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Dave Sittler: Boren holds reins; steering OU to Pac-12
Indianofs.blogspot.com
Dave Sittler: Boren holds reins; steering OU to Pac-12, But neither athletic director Joe Castiglione nor football coach Bob Stoops will have much influence when the final decision is made about the Sooners’ conference affiliation.
David Boren said all the right things after the Oklahoma Board of Regents went through the charade of giving OU’s president the authority to decide if the Sooners will remain in the Big 12 or bolt for the Pac-12.
Yesterday’s action was a mere formality. Boren has been in total control of the Sooners’ conference future ever since Texas A&M announced last month that it was leaving the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference.
Technically, Boren reports to the regents. But in truth, the regents are going to rubberstamp whatever the powerful and politically connected Boren tells them he wants done.
Anyone who can casually mention his friendship with a former British prime minister knows his way around a conference realignment negotiating table so well that he doesn’t need any help.
So one didn’t have to read too deeply between the lines to understand what Boren told the regents long before yesterday’s behind-closed-doors executive session: He’s taking OU to the Pac-12, plans to ask Oklahoma State to join the Sooners and doesn’t really give a damn what Texas decides to do.
Several sources have confirmed that A&M’s departure was the tipping point for Boren. He was troubled that he let Castiglione, Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe and other league officials talk him into remaining in the conference instead of accepting the then-Pac-10′s membership offer when Nebraska and Colorado announced in June 2010 their intentions to leave the Big 12.
Castiglione hasn’t uttered a word about realignment since Boren took command. The Sooner AD attended yesterday’s meeting, but quietly slipped away without comment as Boren took center stage for a press conference.
Those sources confirmed Boren has been hell-bent on leaving the Big 12 ever since Pac-12 officials confirmed OU and OSU would be offered memberships even if Texas turned one down. It’s believed Boren got that confirmation from Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott just hours before he proclaimed on Sept. 2 that OU wouldn’t be a “wallflower” during this chaotic realignment period.
https://indianofs.blogspot.com/2011/09/big-12-back-in-realignment-spotlight.html
https://indianofs.blogspot.com/2011/09/big-east-and-big-12-talk-about-merger.html
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