Oklahoma State AD on realignment: ‘We just want to be with Texas when the dust settles!’

Okla St hopes to stick with Texas in realignment

OKLAHOMA CITY — When Big 12 teams are done shuffling, Oklahoma State officials are hopeful they’ll still be united with national powerhouse Texas.

Colorado became the first Big 12 team to leave when it decided Thursday to join the Pac-10 Conference. Oklahoma State is one of five other Big 12 teams that may also head to the Pac-10, but the key factor appears to be what the Longhorns do.

In an e-mail to University of Texas system regent Robert L. Stillwell last week, OSU athletic director Mike Holder wrote: “We just want to be with Texas when the dust settles!”

Stillwell is linked to Oklahoma State through longtime associate T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire alumnus who has donated millions of dollars to both schools.

Pickens provided the lion’s share of the funding for a $286 million overhaul to the Cowboys’ football stadium, including new weight rooms and luxury suites. He also promised $100 million to two University of Texas medical centers in 2007, with the caveat that they must grow the donation to $500 million in 25 years or else send any interest on the initial gift to OSU.

“We’ve certainly invested heavily to be competitive in the conference,” university president Burns Hargis said. “But if all of this noise turns out to be real, I think we have options thanks to the investments we’ve made at OSU.”

Pickens is not mentioned by name in any of the e-mail exchanges released to The Associated Press on Friday after an open records request. Another e-mail from Holder to Stillwell last week states: “Looks like Texas may be headed to Pac-10. … Just lucky that OSU will get to join you if push comes to shove. Pays to have friends!”

The e-mails confirm the school’s public stance that it has preferred to keep the Big 12 together, including Holder encouraging conference commissioner Dan Beebe to force schools such as Nebraska and Missouri to confirm their commitment to the league.

But they also show the school is examining its options.

One message from Holder to Hargis during last week’s Big 12 meetings included particularly mixed messages. Just two sentences after he encourages Hargis to get Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman “in the fold,” he suggests that Perlman should “commit to (the) Big 12 now or he is in the Big 6 hoping for a call from (Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany).”

That passage would suggest six teams would be leaving the conference — perhaps for the Pac-10 — even if Nebraska stuck around.