Pac-12 Expansion: Oklahoma Sooners Should Realign Regardless of Texas' Decision

With Syracuse and Pittsburgh jumping ship from the terrible Big East and into the more competitive ACC, it seems to have reignited the conference realignment talk down south.

Ever since Texas A&M made it known that they were done in the Big 12 and wanted to jump to the SEC, almost every other Big 12 team decided to start looking for a new conference.

Texas, the most prestigious school in the Big 12, is apparently exploring a number of different options for as to what conference to jump ship to.

Stewart Mandel at SI.com reported that he heard, “Texas to the ACC 'was not dead,' as AD DeLoss Dodds searched frantically for a post-Big 12 landing spot that would allow his Longhorn Network to continue.”

However, the Longhorn Network seems to be a deal-breaker for most conferences in accepting the Texas program.

They are going to have to begrudgingly rework how the network splits profits or ditch it entirely if they want to join a new conference after the Big 12 collapses.

Mandel also noted, “Assuming Oklahoma's regents decide Monday to green light their own move to the Pac-12 (along with Oklahoma State) as expected, the Pac-16 could come to fruition some 15 months after Larry Scott's dream plan first went public, and the Big 12 will officially cease to be salvageable.”

So Oklahoma has the power to be the most influential team in the Big 12. Wherever they move will set the tone for the rest of the members of the conference and it will also make realigning more urgent.

Oklahoma has long been in the shadow of Texas, but forcing a move to the Pac-12(16) would be a power play that would get them more respect and also deal a blow to their rival.

They would earn more revenue by getting a nice split of the LHN and join a better conference that Texas does not typically completely dominate.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few days but I expect a major move by the weekend at the latest.