re: OU received invite in 2010 but did not think A&M was a good partner

quote:

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NOt sure if you were around when this was happening. The reality is that the biggest surprise in that round was that Texas and OU didn't end up going somewhere. It seemed very likely they were heading to the Pac 10 or Big 10 through much of the process.

Nebraska went to the Big 10 (Maryland and Rutgers hadn't joined yet), Colorado went to the Pac 12 and everyone thought the Big 12 was collapsing.

I'm guessing a more realistic viewpoint was that OU probably felt going with Texas to the Pac 10 would be better than going with A&M to the SEC. When that didn't happen, I would guess OU might have been a little put out.

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Multiple conferences were making bids at that point. The Pac-10 bid was scuttled per most articles at the time because

a) The albatross of the Longhorn Network wouldn't transfer over and

b) The TV folks at ESPN and Fox, Big 12 rightsholders, decided to up the ante to keep the Big 12 together.

Anyone that thinks realignment is for anything other than money is a complete idiot.