Sources: Oklahoma State Leaders Feel Good on Realignment Situation

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy has said it several times this week alone. He said it Monday at the press conference for the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, which he was inducted into that night. He said it again on Friday morning as his Cowboys opened up fall camp. What is it? It is college conference realignment. Since the word leaked out in the Houston Chronicle that Texas and Oklahoma were leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, the campuses and fan bases at the other eight schools in the conference have gone topsy-turvy.

Gundy said anybody that says they know about what is happening with realignment, they really don’t.

“Nobody knows. Once the news comes out, it'll come out real quick,” Gundy elaborated. “Anybody that's talking about it right now, other than maybe the brass, they're just guessing.”

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Kyle Wray, Mike Gundy, and Chad Weiberg (L-R) at the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame Induction.

I would agree, but sometimes it is good to be tied into the brass. Our sources say the end of the week was really strong for the Cowboys leadership team on college realignment. All avenues, including the Southeastern Conference, are open. Yes, I wrote the Southeastern Conference.

The brass at Oklahoma State when it comes to realignment, here is your scorecard.

President Dr. Kayse Shrum – Just a month on the job, Shrum has shown rapidly, and in part with realignment, why she was so successful in leading and building up OSU-Tulsa and the Oklahoma State University Center for Health-Sciences and the College of Osteopathic Medicine. Shrum actually found out about the planned move of Texas and Oklahoma a little early, that combined with the feeling from former athletic director Mike Holder, who felt a “rat” when both schools were the only ones to vote against extending the Grant of Rights for television rights, gave Oklahoma State and Shrum’s team some lead time.

Senior Vice President Kyle Wray – Wray was the vice-president for enrollment and markets but was bumped up by Shrum to the number two position on campus. Wray is a former football, graduate assistant college coach, and high school coach. He is knowledgeable of that world and has good people skills including reading people. He is very involved in this.

Athletic Director Chad Weiberg – Also, Weiberg’s first month on the job has been more than he could have imagined. He has experience having done a lot as a senior associate athletic director at Kansas State and as deputy athletic director at Texas Tech. His uncle was at one time the Big 12 commissioner, Kevin Weiberg, who has worked in the Big Ten, Pac-12 and other conferences. Weiberg has a network, and it has come in handy a lot during this ongoing process.

Deputy Athletic Director Reid Sigmon – Sigmon is also a month on the job, but he came fresh out of the SEC at Tennessee and has excellent knowledge. Sigmon has worked for both the College Football Playoff and the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament.

Senior Associate Athletic Director Kevin Klintworth – He is another veteran college administrator that has worked in the Pac-12 at California and knows a lot of people. A details person, Klintworth is very grounded and an excellent judge of situations in athletics.

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Cover photo from Big 12 Football Media Days.

Our picture for this story shows Dr. Shrum, Kyle Wray and Chad Weiberg in conversation in Arlington, Texas at Big 12 Football Media Days. That was an interesting conversation from what we were told. However, we’ve come a long way since then.

This weekend President Shrum is on the road in Texas and is meeting with some of Oklahoma State’s bigger benefactors. It is really the first time that Dr. Shrum has really left town and felt comfortable coming up for air. Her team has spent so much time in Whitehurst Hall developing a resume and strategy to keep Oklahoma State with a seat in a Power Five conference. It is a must if Cowboys and Cowgirls athletics are going to continue to be funded, budget and compete at the level they have become accustomed.

The national media has bantered a lot on this topic and local media as well. Most media has engaged in guessing and being prophets, but not reported anything concrete. An example of the opposite was a report in Kansas that the Jayhawks were solidly in the Big Ten and that word would come down within two weeks. That reporter backed off his guess. Our sources have told us that despite being an AAU member, something the Big Ten likes in its members, Kansas football is dead last in the country and their football viewership is also last in the Big 12.

This isn’t about Kansas. Our sources that have tie-ins to the Oklahoma State leadership said they were encouraged on Thursday with the briefing by the Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby of his two days of meetings with Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff.

Our sources say that Oklahoma State had their own conversations with Kliavkoff and the Pac-12. We knew that from multiple sources that Dr. Shrum and her team are happy to work together through the Big 12 and Bowlsby, but also believe you have to work on your own plan. It is a must to work both sides of that street.

In addition, a source confirmed on Saturday that Oklahoma State has maintained communication with the Big Ten, ACC, and yes, the Southeastern Conference. Some options seem more plausible and more wide open than others, but none of them are closed. Oklahoma State is still a possibility to land in the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12, and even the SEC. The feedback is good. Conferences realize how good Oklahoma State football has been. They realize that Oklahoma State has put a good show on the field and as a result they draw good television numbers even though the school is not in a big population area or television market. People know Oklahoma State football is good and is fun to watch.

The Pac-12 seems to be the most likely, but as Gundy said, it is still an unknown. The conferences must get past the point of information and fact finding and into the process of bringing on desirable members. That brings us back to another Gundy quote.

“I have complete faith in our leadership, but Oklahoma State is going to be just fine,” Gundy said on Monday night when asked. “I’m not worried about Oklahoma State at all. Wherever the chips fall, we’ll be fine.”

I don’t think he has changed since Monday. The situation hasn’t changed regarding public information, but behind closed doors, it sounds like things look more promising than ever for OSU since the whole realignment situation was created by Texas and Oklahoma moving.