Just a few weeks ago it seemed as if conference expansion was dead. 

 

Texas was rumored to be against it, the Big 12 felt there was no appetite for a newly created network and the lack of obvious candidates made it seem as though the league would hold off on adding members. 

 

The league's spring meeting came and went with no announcement about pursuing expansion. 

 

Fast forward to earlier this week. As the league was wrapping up its annual media days, a new direction was announced. 

Not only was expansion alive and well, we were told it was unanimously agreed upon by the league schools. 

 

Oh, and about that no appetite by Fox or ESPN to start a network...yeah, apparently not true. 

 

A mere 20 hours or so before the Big 12 did an about face on its expansion stance, word leaked that the ACC would be partnering with ESPN on a stand alone network. 

Hmm. ACC announces network, Big 12 does a 180 on its plans. Related? Hard to think its not, but that's a story for another day.

Back to our originally scheduled programming...

 

Since West Virginia joined the Big 12 we have heard about how difficult Texas could be. What Texas wants, Texas gets or so the story went. 

 

See the Longhorn Network for proof. Great for Texas. May be the thing that ultimately breaks up the Big 12. Texas A&M was very public upon departing the league about wanting to get away from Texas’ dictator-type style. 

 

We haven’t seen that side of Texas though since West Virginia has joined the league. Granted, there haven’t been many big ticket items to decide upon in the last four years, but Texas has been relatively mild-mannered publicly. 

 

Until Wednesday. A mere 48 hours after announcing expansion plans, Texas went all in backing a specific candidate. Heck, all in may not be a strong enough term to describe what Texas just did.

 

In a span of just a few hours on Wednesday, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Texas and the Chancellor and President of the University of Texas all tweeted that Houston needed to be included in any Big 12 expansion.

 

Texas has spoken. The question is why? I don’t just mean why Houston? You can get a pretty good sense from this article (if accurate) as to why Texas would lobby for Houston. http://www.hookem.com/story/texas-lawmakers-line-support-houstons-bid-join-big-12/

 

I’m wondering why the Texas delegation made such a public proclamation. All of the Big 12 presidents were in the same room on Tuesday. Couldn’t Texas president, Greg Fenves have just said then, “Listen folks, I’m under orders from our Governor that I need to get Houston into the league. Therefore, we won’t vote for any expansion candidates at all unless Houston is in.”  

 

At least then everyone in the league knew where they stood. Why make such a public spectacle out of something that could have easily been conveyed while you had everyone together?

 

If Texas’ public declaration ruffles enough feathers within the league, could expansion actually NOT go through? 

 

Oklahoma has never liked Texas’ dictating decisions. It almost cost the Big 12 the Sooners in the last round of expansion. I can’t imagine they took kindly to Wednesday’s theatrics. 

 

Don’t forget, it only takes three ‘NOs’ to eliminate an expansion candidate. In order to be accepted a school must receive "YES" votes from eight of the 10 member schools. 

 

I would think Oklahoma State votes with Oklahoma. If the Oklahoma schools are in fact a voting block, than only one other school would have to be opposed to Houston (or opposed to Texas trying to dictate terms/teams to everyone else) to kill Houston’s candidacy. 

Conspiracy theorists would suggest to you this is exactly what Texas wants. Could Texas be trying to blow up expansion, or at least specifically Houston, by endorsing the Cougars? 

 

Here's how the conspiracy theory goes:

 

Texas publicly supports Houston. Texas' approach bums out at least three other schools in the league. Those three other schools vote 'no' on Houston. Houston doesn’t get in. 

 

Texas says “Hey…we did everything we could. You heard everyone from the Governor on down publicly say we wanted you in. Nothing else we could do. Sorry. We tried our best.” 

 

Texas covers itself politically, gets the end result it wanted (no Houston) and someone else looks the bad guy(s). 

 

Crazy? Before you answer that, remember...this is college sports and politics rolled into one. Crazy things happen.

 

Whether Texas is truly forcing Houston on the rest of the league or trying to ensure they will be voted down, one thing is certain. The latest round of expansion will be as much of a circus as the last round. Welcome to college sports.