Its officially time to unpack those bags ladies and gentlemen. The Oklahoma Sooners aren't going anywhere and neither is the Big 12. University president, David Boren, announced this evening that in a teleconference the Big 12 presidents accepted the resignation of conference commissioner Dan Beebe and begin the process of "reforming" the Big 12.
Among those reforms discussed was unanimously accepting old Big 8 commissioner Chuck Neinas as the interim commissioner. Also, in a show of stability and commitment each school was asked to support a grant of rights for the next six years. That means that if any school were to leave the Big 12 their television revenue would stay with the conference, thus making any of the nine remaining schools unwantable to any other conference.
The final thing that was accomplished today was the activation of the expansion committee and begin the process of adding teams to the conference. This is why the grant of rights was so important because it shows the stability of the conference with teams committed for at least another six years. The current television deal expires in five years so the grant of rights will extend into the next contract.
Obviously this isn't the popular choice among Sooner fans who were excited for the bright lights of the west coast but it is what it is and with five current conference teams currently ranked in the top 25 I refuse to believe that the Big 12 is weak sauce. So...who are we gonna add?
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