Behind the Scenes on Missouri’s Move to the SEC
Had West Virginia not settled their exit fees with the Big East, a landmark lawsuit might have delayed Missouri leaving the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference.
Courtesy of some stellar reporting by David Briggs at the Columbia Tribune and the convenience of the Freedom of Information Act, a series of emails between Big 12 power brokers tells an intriguing tale.
The lawsuit, slated to be filed in Boone County Circuit Court, never came to pass. But the 12-page draft of a petition for injunctive relief was obtained by the Tribune this month. It charged the SEC with illegally enticing Missouri to breach its contractual commitment to the Big 12 — an effort the suit states was “willful, deliberate and in bad faith” and the cause of “irreparable injury to the Big 12 for which money damages is not an adequate remedy.”
The draft requested an injunction to bar the SEC from accepting Missouri before June 30, 2016, the final day of the current Big 12 member agreement.
Interim commissioner Chuck Neinas likely had no interest in keeping the Tigers that long but the Big 12 required ten teams in 2012 and the Mountaineers hadn’t confirmed their Big East departure yet. Watch Texas A&M and Missouri bolt to the SEC early and only nine remaining Big 12 schools meant ESPN, ABC and Fox could renegotiate their television deals. That would produce less annual revenue for each campus and if there’s one thing that scares the old off college executives, it’s less money in the bank account.
So in theory, Neinas could threaten SEC commissioner Mike Slive with litigation, as outlined below in the block quote, and hope the latter didn’t mind playing a 2012 schedule with 13 teams before both conferences moved on in 2013.
“We need to discuss litigation idea with Slive even if we do not intend to file,” Neinas wrote in a Nov. 8 email to Kansas City-based lawyer Kevin Sweeney and Oklahoma State President Burns Hargis, who replaced Missouri Chancellor Brady Deaton as the chairman of the Big 12 board of directors. “Remember, Slive is a lawyer and was sensitive to what the SEC has done to B12. … Taking two members within a year appears to be designed to purposely weaken a conference that challenges for BCS positioning.”
Sweeney responded three days later with a draft of the lawsuit.
“This gives you something to ‘wave around’ … when you speak with Commissioner Slive,” he wrote to Neinas.
The article goes on to detail some petty snippets between various university administrators but I found the push by notable Kansas City businessmen surprising. A group that included the Hallmark CEO and the co-owner of Kansas City’s MLS team appealed to Missouri’s curators and their chancellor, Dr. Brady Deaton to consider the economic ramifications on the city if Missouri left the Big 12. What’s not shocking about that? Even boosters have dollar signs in mind when asking colleges to think through a conference-changing decision.
With West Virginia’s 2012 entry into the Big 12 now guaranteed, the draft of the Big 12′s lawsuit isn’t anything more than speculation, sparking innumerable questions. What might have happened had it been filed? Would the SEC fight to include Missouri in 2012? Will college realignment ever end?
The conclusion, perhaps four conferences of sixteen teams each that is so often cited, seems an eternity away even as a college football playoff looms over the horizon.
But the beginning of this university version of musical chairs centered around television revenue and football began in May of 2010. Before Larry Scott and the then-Pac 10 ramped up pursuit of the heavyweights in the Big 12, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon went public with his affirmation for Tigers to court the Big Ten.
“Going to the Big Ten is a step up in branding, it’s a step up in reputation,” he said.
Missouri may not have started this endless dance of dollars but the Tigers were a very willing participant throughout. They longed for a Big Ten invite, were crushed when Nebraska received one, stewed at the decision makers in the Big 12 and ultimately settled on a future in the SEC.
Blameless?
Not in this game. No one is.
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