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All four schools poised to move to the Pac-12 Conference from the Big 12 Conference have now said they won't legally object to Texas A&M leaving the Big 12 for the SEC - the move that could trigger another landscape-altering round of college sports league realignment.
Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State all have said they do not intend to sue Texas A&M over its planned departure, according to various university statements and media reports, suggesting they're fine with A&M making the move that could lead to the dissolution of the Big 12 and commence the era of the "superconference" in college sports.
But that hardly means the Pac-16 is right around the corner.
Baylor is holding up Texas A&M's planned departure from the Big 12, widespread reports have said, by refusing to agree to waive its right to sue the SEC over the move.
The SEC said it would invite Texas A&M to join as its 13th member, so long as every school in the Big 12 waived its legal claims against it. Baylor has led a group of five other Big 12 schools — Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri — that refuse to do that, fearing that another massive realignment will leave them out in the cold.
Oklahoma already had said on a conference call of the Big 12's board of directors Wednesday that it would not legally object to Texas A&M leaving.
But Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State each made clear in statements Thursday that they are not interested in suing, either. "We are not part of the group that is threatening legal action against the SEC," Texas spokesman Nick Voinis told the Austin American-Statesman.
However, Oklahoma State president Burns Hargis told CBSSports.com that he believes the Big 12 can continue to exist.
Speaking before the Cowboys beat the Pac-12's Arizona 37-14 in Stillwater on Thursday night, Hargis said, "I don't think it's a fait accompli A&M is gone."
Billionaire OSU booster T. Boone Pickens agreed, saying during the ESPN broadcast of the game that he wants the Big 12 to remain intact — just six days ago, he said he did not think it would, and that the Cowboys would wind up in the Pac-12 - but with equal revenue sharing. He said Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Nebraska all were given "special deals," and that the practice "has come to an end."
"We've gotta get all the schools equal and go forward from there," Pickens said. "I think that's gonna happen in the next three weeks."
Hargis did not guess what might happen if Texas A&M does leave the Big 12, but Pickens said that no matter what, he "knows that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are a package."
Meanwhile, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said during an online chat with the Seattle Times on Thursday that his league would prefer to remain at 12 teams.
"Our preference is status quo, all conferences staying at 12," he said, in response to a question about how he might align a 16-team league. "But … if we expanded further, we'd carefully look at equal access to all territories."
The next move is unclear.
Baylor evidently won't make a move until it knows what Oklahoma plans to do, ESPN reported, citing unnamed sources with "direct knowledge of the situation." Baylor presumably would feel a greater sense of long-term security if the Sooners decide to stay in the Big 12.
But the Sooners have no timetable for making a decision, ESPN said, after university president David Boren said last Friday that the school is considering leaving the Big 12. Boren said he expected to decide Oklahoma's future within three weeks.
In the meantime, speculation about what will happened has spiraled out of control, with various scenarios popping up all over the Internet.
University president R. Bowen Loftin of Texas A&M said his school is "being held hostage," and accused Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe of going back on his word. Beebe had said in a Sept. 2 letter to SEC commissioner Mike Slive that the Big 12 "and its members" had agreed to waive legal claims against the SEC over the A&M move.
Four days later, however, Beebe sent Slive an e-mail that said such legal waivers needed to come from the individual schools, not the league. "I regret any confusion on this issue," Beebe wrote.
Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State were four of the six Big 12 schools that Scott tried to lure to the Pac-10 last summer, along with Texas A&M and Colorado. Colorado eventually did join, along with the Utah Utes, to form the Pac-12.