Texas the "Good Looking Girl at the Dance" for Big Ten?

Kirk Bohls, a columnist for the Austin American-Statesman who shares a smarty pants bent much like mine, is using unnamed sources to counter unnamed sources out of Lawrence, Kan., that says the Big Ten is talking to Texas about leaving the Big 12.

Not really that the Big Ten might not have had someone talk up the Longhorns. Sounds like a good idea if the Big Ten could get it done.

But here's what Bohl's wrote about the possibility Texas would bolt:

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I've been assured by higher-ups at Texas that this is nothing more than a wishlist on the Big Ten's part. As one school official said, "We're the good-looking girl at the dance." Another even higher up the food chain told me, "It ain't going to happen."

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Now if at least one of the sources isn't Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds, it sure sounds like him.

And, a month ago, Dodds to the Austin newspaper this move was not going to happen.

Here's why it likely won't happen.

First, the athletic powers in the Big Ten don't want to add a Texas sports program that could, and probably would, starting winning championship after championship in football, basketball, swimming and baseball. Just to cherry pick a few sports.

Second, why would Texas want to play Ohio State and Michigan and Penn State rather than Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Baylor?

The way things have gone recently in football, the Longhorns are all but guaranteed to win at least two of three of those games.

I can hear Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe any moment decrying how it would be hard for Texas to give up rivalries with the Aggies and the Bears. And hey, he'd be more right than he was when he said Missouri would have a hard time giving up "rivalries" with Texas and Texas Tech.

But the main thing is that Texas already pretty much controls the Big 12 and has a pretty sweet deal with the lopsided TV and other revenue sharing deals.

Why go to a conference where Texas would have to split revenues evenly?

And, why go to a conference where the all-sports travel budget would cost a lot more than it does now in the Texas-centric Big 12?

I did some checking the past few days and I'm getting nothing on Missouri having talked to the Big 10, or the Big Ten having sent out feelers to Mizzou.

Doesn't mean it has or has not happened. Just means my MU sources either do not know or are just not telling me.

Something I'm certain of: There will be tons more speculation along the lines of Pitt being about to announce a jump to the Big Ten (which didn't happen), and of Texas being on a Big Ten wish list (which is kind of a no brainer considering everything the best-funded athletic machine in college sports could bring to the frozen north conference).

I expect any day to hear that the Pac 10 and the Big Ten are both wining and dining Colorado officials in a tug of war over a school that brings nothing to either conference.

The Denver TV market you say? Colorado doesn't deliver that now to the Big 12.

The current condition of CU football and men's basketball isn't exactly the moderately good-looking girl at the dance.

Thanks Kirk. I like that metaphor. Like it a lot.