation. Also, it’s reported that Gene Stallings is pushing for A&M to go to the SEC.
Based upon other reports, it’s pretty clear that UT is the big dog in this and has been throwing it’s weight around. One option now heavily discussed is for UT to go independent. Should that happen, OU and A&M may go to the SEC.