BIG 12 SMALLER BUT STILL STANDING PLOTS FUTURE WITH 10
Dan Beebe
After the Big 12 was saved from extinction by Texas' decision to stay  Commissioner Dan Beebe said Tuesday that he was content with a 10-team conference and that he had no desire for expansion.
 "The 12 teams we had was the ideal number " Beebe said in a teleconference. "But with the 10 that we have  there is a lot of positive feelings about having 10 teams."
 After Colorado announced its decision to leave for the Pacific-10 and Nebraska accepted an invitation from the Big Ten  Beebe said he spoke to the networks the conference has deals with and was told they would not seek to reduce their rights fees because of the conference's smaller membership. Beebe said initially the universities left in the conference would receive more television money  because they would be splitting it among only 10 teams.
 Although it is unclear how the deal with Fox will work  ABC/ESPN will have access to 18 top football games every year and pay $60 million annually  as it does under its current deal  which includes basketball. To keep the fee at $60 million  the Big 12's universities promised to play a nine-game conference football schedule  which would increase the value of the ESPN deal. They also said they would play a double round-robin format in basketball  which would also enhance their conference schedule because Kansas  for example  will now play Texas twice.
 But Beebe also said that money was not the driving factor in the events of the weekend  and that it was not foremost on the minds of the five universities that were not being recruited by other conferences. In fact  he said  those five universities offered to give their extra revenue to Texas  Texas A
M and Oklahoma to entice them to stay. Beebe said he did not find that unfair or surprising.
 "Texas has a lot of influence " Beebe said. "The same could be said of Texas A
 One casualty of the contracting conference will probably be the Big 12 championship game in football. The NCAA requires at least 12 teams in a conference for it to hold a championship game. A 10-team Big 12 could request a waiver of that rule  but Beebe said it might not.
 He also said the universities would meet and consider changing the name of the conference  but it is hardly unusual for conferences with numbers in their names to be a little off.
After the Big 12 was saved from extinction by Texas' decision to stay  [TGT] said Tuesday that [TGT] was content with a 10-team conference and that [TGT] had no desire for expansion.
 "The 12 teams we had was the ideal number [TGT] said in a teleconference. "But with the 10 that we have  there is a lot of positive feelings about having 10 teams."
 After Colorado announced its decision to leave for the Pacific-10 and Nebraska accepted an invitation from the Big Ten  Beebe said [TGT] spoke to the networks the conference has deals with and was told they would not seek to reduce their rights fees because of the conference's smaller membership. [TGT] said initially the universities left in the conference would receive more television money  because they would be splitting it among only 10 teams.
 Although it is unclear how the deal with [TGT] will work  ABC/ESPN will have access to 18 top football games every year and pay $60 million annually  as it does under its current deal  which includes basketball. To keep the fee at $60 million  the Big 12's universities promised to play a nine-game conference football schedule  which would increase the value of the ESPN deal. They also said they would play a double round-robin format in basketball  which would also enhance their conference schedule because Kansas  for example  will now play Texas twice.
 But [TGT] also said that money was not the driving factor in the events of the weekend  and that it was not foremost on the minds of the five universities that were not being recruited by other conferences. In fact  [TGT] said  those five universities offered to give their extra revenue to Texas  Texas A
M and Oklahoma to entice them to stay. [TGT] said [TGT] did not find that unfair or surprising.
 "Texas has a lot of influence [TGT] said. "The same could be said of Texas A
 One casualty of the contracting conference will probably be the Big 12 championship game in football. The NCAA requires at least 12 teams in a conference for it to hold a championship game. A 10-team Big 12 could request a waiver of that rule  but [TGT] said it might not.
 [TGT] also said the universities would meet and consider changing the name of the conference  but it is hardly unusual for conferences with numbers in their names to be a little off.