Big 12 Realignment: Texas, Oklahoma Could Be Staying After All

11:45 am CDT: Another update from Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, via Twitter. "Texas stands to make between $20 mil and $25 mil per yr under a proposed new TV pkg presented by Dan Beebe, plus UT's own network."

11:35 am CDT: ESPN.com is reporting that the "Beebe plan" has zero percent chance of succeeding. Though Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com is not backing off his story that Texas is about to save the Big 12.

10:55 am CDT: Chip Brown, via Twitter, has an update saying "sources say Texas is committed to coming to the table with the 10 remaining B12 schools to see if there's consensus for the Beebe plan."

ESPN's Joe Schad, via Twitter, has a different take, stating sources he had said Texas leaving the Big 12 was "imminent."

10:15 am CDT: New reports have come out saying Texas is committed to returning to the Big 12 and is expected to make the official announcement later today according to Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com.

Just an hour ago, from the same source, it looked like Texas was headed to the Big Ten instead of the Pac-10.

So what is the real story here? Is Texas coming back to the Big 12, and was their expected defection to the Pac-10 just a ploy to get the Big 12 to put together a television package that was comparable to the SEC?

To me, it looks like Texas has been after one thing all along: leverage. For the past few weeks, rumors have circled the Internet about where Texas was going. Some reports had Texas and Oklahoma headed to the Big Ten, but at the same time, Texas' board of regents were reported to have the votes necessary for the school to jump ship to the Pac-10.

Until an official announcement is made by all four schools that were on their way out of the Big 12 (Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State), the rumors will continue to make their way around the Internet.

While Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State might be returning to the Big 12, it doesn't mean that Texas A&M will follow suit, especially after talks between the Aggies and the SEC seemed to be hot and heavy over the last few days. Not to mention the SEC president was in College Station, Texas over the weekend to talk to A&M officials.

If in fact the four teams rumored to be headed west do return to the conference they looked to be leaving over the past few weeks, what does the Pac-10 do from here? After it looked like they were landing four huge schools in college football, they will be left with just one Big 12 school (Colorado), and they currently sit at 11 total teams.

The Pac-10 can't stand pat with 11 teams. There's no question that they will need to start looking at other schools outside of the Big 12 if in fact the latest rumors are true. But who will those teams be, and where will the Pac-10 look?

Now that they have Colorado as a part of their conference, they could stay in state and talk to Colorado State about coming over and creating a natural rivalry with the Buffaloes.

Two other teams they could go after are TCU and Utah. BYU might have been an option if Cal-Berkeley wasn't so closed-minded after it was reported that Cal didn't want Baylor in the Pac-10 because of their religious affiliations.

They would have loved to have brought Boise State on board if this was just about football, but it's about more than football, and besides that Boise State has already accepted an invitation to join the Mountain West Conference.

So who does that leave? You have a few schools on the West Coast that would love to get an invitation to the Pac-10. One would be Fresno State, which at this point has been left in the dust after Boise State's departure.

Head coach Pat Hill has made it clear that he would love to be a part of the Pac-10, which is the reason he repeatedly schedules teams like Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, and the like as part of his program's non-conference schedule.

Most would tell you that Fresno State is another team that is unlikely to get an invitation to join the conference. So if Fresno State is unlikely, you can pretty much rule out San Diego State as well for about the same reasons.

For right now, the Pac-10 is going to be sitting on the edge of their seat awaiting the decision from Texas and other three schools that were apparently ready to become members of their conference. Now, they're not so sure.