Exactly two years ago, Texas and Oklahoma sent a formal request for membership to the Southeastern Conference. They were leaving the Big 12, a staggering development that seemed to spell the league’s demise.
Requiems were written, mergers were sought with other conferences (and rejected by those leagues), scapegoats were identified. The term “death throes” was in heavy rotation in describing the Big 12 that summer.
It is exceedingly difficult to survive as a wounded animal in the modern college athletics jungle. Yet here we are two years hence, with the Big 12 not just alive but sporting the teeth and claws of a fierce predator. Colorado is coming, the membership has swelled to 13 schools and more could be added soon.
