Chad Weiberg Comments on Big 12 Finality with OU and Texas Settlement
STILLWATER – This is a very busy weekend for Oklahoma State athletics. The Cowgirls basketball team is on the cusp of being nationally-ranked and continues moving toward a top division finish as they host Baylor, the men have won four games in a row and five of the past sixth as they take on Iowa State in Ames. The wrestlers downed South Dakota State on Friday night for their third straight dual win over a ranked school and have Stanford on Super Bowl Sunday. Softball is ranked a consensus No. 3 and is opening the season in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The big news came on Thursday night when the boiling teapot in the Big 12 kitchen released the steam with the announced settlement that Oklahoma and Texas would leave the conference at the end of the next academic year 2023-24 and a year earlier than the grant-in-rights would permit.
Oklahoma State athletics director Chad Weiberg spoke with Oklahoma State student newspaper The O’Colly about the news on Friday.
“This is a good thing,” Weiberg said to reporters Gabriel Trevino and Sam Hutchens. “It allows everyone to move forward with certainty. We have four great, new schools coming into the conference, and now we know the timing of how things will roll out. Overall, I think it’s a great thing.”
Pokes Report first reported that Oklahoma and Texas were paying or allowing the Big 12 Conference to withold two years of conference revenue (approximately $100 million from each school), but the actual settlement was for $100 million combined from the two schools. A disappointment in our estimation, but Weiberg said it was okay in his estimation.
"I do feel good about (the settlement amount)," Weiberg said.
Both sides knew what the other wanted. Oklahoma and Texas wanted out early and the other schools and Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark wanted them out earlier.
“It’s a very complicated process," Weiberg said. "I know the commissioner has been working on this for a long time. I give (Yormark) a lot of credit for keeping it moving. Back in July 2021, the outcome was determined then, the question was when and how, and now we have the answers. They want to move on, we are ready to move on. It was just doing it in a way that made sense for everyone involved.”
Our sources have told us that Yormark has strategy and ongoing projects that will add to the Big 12’s value and bring in more revenue for the members. The Big 12 Board of Directors voted on this agreement and approved it. Weiberg, as an athletic director was more of a spectator in the process, but he was kept well advised by Oklahoma State University President Dr. Kayse Shrum.
“Yeah, I think it (Big 12) will continue to grow. Again, I think that is one thing that the commissioner is great about is bringing additional opportunities to the table for us to explore,” Weiberg said to The Tulsa World. “I’ve been in this long enough to know, every time that you think, ‘How can this continue to grow?’ it just does.”
Locally and in the mind of fans on both sides is the question of Bedlam. Weiberg is sticking to the opinion that really rings true. Oklahoma chose to leave the Big 12 and thus leave Bedlam. Now, had Oklahoma State been asked to go to the SEC, would they. Absolutely, they would have, Still, in this case Bedlam, at least in football will end for probably a long time after this season’s meeting on Nov. 4 inside Boone Piickens Stadium.
“Each sport will be different,” Weiberg said. “In terms of what makes sense, what we have on our side, what we have on theirs. I suspect OU will be on our schedule in some form or fashion, in at least some of those sports.”
I agree, OSU softball coach Kenny Gajewski has said he will play the Sooners as often as they want to get together. I think baseball and soccer will also comntinue to play. Those are a little easier to put together. Basketball is enitrely possible, but football would at this stage almost have to come in the form of a CFP playoff game or bowl game.
Weiberg stopped short of projecting Oklahoma State to become the next power in the new Big 12. That was set out there over a year ago after Oklahoma State went 12-2 and came back for a dramatic and impressive win over Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. This season looked strong through the first seven games (6-1 and ranked in the top 10 in the polls), but football limped home to a 7-6 record.
Weiberg told The O’Colly he sees competition, lots of competition.
“I would push back a little bit on this concept of a power vacuum… the last three (football) championship games, Texas hasn’t been in any of those,” Weiberg said. “OU has been in it once. The other five teams are teams that are staying in the Big 12 conference. The last two teams that will be in our conference that have been in the CFP were Cincinnati and TCU.”
In other words... wide open in the new Big 12 frontier.