KANSAS CITY, Mo. — So what time does Dan Beebe's 5 o'clock press conference start?
We're still waiting to find out because after 10 hours of meetings Thursday at the InterContinental Hotel, the Big 12 commissioner:
• Declined to enter the media room as scheduled.
• Declined to answer questions about the day's events.
• Declined any comment, other than to say the board of directors has nothing to say until Friday.
• Declined to engage those who pressed for answers by hopping a nearby elevator and vanishing.
All of which makes me wonder if the Big 12 Conference is in the final stages of decline.
Blowing off 50 media members looked really, really poor — especially on a day when reports came out about the potential for further conference expansion nationwide.
Orangebloods.com, a rivals Internet site that covers Texas athletics, wrote that the Pacific 10 Conference is prepared to invite six Big 12 schools to join (Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Colorado).
The writer, Chip Brown, is a former Texas beat writer for the Dallas Morning News and a respected long-time college writer.
Among the details in his report: That those six Big 12 schools would join Arizona and Arizona State in one division, with all other Pac-10 schools in a second eight-team grouping.
Early Thursday evening, respected veteran writer Kyle Ringo of the Boulder Daily Camera reported that Colorado Athletic Director Mike Bohn believes the Pac-10 will invite those six Big 12 schools. Bohn didn't detail how he came to that conclusion.
The World-Herald learned Thursday evening of administrative discussion that the Pac-10 may have set a deadline of Sunday for Big 12 teams to accept. The Pac-10 spring meetings begin Friday in San Francisco.
Late Thursday afternoon, Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott issued a statement, saying first that his league continues to look at options to increase its value.
“We have not developed any definitive plans,'' Scott said. “We have not extended any invitations for expansion, and we do not anticipate any such decision in the near term.''
Please notice what Scott didn't say.
He didn't say the Pac-10 would stand pat. Saying that you “do not anticipate'' to act is a wonderful phrase that provides cover for all sorts of activity in circumstances like these.
The timing of the Pac-10 expansion talk really cranks up the pressure on an already-stressed Big 12.
Somebody should have reminded Beebe and Texas President William Powers, who is chairman of the league's board of directors, that in today's world, an attack unanswered is an attack believed.
Maybe that's how Powers wants it, as it is believed Beebe's bosses ordered the commissioner to keep his lips zipped Thursday.
Texas wants the Big 12 to survive. The league has allowed the Longhorn athletic empire to thrive. Entry into a 16-team conference with heavy travel would make it harder to dominate the conversation and win championships, besides opening Texas' prime recruiting territory to even more suitors.
Then if you buy the evilness-of-Texas theory — as a lot of Nebraska fans do — you would believe the following:
The Longhorns would want Pac-10 expansion speculation to percolate unanswered as a way to ramp up the pressure on Nebraska and Missouri to recommit to the Big 12 and quit listening to the Big Ten.
Nebraska's Tom Osborne, after the final athletic directors' meeting Thursday afternoon, wanted no part of the discussion. He politely ducked away, saying, “I defer to the board of directors.''
Big 12 A.D.s Gerald Myers of Texas Tech and Joe Castiglione of Oklahoma said they were unaware of the Pac-10 expansion reports, and they denied knowledge of such interaction.
“I really don't know what has been speculated,'' Castiglione said. “But if it's anything like what has been out there previously, it continues to be more and more conjecture and more and more guesswork.''
So have the Pac-10 and Oklahoma talked about getting together?
“Not yet,'' Castiglione said, “and hopefully I don't have to.''
And what about Nebraska and the Big Ten? Nobody knows for sure.
But two Husker scholarship athletes said recently their coaches have given them a heads-up about a move to the Big Ten being more than smoke. Also, a couple of recent NU job candidates said they were asked during interviews about their recruiting ties in Minneapolis, Chicago and Milwaukee.
It doesn't take a press conference to see where this might be heading.
Contact the writer:
444-1024, lee.barfknecht@owh.com
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