(06-11-2014 01:58 PM)3601 Wrote: [ -> ]We've all heard the stories about the Big XII leftovers doing something to stay afloat if OU and Texas had bolted.
Turns out the stories were true...except for the part about Memphis being included in the plan?
Not completely accurate. There were two different time frames. Luck is talking about the second one, and we WERE left out, in 2011. But there was an earlier one, in the spring of 2010.
Luck's version was simply one of several scenarios that were discussed at one point or another in 2010 and again in 2011, and no, it did not include us in 2011, but it doesn't negate the one we were discussing in 2010.
Actually, there were 3 versions of possible realignment scenarios involving the Big East, the B12, and/or us. Luck's was the last one, chronologically.
The first was in spring of 2010. Texas, TTU, Baylor, A&M, OU and OSU were threatening to go to the Pac 12. The Big East (Tranghese and Marinatto, not Oliver Luck), approached all the potential left behinds of the B12, and tried to get them to join the Big East. At that time, Missouri was theoretically being left behind, too.
This also was occurring at a time when the B12 leftovers were not sure they could stay together as the B12, and still retain their AQ status. At some point in those negotiations, Kansas and the other B12 teams discovered they could rebuild the B12 and still retain AQ, so that squashed the Big East merger idea, for the first time.
Right after that, the B12 first approached us, in May or early June of 2010. Kansas, KSU, ISU, Baylor and Missouri contacted Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis and UCF about joining the rebuilt B12. All the ADs of those schools met in Miami at an admin conference to discuss reforming the B12. They discussed building to 12 teams, but I never knew who the other 3 candidates were.
This was the plan that was in place, if Texas and the others bolted for the Pac 10, and was what got RC and Fred Smith and Shirley Raines so excited. Then at the last minute, Texas didn't jump, and that killed it.
Then, Scenario #2, we started talking to the Big East about joining there, along with UCF, in late June/early July of 2010. We were assured by Tranghese that they had the votes to admit us. At the last minute, somebody changed their vote, and it was tabled. A few weeks later, in September, the BE added TCU, instead.
Then, late the next summer, in 2011, is the scenario Oliver Luck is referring to. This time, Texas Oklahoma, OSU, and TTU were trying to head to the Pac 12 again. A&M was talking to the SEC. Can't recall where Missouri was at that point.
Anyway, Luck apparently had contacted the B12 schools who could get left out, to merge with the Big East, but again, nobody ever moved west. He's right, Memphis was not included in this version, and UCF was. I recall Pitino talking about it, but not to the extent that Luck revealed. It also was odd that Marinatto was left out of the discussions.
After that, TCU and WVU soon went to the B12, and then the Big East started inviting Boise, SDSU, etc. Then we got invited to the BE in February of 2012.
So, both versions actually happened, one year apart.