Oklahoma Sooners in the Big Ten? Closer to Reality Than You May Have Thought

Back in 2010 when all the conference realignment talk commanded the sports headlines and schools began jumping overboard to avoid being left behind on a sinking ship, the Oklahoma Sooners were one of the schools considering life in another league.

In the late summer of 2011, University of Oklahoma president David Boren became a lightning rod around the Big 12 for comments he made suggesting that OU was strongly considering a move to the Pac-12 that would also have included Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State and all but been the end of the Big 12 Conference.

Even before that, there were reports that the Southeastern Conference might be interesting in bringing aboard Oklahoma – and why wouldn’t they? The bigger issue was if the football dominant Sooners were even half-way interested in making life even more difficult by competing in college football’s strongest league.

Nov 22, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners running back Samaje Perine (32) runs past Kansas Jayhawks cornerback Dexter McDonald (12) and scores a touchdown during the game at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

“To be the best, you have to play the best,” as coach Bob Stoops likes to say, but it is also prudent to be careful what you ask for

Whether OU officials would have seriously considered such a move is open to conjecture, but the prevailing wisdom indicated no, which may have made it much easier for Missouri and Texas A&M to fly the coup for the perceived greener pastures of the SEC.

According to a column by sportswriter Lee Barfknecht in today’s edition of the Omaha World-Herald, there was even an attempt by a group of five Big 12 schools to realign themselves with the Big Ten Conference before Nebraska was formally invited in 2010 to leave the Big 12 and affiliate with the Big Ten. That group included the University of Oklahoma.

Barfknecht reported that a Big 12 athletic director, who asked to remain anonymous, revealed to him that a group of schools from the Big 12 that included Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Kansas and Iowa State made more than a casual pass to the Big Ten to determine the northern conference’s interest in bringing in the aforementioned schools and form a West Division.

“I think it is something we should strive for while we have the time, stability, all of that to look and be choosy.” —David Boren, OU President, on the Big 12 expanding to 12 teams

The proposition at the time was that the five Big 12 schools would join with existing Big Ten members Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin to make up the West Division of the conference.

Ultimately, the parties could not agree on a revenue-sharing plan, according to Barfknecht’s Big Ten source, so nothing came of the idea, except for, of course, Nebraska deciding on its own afterwards to leave the Big 12 for the Big Ten.

An interesting twist to this story is that the University of Missouri ultimately left the Big 12, along with Texas A&M, in 2012 for the SEC, but Missouri officials publicly made it know that they would have preferred to have been asked to join the Big Ten. Here’s the rub: According to Barfkneckt’s article, Missouri wasn’t even one of the Big 12 schools that was talking with the Big Ten about realignment back in 2010.

Many around college sports believe that conference realignment is far from a dead issue, and the Big 12 with just 10 teams and no conference championship in football is still ripe for the picking if the other power conferences decide to grow once more.

The World-Herald’s Barfknecht suggests that the Big Ten may still be interested in expanding to 16 schools at some future point, and that the conference has already “done its homework” on Oklahoma and Kansas.

My guess is that if the Big Ten were to entertain expansion talks in the future, Oklahoma would be welcomed with open arms if the Sooners were so inclined to give up on the future of the Big 12. Kansas might not be an attractive football partner, but there is no question that the Jayhawks’ basketball brand would be a huge cache for the Big Ten.

Back in the present, however, OU president Boren is back in the news again after last week’s Big 12 Football Media Days in Dallas. Boren took the opportunity during the annual Big 12 preseason football gathering for the media to reiterate his public stance that the Big 12 should expand to a 12-team league.

“I think it is something we should strive for while we have the time, stability, all of that to look and be choosy,” the OU president has said on more than once occasion. “(We) can be very selective about who we want to add. It would have to add value to the conference.”

Boren’s comments have sparked criticism from some Big 12 coaches and administrators, including conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby.

“I have not got the indication that the majority of our presidents feel that way,” said Bowlsby in response to Boren’s comments regarding future Big 12 expansion. “I think our presidents individually have their own opinions on things. President Boren has expressed his.”