KANSAS CITY — From here on out, the Big 12 Conference is going into stealth mode. Around noon on Friday, Commissioner Dan Beebe wrapped up his final news conference of the week, and while he delivered some closure to the Big 12 meetings, very little about this story has been resolved.
First, a bit of news to report: The conference will distribute $139 million in league-generated revenue from 2009-10, an increase of approximately $9 million from last year’s total.
Also, the Big 12 Board of Directors awarded championship game sites to various cities — all the same locations that currently host the championship games. Technically, the board has only granted the Big 12 permission to negotiate with the following cities:
Football: Cowboys Stadium (Arlington, Texas), 2011-13
Men’s basketball: Sprint Center (Kansas City), 2012-14
Women’s basketball: Municipal Auditorium (Kansas City), 2012-13
Baseball: Bricktown Ballpark (Oklahoma City), 2012-14
Soccer: Blossom Soccer Stadium (San Antonio), 2011-12
As for the rest of the business conducted by the board on Friday, Beebe didn’t reveal much. Essentially, the board has decided on a process to manage the alignment issue, but it will be handled confidentially. Beebe would not spell out any timetable established by the board. He said the board’s next scheduled meeting is set for October.
"The process that was set is firm, but I’m not going to engage in what that is," he said.
"I am optimistic by nature," he added. "And I’m encouraged by the discussions and the course of action. … I think there’s more clarity, but I’m not going to go further."
Asked several times about reports that the Pac-10 is prepared to ransack the Big 12, Beebe sounded neither surprised nor overly concerned. "I don’t blame those other conferences for looking at our institutions … because they’re valuable institutions with their history and traditions," he said.
Beebe mentioned more than once that he and SEC Commissioner Mike Slive and ACC Commissioner John Swofford have come to the conclusion that 12-member conferences are the best model for college sports and that anything bigger than 12 is not optimal. "To tinker with it would be a risk," he said. Though Beebe also said he wasn’t necessarily opposed to expanding the Big 12 beyond its current membership.
Now, why exactly did Beebe skip Thursday’s press conference when he had little to actually discuss on Friday? From what I’ve gathered talking to people in the Big 12, the league was flustered by the Pac-10 report, then further agitated that Colorado AD Mike Bohn went rogue and gave the Orangebloods.com story some credibility with his comments to the Boulder Daily Camera. (Side note, upon arriving in Denver Thursday night, Bohn was bombarded with questions about his comments to the Boulder paper.
Later, he re-confirmed to the writer everything the initial story reported.)
Texas President Bill Powers, the designated spokesman for the board, was originally expected to address reporters on Thursday and again on Friday but apparently ducked out of town to catch an earlier flight. Powers, of course, is ensnared in his own interesting situation these days, reports the Columbus Dispatch.
Among the emails between Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee and Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany obtained by the Dispatch, I thought this was the most interesting. To Delany, Gee wrote on April 19 he was "of the mind that we control our destiny at the moment, but the window will soon close on us. Agility and swiftness of foot is our friend."
Delany responded: "We are fast-tracking it but need to know the $ and observe contracts. Also need to make sure we leverage this to increase chances of hr additions. Finally double chess # of moving parts including not harming brand as we executy."
By hr, I think we can assume Delany meant home run, as in a home run addition, as in a school like Texas or Notre Dame. This reminds me of what a person in the Big Ten told me a few weeks ago: "Missouri is not a home run by itself." Not exactly an earth shattering comment, but Delany’s email probably suggests he’s been fishing for a big catch all along.
OK, enough for one day. The Panic on the Plaza seems to have subsided … and probably migrated to the Big 12’s home office in Dallas. I’ll have more on the meetings, including some comments from Missouri Chancellor Brady Deaton, in Saturday’s Tribune, plus another piece in Sunday’s paper, as well as an Emptying the Notebook item on the blog early next week.
Farwell, KC. Hello, I-70.
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