Boomer Sooner: How Oklahoma Steered Texas Into The New Big 12

When something that completely changes the landscape of a sport occurs, it’s best to put as much time between yourself and that incident as you can before you go absolutely nuclear listening to people sputter incoherent ramblings with no real perspective on the big picture. I’m looking at you , ESPN.

First of all, let’s begin with who was in the driver’s seat from an overall perspective.

Texas was clearly the biggest dick at the table in more than one way. Money, multiple major TV markets, academic excellence, traditional and current football superpower, utter and unbearable self-importance and douchery. They really do have it all.

Their only drawback was the Texas legislature. UT was a package deal with at least Texas Tech, if not Baylor as well. Baylor looked to be fully prepared to degrade themselves in sin and shame to continue getting sodomized by the big boys annually. Thus, the Pac 10’s aggressive move to just take the entire Big 12 South made sense. Of course, UT reportedly decided at the 11th hour that they wanted to keep Bevo-D (their exclusive content network they planned to launch), which killed the Pac 10 dream of a Pac 16 network.

While this may sound like typical, arrogant Longhorn behavior, it’s actually quite justifiable. UT has invested something like $250,000 (may be much higher, I’m not sure) in building infrastructure for their network. There’s no reason for them to share with Stanford and Cal (or K-State and Mizzou) what they built for themselves. There’s also the issue of UT being without their normal clout in the new Pac 16. Despite UT’s considerable standing, in the Pac 16, they’d be unable to overcome the power bloc of the old Pac 8.

Then there’s OU fielding an SEC offer as well as the Pac 10 offer. Contrary to Scip’s assessment that OU “showed its belly” , the SEC actually did issue an offer to OU independent of Texas or anyone else. Why?

We’re a major national power with a widespread following and a huge ratings draw. If OU bolts, the Big 12 is just as dead as if UT leaves. Aside from that, no one just “likes” OU. Either you love us or you can’t stand us. Having a polarizing effect is an incredibly effective marketing tool. Just ask Howard Stern. However, President Boren has stated openly that he believes OU and Oklahoma State must be tied together for the benefit of both schools and the whole state. So, we had some baggage of our own.

Which brings me to the obvious. I firmly believe we witnessed OU and Texas pull a good cop, bad cop routine on everyone, and we made out like bandits in the process. In this hustle, you need a guy who is legitimately terrifying for good reason, and you need a guy who could smooth talk a nun into giving him a handy on a street corner.

Meet DeLoss Dodds and Joe Castiglione . Dodds wields the power, incredible wealth, and value of the UT brand name. Castiglione is a widely known and respected negotiator with a knack for diplomatic solutions.

For the UT fans who think OU wasn’t an equal partner…what exactly did UT come out of this situation with that OU didn’t also get? Individual network rights? Check. Higher share of revenue? Check. As for UT’s dominance of the Big 12 administration…tell me again, what’s the Big 12 tiebreaker rule?

Dodds and UT have been portrayed in the media as the villain of this story; as if they alone were the assholes victimizing the rest of the conference. Horseshit. OU took calls and visits from the SEC and the Pac 10. We gladly undercut the rest of the have-nots to ensure we stayed on top for as long as possible. So did A&M, but they were apparently content to sit around appearing to be batshit crazy .

OU had plenty of options, but we wanted to win. That meant allying with Texas. And we’re just as much to blame for all this going down as anyone else. If we take the offer from the Pac 10 or the SEC, the Big 12 is dead. Same goes for UT and A&M. But someone had to be working diplomatic solutions behind closed doors and being less visible than a guy threatening to finish what he didn’t start.

That’s not Dodds, and it’s not anybody on the UT payroll. It wasn’t supposed to be. UT needed to be menacing and overt at every turn, and they needed to be the ones looking for the outside option. With OU on the same team, you have two of the 10 biggest household names in college football to reckon with. That’s a lot of leverage at a negotiating table. In contrast, OU needed to be quiet and discreet, and they needed to be the ones looking to save the conference. The goal for each was the same: optimizing each university’s income and ability to succeed. Who would argue that this goal wasn’t accomplished?

This article originally appeared on Boomer And Sooner .

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