When the announcement that the Big 12 wouldn’t expand finally came on Monday evening, it was delivered in the most fitting way. There was Oklahoma president David Boren giving so much more than a press conference. He so hammered home the talking points that he’d spent the past 18 months obliterating that it felt more like a performance. He used words like “strength,” “unity” and “cohesion” so many times that it sounded almost like he was trying to convince himself.
The biggest loser in the Big 12’s public expansion process wasn’t any of the 11 schools that eagerly signed up to take part in the Big 12’s public pageant.