Hey, 320!
I have mixed thoughts and emotions about leaving the Big 12 (-2). I don't see the Big 12 surviving as a P5 conference. There are no helmet programs for it to poach, which has been the problem ever since 2010.
Programs like Iowa State and Kansas State, and probably Oklahoma State, may not find homes in other power conferences. On the other hand, they, like maybe some B1G programs--Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue--wouldn't be prime candidates for membership in another power conference if for some reason they suddenly weren't members of the B1G. About 1/3 of the Pac-12 programs probably fall into that same category. And some SEC programs as well--Vanderbilt comes to mind. Maybe USC-E and Kentucky. Maybe the Mississippi schools. Baylor and TCU--they really aren't P5 programs at all. Baylor got into the Big 12 because Ann Richards was governor at the time, and TCU got in because the alternative was conference death. If the Big 12 ceases to exist, I hope that WVU finds a better home.
Anyway, they've been loyal conference members, they've done the best they could with the resources they had, and now they're having the rug pulled out from under them.
BUT . . . as I saw Mr. Tulip post on the Big 12 board (at least I think it's his analysis I'm remembering), the salvaged Big 12 could not grow. There weren't any programs available for it to add that did anything more than add more members. And it was always going to be subject to failing, as we see happening now. I guess the best thing for it would be to add Houston and, maybe, SMU (or maybe Cincinnati, giving WVU a long-overdue neighbor), and see how long it can hold on to P5 status.
Like Utee, I wanted to see OU end up in the B1G after all the realignment smoke cleared. I wanted in the B1G for academic reasons. The SEC has some fine academic institutions, and I'm not just talking about Vanderbilt. But academics are not an issue there, and they are in the B1G. OU would have had to upgrade its academics as a member of the B1G. That will not be the case in the SEC.
But I'm in a distinct minority among Sooner fans, many, many of whom have been pining for membership in the SEC ever since the 2010 realignments. And, should what looks like it's going to happen actually happen, it will be great to see SEC teams come to Norman every year. I was halfway hoping that OU and Texas could go to different conferences while keeping the RRS. Even if I stipulate that UT doesn't purposely throw its weight around, it's still uncomfortable being in the same conference with you guys. You seemingly have more money than everyone else in the Big 12 (-2) combined, and money talks. And when it does, everybody else has to listen.
Anyway, it's probably going to be a wild ride in the SEC.
P.S. About OU and FoSu splitting up, there's no state law that mandates that they have to be together. The two schools operate under two different sets of regents. The "togetherness" they had last go-around was because of the personal relationship between the two presidents--David Boren at OU and Burns Hargis at FoSu. There was a Boren Hall at FoSu from the days when he was governor, and Hargis was an OU alum. Both of them are gone now. If FoSu had enough clout in the state legislature to block OU's move, I'm sure they would try to use it. But I don't think they've got enough to stop OU's departure.
The whole thing about using the state legislature to inflict pain on your football rival strikes me as childish and selfish. It's symptomatic of punky little-brotherdom.
