ESPN’s Pac-10 blogger, Ted Miller, reports that Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott is attempting to shoot down yesterday’s report that an en masse membership offer to the entire Big 12 South, minus the fat kid (Baylor), plus the cool hippie (Colorado), is imminent:
Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott released a statement on the matter to The Sporting News:
“We are aware of a story filed today by an Orangebloods.com columnist, speculating about possible expansion plans for the Pac-10 Conference. While many interesting scenarios have been suggested in numerous news reports, around the country, we remain focused on a thorough evaluation process that examines all of the options for increasing the value of the conference for our member institutions, our student athletes and our fans. We have not developed any definitive plans. We have not extended any invitations for expansion and we do not anticipate any such decisions in the near term.”
Earlier in the day, Scott told me point blank that no major news would come out of the Pac-10 meetings this weekend. …
Another source who will be attending the meetings this weekend in San Francisco said that Scott had presented a variety of expansion scenarios to the Pac-10 presidents, including this 16-team version. It’s possible this version will lead the agenda this weekend. Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn told the Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera that his school and the other five are expecting overtures from the Pac-10.
“The longer that we were together in Kansas City [at the apparently rather chaotic Big 12 meetings -ed.] it appeared that that rumor or speculation did have some validity to it,” Bohn told the newspaper.
That about sums it up. For weeks we’ve had lots of speculation. We may not be, in fact, that close to an endgame.
But the speculation may have some legs.
On the other hand, there’s also now talk about a full merger between the Big 12 and the Pac-10, creating… a Big-Pac-22?!? (I’d file that one under “WTF.”)
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Rumor is that Baylor was admitted to the Big12 because the Governor of Texas at the time, Ann Richards, was a Baylor alumna. You might remember the late Ann Richards..she spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 1992 and commented that George Bush Sr. was born “with a silver foot in his mouth.”