Written by Chuck Carlton at SportsDay.com
Less than three weeks from a pivotal presidents meeting, one of the Big 12’s power brokers says his school has not decided on expansion.
With multiple industry sources indicated that Oklahoma President David Boren was now opposing talk of expansion within the conference, Boren issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying his school does not have a position yet.
“I do not know where the speculation came from, but Oklahoma has not taken a position on expansion,” Boren said in a statement.
SI.com was the first to report that Boren was against expansion.
The Big 12 board of directors is scheduled to meet Oct. 17 in north Texas to discuss expansion. Any prospective member needs eight votes to be added.
Boren’s opposition would be notable because Oklahoma, along with Texas, occupies an important role in the conference. As chairman of the Big 12’s board of directors, Boren has been a key voice in the process.
He pushed expansion publicly when few schools wanted to pursue the option and suggested in June 2015 that the Big 12 was “psychologically disadvantaged” by only having 10 members.
It was Boren who said repeatedly that the Big 12 needed to explore a championship game, since approved, and the possibility of a TV network, which isn’t happening.
Boren surprised many two weeks ago by suggesting expansion wasn’t a given following an OU board of regents meeting. The about face immediately got the attention of school presidents and athletic administrators throughout the conference.
Sources indicated that Borens’s favorite in expansion was BYU, which is now viewed as radioactive because of its stance on LGBT and Title IX issues pending any changes in the school’s honor code. But it does have the backing of the Big 12’s TV partners, especially ESPN.
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