Fansided

Oklahoma, Kansas tried to join Big 10

By Mike Dyce

Oct 12, 2013; Dallas, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners huddle and raise a helmet prior to the game against the Texas Longhorns during the Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 12, 2013; Dallas, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners huddle and raise a helmet prior to the game against the Texas Longhorns during the Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oklahoma and Kansas were amongst a contingent of teams that tried to flee for the Big 10 in 2010.

The Big 12 is always at the center of college football realignment discussions. Their conference, located in an unfavorable media stretch of middle America and the Great Plains, has power schools other conferences covet like Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

The conference has fought through realignment struggles in the past to stay together, adding West Virginia and TCU to replace Nebraska, Missouri, Texas A&M and Colorado when those schools departed.

Nebraska left to join the Big 10, while Texas A&M and Mizzou went to the SEC and Colorado to the Pac-10, now the Pac-12.

It appears that the Big 10 could’ve gotten a larger hall of teams back in 2010, with a report suggesting that Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa State and Texas A&M sought to join the Big 10.

From Omaha.com:

"“A Big 12 athletic director, who spoke to The World-Herald on condition of anonymity, said he contacted Big Ten athletic directors and presidents with whom he was familiar in June 2010.The topic: Was the Big Ten, which had 11 members at the time, interested in adding five Big 12 schools?The feedback from Big Ten school officials was positive, both sources said. The sticking point was devising a revenue-sharing plan to satisfy all. It would have taken at least three to four years for that many incoming schools to hit the financial payoffs sought for moving.”"

Had those schools joined the Big 10, they would’ve created a “West Division” with Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.

Ultimately that never came to be. But with the Big 12 struggling to compete with their larger major conference competition, see Baylor and TCU being excluded from the College Football Playoff for example, the conference could again be in jeopardy of dismantling.

If the Big 10 were interested in adding a 15th and 16th team, maybe they’d reach out to Oklahoma and Kansas once again. The article from Omaha.com suggests that the Big 12 clock is ticking and the Big 10 has done its homework on Oklahoma and Kansas.

That would leave Texas all by their lonesome in a considerably weak conference, which they could choose to stay in. They could also choose to operate as an independent or join a major conference, possibly the Pac-12 given the rumors over the years.

In an ideal world Texas would join the SEC, perhaps bringing TCU along with them, and the college football world would get back their Texas-Texas A&M rivalry. Who knows how the Aggies would feel about the Longhorns joining the conference and ruining their SEC party.

Texas and Oklahoma splitting up likely wouldn’t jeopardize their rivalry game in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl and Texas State Fairgrounds. Remember, Oklahoma and Texas were in different before 1996 and still played annually.

If Oklahoma were to join the Big 10 it would also bring back their OU-Nebraska rivalry from the days of the Big 8.

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