The demise of the Big 12 conference may have been greatly exaggerated. The conference certainly has faced its struggles over the last 18 months and is now officially three teams lighter. Should Oklahoma decide to make the move to the Pac-12/14/16, Oklahoma State would surely follow thus delivering the final death blow to the conference. How important it Oklahoma's decision? So much so that officials from the University of Texas flew to Norman a few weeks ago to see what it would take to keep the Sooners around. Oklahoma has officially responded by laying down a mandate and you get the feeling that Texas isn't gonna like it.
The response from Oklahoma was simple, remove Texas' biggest ally within the conference, commissioner Dan Beebe. According to a source within the conference the Sooners are only interested in a reformed Big 12 and will settle for nothing less. Therefore Beebe must go. If not, Oklahoma certainly goes and President Boren as already been given the authority to jump ship and move out west.
Its a clear line drawn in the sand and Oklahoma isn't close to crossing. The other mandate was to put limitations on the Longhorn Network. No one outside of Austin was pleased with the fact that the network was still planning on showing prep highlights even after the conference voted not to allow high school games on school-branded networks. Nor was anyone pleased with the decision to move a conference game from Fox Sports to the Longhorn Network.
The only way to make this a reality is to get a conference commissioner that doesn't cater to the Longhorns but looks out for the best interests of the conference as a whole. That's why targeting Beebe is a first step. The question is, who can they get on board with them?
And the plot thickens!