LINCOLN — Are this week's Big 12 meetings the most important since the league formed 14 years ago, in light of concern about schools leaving for other conferences?

Or, at the Kansas City InterContinental Hotel, will this be four routine days of paper-shuffling that CEOs, athletic directors and others will never get back?

“I don't know,'' Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne said. “I don't think anyone really does.''

Still, in reviewing the week's work ahead, he wryly suggested that it may pay to “tape your ankles.''

“It could be that a lot of people will lay their cards on the table,'' Osborne said. “Or it could be a lot of them will keep them right close to their vest.''

Nebraska and Missouri are rumored expansion targets of the Big Ten. Colorado has been tied to Pacific-10 expansion speculation. Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe has countered with talk of cooperating with the Pac-10 in a scheduling and television alliance.

“There will be people at those meetings,'' Osborne said, “who, even if they wanted to be totally transparent, couldn't really tell you what is going to happen.

“You can't really legislate or force people to say what they are going to do. It seems like so many things are in a state of flux.''

Beebe said in a recent radio interview that “we need to have a very frank discussion about where we're going and who's going to be on the plane when we take off. I will be very direct.''

So do Osborne and NU Chancellor Harvey Perlman expect a face-to-face challenge from Beebe?

“I don't know what he'll do,'' Osborne said. “I can't predict that until we come to it. I'm sure in Dan Beebe's position that you want to try to determine the landscape the best you can.''

Any final decisions on changing conferences or changing conference bylaws come from the chancellors and presidents. Even then, Osborne said, you don't know if final really means final.

“There may be situations in the Big 12 where there are Boards of Regents, Boards of Governors, political figures and others who enter into it, too,'' he said. “So even though you raise your hand and say, ‘This is what we're going to do,' in the long run, it may not end up being that way.''

Something Osborne said NU officials do want to hear this week is the plan for future television agreements in the Big 12.

“That's of interest to everyone,'' he said. “Everybody is going to go with an open mind.

“I have nothing against the Big 12. I've seen some good things about it. I was a little more comfortable with the Big Eight because I spent so long in the Big Eight.''

Before all the conference expansion talk, the top news item expected to come from this week's meetings was awarding championship sites in football, basketball and baseball for three seasons starting with the 2011-12 school year.

Osborne said it's unclear where those deals stand after the possible conference realignment turmoil.

Nebraska has particular interest in the site of the Big 12 football championship game. The new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, hosted the event last December and will again this season under prior contracts.

Big 12 athletic directors voted overwhelmingly earlier this year in support of keeping the game in Arlington, Osborne said.

But the final vote rests with the league's presidents and chancellors, and their track record has been to staunchly avoid anchoring a football or basketball championship.

The last time championship site contracts were awarded, in 2007, Nebraska's Perlman told The World-Herald:

“There was significant concern about the concept of anchoring. One of the interesting things in this bid cycle is we did not find any significant financial advantage to an anchoring proposal.''

The “wow'' factor of the $1.15 billion Cowboys Stadium, with its jetliner-sized scoreboard and 4,000 televisions, admittedly has turned heads.

“People were kind of caught by the glamour of the new stadium and intrigued by it,'' Osborne said. “It's very nice. There's no question about that.

“In the interest of equity, you'd like to see the game played occasionally in the North Division because it is the single most important sporting event in the Big 12 in terms of dollars and media attention.''

Osborne said he feels he has “said his piece'' on the issue.

“If it's the will of the group to play in Arlington the next three years, we'll go down there and play as hard as we can,'' he said. “It isn't like we're going to pout.

“The major concern was for the fans. For most Nebraskans, it's about a 10-hour drive, and for some more like 11 or 12 hours. And it is pretty expensive down there. So we'll see.''

Contact the writer:

444-1024, lee.barfknecht@owh.com

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