Big 12 deal may be brewing between UT, Houston

Supporters of the University of Houston have indicated they
would consider dropping their opposition to the University of Texas expansion in Houston in exchange for a deal that allows the Cougars to join the Big 12 Conference

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This has already been posted, but please read the entire article as the majority of the quotes from both sides call the idea of a UT Houston for B12 inclusion deal poppycock:
tate Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, laughed at the idea. One of the most-tenured legislators said Houston’s push to join the Big 12 and UT’s land purchase are two separate issues. He supports the former but unloaded on the latter.

“For anyone to think there’s a swap there, I say not only no, but hell no,” Whitmire said. “They are separate and apart. I have heard from at least four other UT universities that they are concerned about the diversion of resources from their institution to a proposed, very expensive, unpurposed site in UT-Houston.”

Whitmire said that school officials overpaid for the land and that he believes UT purposely bought the land after the last legislative session to avoid oversight. “If you’ve got that kind of money to speculate in real estate, then maybe you’ve got too much money,” Whitmire said.

UT’s land purchase is now under state review. “UT System paid fair market value for the Houston land, and we consider it a wise investment,” said Jenny LaCoste-Caputo, spokeswoman for the UT System. “We’re cooperating fully with the State Auditor’s Office.”

Renu Khator, who serves as chancellor and president of the University of Houston System, was traveling and unavailable Thursday.

Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta, chairman of the UH System Board of Regents, said opposition to UT’s land purchase was not a bargaining chip.

“Nobody’s put that on the table. Nobody from UT has officially put that out there,” Fertitta said. “We don’t know right now what UT is really trying to do in the city of Houston. … We know they didn’t follow proper protocol with the state of Texas to do it to begin with. Come sit down and talk to us, OK?”

McRaven, however, denied a deal was in place.

“There’s no connection between these two matters,” LaCoste-Caputo said. “Chancellor McRaven has repeatedly said that he looks forward to making the case for the benefits that can come to Houston and Texas from this initiative in Houston. He’ll continue to do so, regardless of what the members of the Big XII decide with respect to conference expansion and the University of Houston.”

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Everybody is going to deny there’s going to be a deal until there’s a deal. If you’re not convinced of that, then you need to look at the B12 schools’ public stance about expansion in the weeks leading up to the announcement. Both UT and OU said things that made everyone believe that expansion was dead.

As i understand it, Texas has received so much flak from their own people about the school, that Texas is looking now at Houston and Tech being partners with them on this campus, though it will retain the UT name…

Make no mistake—B12 expansion was dead until the ACC deal was announced. That was the reason for the expansion moving forward suddenly, not some clandestine effort to keep it all silent. We need to quit focusing on the UT Houston expansion as the whole reason for the B12 expansion and UH B12 inclusion.

UT Houston didnt move the needle before the ACC deal and its influence on the matter remains the same after the deal was announced. Plain and simple.

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Interesting…does the PUF come with the partnership? Like a getting a suit with two pairs of pants?

No one is talking about UT Houston as the reason for Big 12 expansion. They are talking about it being the reason UT is potentially caving on UH being an expansion candidate.

Clearly the Big 12 was holding out on expansion to see if the ACC might not get their network. If they didnt, FSU, Clemson, Miami, etc. we’re all going to become expansion candidates. Big 12 announced expansion the same day ACC schools were officially off the table.