All of the rumors, speculation and innuendo that have connected Oklahoma to the Pac-12? They’re about to get very real. And perhaps official. Maybe.
On Thursday, the OU Board of Regents released their agenda for a meeting that will take place this coming Monday. One of the items on the agenda? “Conference alignment”.
The action proposed in relation to the conference affiliation issue is described as follows, with our emphasis added:
It’s certainly within the realm of possibility that the OU regents could follow the lead of their counterparts at Texas A&M during the meeting, giving school president David L. Boren the power to take action on OU’s conference affiliation. That action, if approved by the regents, would likely entail Boren formally informing the Big 12 of the school’s intent to “make application to join another athletic conference” and formally applying for membership in that conference -- in OU’s case, the Pac-12.
It needs to be made clear that there’s no guarantee the regents will approve Boren to take action on changing OU’s conference affiliation.
And, obviously, given the stance Baylor and other schools in the Big 12 have taken regarding A&M’s desire to move to the SEC, the “potential legal ramifications of athletic conference realignment options” portion of the agenda speaks for itself and will be strongly considered in tandem .
Regardless of what transpires Monday, we should all have a better idea which direction OU will head when it comes to their membership status in the Big 12. And if a huge expansion domino is about to tumble.