Why did Texas try to leave the first time?
We can argue about why A&M did leave but what was the driver for Texas to leave?
We weren't part of the decision-making process, so we don't know. In other words we have no facts. Just speculation. And maybe some quotes from the time - if you can believe them. All we can do is conjecture.
I think hubris had a lot to do with it.
The president of UT as the time, William Powers, was a Berkeley guy. I think he imagined it would enhance UT's academic reputation if it could rub elbows with Stanford and Cal instead of some of the Big 12 schools with less prestigious reputations.
Meanwhile, DeLoss Dodds was full of himself. He was making the most outrageous comments. Saying things like "we are the Jones" and "we didn't start realignment but we'll end it."
I mean, my goodness. Even if you honestly think such things, you shouldn't say them aloud. But he did and I think that sheds light into where he thought he was in relation to everybody else.
Dodds was going to parlay the Texas brand into a bigger payout. As it turns out, the LHN was an even sweeter deal for Texas than anything the Pac-12 offered.
I'd like to think the new guys at Texas - Fenves and Del Conte - are nicer guys and better team players. Maybe they are. Maybe they're not. Who knows?
As a fan, I was thoroughly intrigued by the notion of an Arizona, Arizona St, Texas, Oklahoma, Tech, oSu, Colorado, and somebody else division with cross-divisional games with Washington, WSU, Oregon, Oregon St, Cal, Stanford, USC and UCLA.
But in hindsight, so many games on Pacific time would probably get old real fast. That's kind of the main appeal of the B1G. They're in our timezone.