Two years ago, after Texas and Oklahoma announced their eventual departure for the SEC, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby reached out to his colleague at the Pac-12, newly hired commissioner George Kliavkoff.
He presented a proposal: Let’s merge the two conferences, share a media rights package, establish a scheduling alliance and so on. Bowlsby even flew to California.
The Pac-12 rebuffed interest in a merger and the league also decided against expansion, refusing to pluck off panicked and easily poachable Big 12 schools.
Twenty-five months later, oh how the tables have turned.