Also, since I mentioned FrankTheTank (who was at the forefront of some of the most accurate realignment conjecture out there, including building the case for why it was going to be Nebraska, and not Mizzery, getting a B1G nod back in 2010), h
ere's some more articles and insight from his latest piece (July 29):
Included in the piece is
*another* OU Beat Writer Tramel love note to the B1G, courtesy the ESPN garbage that suggested DoNU would want to go back to the Big XII. Of note:
Academic standing does a play huge role in most conference realignment. I know that when OU and OSU were considering jumping to the Pac-12, the academic side of OU (and I assume OSU) was thrilled at the prospect of joining a conference that included the likes of Stanford and Cal-Berkeley.
I would have liked to read more about Nebraska and the AAU, which unceremoniously kicked out Nebraska from the association in 2011. Some speculate that the Big Ten would not have invited Nebraska without its standing in the AAU. I know that one of Boren’s long-term goals is to get OU admitted to the AAU.
The FtT article has tweets from d!(k Weiss regarding the Fox Sports column supporting the notion of KU and OU moving to the B1G, but then clarifies that it's a column, and not indicative of Fox Sports itself (read: CYA).
Just remember that Fox Sports is a majority shareholder in the Big Ten Network, has the Big Ten Title Game, and is rumored to be aggressively going after Tier 1 games to minimize or lock ESPN out of B1G content (especially since Fox wants to push most to all of the Tier 2 content to the Big Ten Network, where there's a better return, fiscally speaking.)
And FtT also addresses that this recent blitz isn't just PR by OU to force the Big XII to act:
David Boren’s comments about wanting Big 12 expansion with the “right schools” was more of a warning shot to the rest of the league because, frankly, the “right schools” wouldn’t ever take a Big 12 invite.
If I were running the Big Ten, it’s time to take advantage of one of those rare moments where a national football brand name is essentially begging for offers. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: if we assume that Texas, Notre Dame and ACC schools are off the table, then the single most valuable expansion that the Big Ten can have at this point is adding Oklahoma and Kansas.
Also, one more important point that is brought up in the comments section of this article.
Kansas has been riding shotgun in at least 90% of the scenarios presented for realignment. We've heard from Oklahoma (directly via AD and indirectly), as well as Texass (indirectly)...
so for Kansas to be eerily silent on this is rather suggestive.
Perhaps Kansas is farther along in the process than OU/UT (e.g. agreement in principle?, NDA?) and are merely silent until they figure out who their moving buddy is...
