I dislike "news" that speculates without citing applicable facts or direct quotes. The writer says, "Texas' TV deal has made school officials reluctant to favor expansion."
So because Boren wants expansion, a title game and a network, and because Longhorn Network is a potential barrier to a Big 12 Network, then it must be an obstacle to expansion too? That's an inductive fallacy.
Beside, the only person with direct knowledge of the situation to come out and make a quote about where Texas stands on any of these issues was Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby who said in March, “We can't do a network without Texas raising its hand and saying, ‘We're willing to roll it in,' We've had those conversations, but they haven't raised their hand. But they also haven't said, ‘Stop right now. We're not willing to talk about it.'”
Which sounds to me like Texas is still taking it all in. Texas will be fine no matter what happens, so Texas probably has no sense of urgency.
But the people at Texas are probably also smart enough to realize that if the conference they're in burns up, they'll have to make concessions on their LHN to join any other conference any way, so why not consider parlaying those concessions in a way that preserves geographically convenient competition, and a long-standing rival? And why not expand that precious Longhorn brand into UConn's populous viewing area by bringing the very-worthy-in-every-respect Huskies into the conference?
