If it even happens then, apparently.
Earlier this week, it was reported that a decision on whether or not Missouri would leave the Big 12 for another conference (coughcoughSECcoughcough) was “imminent and expected”. Arkansas’ athletic director said midweek that a decision on a 14th member for his school’s conference -- which Mizzou would become -- would be coming quickly.
The next step in a process that many believe will end with Mizzou moving their conference affiliation south and east could very well take shape over the next two days. Mizzou’s Board of Curators will hold meetings Thursday and Friday, including a pair of closed-door executive sessions that will take place this afternoon and then again tomorrow morning. It’s during those closed-to-the-public sessions that the board is expected to take up the conference issue and, perhaps, vote on notifying the Big 12 it intends to pursue its options for future conference affiliation. Or that it intends to remain in a place it’s called home for a decade and a half.
The chairman of MU’s board told the Kansas City Star Wednesday that Friday is the earliest a notification, public and otherwise, would come.
“I will probably have nothing to say on that until Friday,” Warren Erdman told the Star. “If there is anything to say then.”
That could merely be a matter of semantics on Erdman’s part. The Rivals.com Missouri website, PowerMizzou.com, citing a source with connections television executives -- remember, TV and the chase for its dollars are the driving force behind expansion -- writes that “Missouri’s move to the SEC was ‘as done as done can be without the official vote.’”
The school will not, however, confirm that expansion will be on the board’s discussion docket, let alone if a vote will be taken.
“I have no official information that athletic conference realignment will be discussed this week, nor do I have any information concerning a possible announcement or of the time frame for any announcement,” Mary Jo Banken, executive director of the MU news bureau, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “If and when any such announcement would be made, our office would release the official information.”
If Mizzou does indeed leave for the SEC, the Big 12 would once again be forced to scramble to add at least one new member to get back to 10 schools. While it’s been thought Louisville is the front-runner to replace Mizzou, PowerMizzou.com reports that it’s another Big East school that would slide into that opening: West Virginia. The Cardinals along with BYU, the website reports, would come into play if the Big 12 opted to get back to an even dozen members.