ChipBrown
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Sources: Texas focusing in on the 'Pac-16' ... (UPDATED 3:35 PM) Reply
3:35 PM - Just landed from Los Angeles and there are a lot of developments to get to.
Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech are in talks with the Pac-12, multiple sources tell Orangebloods.com.
A source close to Texas and another one of the four schools says if Texas was to go to the Pac-12 it would be allowed to keep a "modified" version of the network.
Texas would be allowed to keep most, if not all, of its third-tier revenue under a formula being devised as long as the other schools in the Pac-16 meet a certain threshold of revenue, sources said.
As Orangebloods.com reported earlier today, the network would likely be renamed the Pac-12 Texas Network.
The Pac-16 would most likely be divided into four-team pods with Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech in one pod; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah in another pod; Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State in another pod; and USC, UCLA, Cal and Stanford in the other pod, the sources said.
The sources said the schools would play every other school in their pod and then face two other schools from the other pods (with those two teams from the other pod rotating every two years, so there would be home and away games) to form a 9-game conference schedule.
The conference would try to limit long road trips as much as much as possible, the sources said.
The means of selecting the two teams for the Pac-16 Championship Game are being discussed. Included in those discussions have been simply taking the two teams with the best regular-season records, even if they are from the same pod, the sources said.
Sources said nothing has been finalized as of Sunday afternoon. But a source close to Texas indicated to Orangebloods.com the talks are intensifying.
And as reported by Orangebloods.com on Friday, both Texas and Oklahoma regents on Monday (in separate meetings) are expected to give their presidents the authority to make decisions about conference affiliation.
Texas president president Bill Powers, a Cal graduate, was a leading proponent of going to the Pac-12 a year ago. But Texas decided to try and hold the Big 12 together after it became clear Texas A&M would not follow Texas, Texas Tech, OU and Oklahoma State to the Pac-10 with Colorado.
Texas said in holding the Big 12 together it didn't want to travel its students across two time zones to the west, resulting in student-athletes arriving back on campus in the middle of the night.
But if Texas can hold the Longhorn Network together in a "modified" version, the Pac-12 will end up being the best course of action for UT, the source close to Texas said.
