Big 12 Meetings Begin on Thursday, but Some FOMO with SEC Spring Meetings

STILLWATER – The Big 12 Spring Meetings begin in Irving, Texas later this week on Thursday. While there will be some interesting and captivating topics such as how to handle the next three football seasons and athletic years starting in 2023 with the potential of 14 members in the league with newbies BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF joining the current clam including future departures in Oklahoma and Texas and then the impending hiring of a new commissioner to take over for Bob Bowlsby; there is nothing on tap quite like Nick and Jimbo 2022. The SEC Meetings began Tuesday, May 31 in Destin, Fla.

My daughter taught me the acronym FOMO meaning “fear of missing out” and that is what many of us had about the SEC Meetings and especially the football head coaches meetings there.

The SEC has the beach, they have Greg Sankey as commissioner, and in a few years they will have Oklahoma and Texas, but the kingpin is they have the greatest head coaching confrontation since Temple’s John Chaney went after UMass (now Kentucky) head coach John Calipari. So far nobody has threatened to kill the other like Cheney did Calipari. Still, this is good theater even if it is just watching them sit in the same room.

Above, the seating chart for the SEC football coaches meeting was released. Notice that Fisher is surrounded by several conference officials on both sides. Smart move. Actually, Saban met with the media on Tuesday afternoon and while he did not come off his opinions from two weeks ago that started the feud, actually let’s just say highly escalated the feud, Saban did soften his language and tone. Olin Buchanan of our brother site, TexAgs.com, asked Saban how he knew the Aggies and Fisher bought their top-ranked recruiting class.

“I didn’t really say that anybody did anything wrong,” Saban said not answering the question.

Buchanan repeated, “You said they bought their entire recruiting class.”

“I didn’t say anybody did anything wrong, O.K.?” Saban said getting perturbed. “I’ve said everything I’m going to say about this.”

Later, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and Florida’s new head coach Billy Napier, both former Saban assistants were asked about the inflamatory accusations that Fisher made. Smart was vague, Napier was on point.

“Coach Saban has been really good to me and my career. I certainly wouldn’t be standing here without him; he hired me two different times. A lot of what we learned, we’ve applied, and certainly going forward we’ll continue to apply. I’m not foolish enough to get caught commenting about that situation—we’ll let those two gentlemen handle that.

The Big 12 Meetings in Irving later this week won’t include coaches. Those meetings took place in early May in Phoenix, Ariz. These meetings are with conference officials, school presidents and chancellors, and athletic directors and administrators. Many of the subjects will be the same. The presidents and chancellors making up the Big 12 Board of Directors will talk a lot about the commissioner’s position and where they are in the search and hiring process. The hope was to have a new commissioner in place before July. Is that possible? We’re not sure. We know the process has started. With the ballooning of the league, schedules, and permanent policies about competition will be discussed. Then there are national relevant topics of transfer portal, NIL, and the NCAA.

Oklahoma State will be represented by a group headed by Oklahoma State University System President Dr. Kayse Shrum and school athletics director Chad Weiberg. It is a crazy time for it as the same day the league meetings begin the Cowgirls open play in the Women’s College World Series and the next day the Oklahoma State baseball team opens the NCAA Stillwater Regional at O’Brate Stadium.

We will be working to learn all we can about what goes on at the Big 12 Spring Meetings.