NORMAN – University of Oklahoma president David Boren affirmed OU's role in the current conference derby Friday, saying: "I'll put it this way: I don't think there's any chance OU is going to end up being a wallflower when this is all over."
The derby, from OU's standpoint, might end sooner than some imagine.
"My experience on these types of things is it might be a matter of 72 hours," Boren said after taking part in a groundbreaking ceremony for OU's new student-athlete housing center. "It might be a matter of two weeks. I don't really think this is something that's going to linger on beyond two or three weeks."
Where the Sooners wind up – Big 12? Pac-12? SEC? – isn't clear. That they are in demand seems more so.
"It's really a tribute to the strength of the University of Oklahoma that there is so much interest in us," Boren said. "We have to carefully evaluate the various comments that are being made to us and the various possibilities being shown to us before we decide what's best for the university to do."
Texas A&M's departure from the Big 12 Conference has sparked rampant speculation about OU's future home. About the future home for everybody in the Big 12, for that matter.
Officials from several Big 12 universities released statements supporting the Big 12 after A&M announced its intention Wednesday. OU went silent until Friday, and Boren didn't exactly submit a vote of confidence for the Big 12.
"We want stability in our conference relationships," he said. "We want partnerships athletically and academically as well. A conference that is strong and not unstable is one in which there are multiple relationships between the university members."
Asked if he was discouraged about addressing conference realignment just one year after Nebraska and Colorado bolted a teetering Big 12, Boren said: "I had hoped we had stability. I guess I'm just disappointed that the original Big 12 is not still the same Big 12. I was extremely disappointed when Nebraska departed. I was disappointed when Colorado departed."
To that end, Boren confirmed OU's involvement in trying to keep A&M in the fold. "Someone said they tracked our plane from Norman to Columbia (Mo.) and back down to College Station the other day. That's true," he said. "I've been doing a lot of traveling and having a lot of conversations with all of the other presidents and others. Joe has been heavily involved."
OU athletic director Joe Castiglione did not comment when asked about realignment after Friday's groundbreaking.
Castiglione is on the Big 12's five-member expansion committee. Comments by Boren, however, suggest that OU officials aren't trying themselves to a restructured Big 12 Conference.
OU officials aren't tying themselves to any league just yet.
"I do not know with certainty, or perhaps can't hazard a totally intelligent guess, as to what our final decision will be," Boren said. "But we are carefully looking over all of the options. There's no school in the Big 12 more active than we are right now." As Boren sees it, given his athletic department's cachet, that's how it should be. "I think we remain a very influential member of this conference," he said. "Influential not only in this conference, but influential in athletics across the country."
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Oklahoma next to walk away from Big 12?
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Originally Posted by Cap dat 4ss
