Mizzou and Big Ten: When a "Done Deal" Isn't Done

Bright and early this morning I was made aware of an example of the New Journalism 101.

KOMU-TV in Columbia Missouri - on its web site - posted that:

"ESPN is reporting that long-swirling rumors about Missouri joining the Big Ten Conference are coming true, although these reports are still unconfirmed.

"ESPN senior college sports writer Bruce Feldman says he spoke with the athletic director at a PAC-10 university saying that Missouri to the Big Ten was "a done deal."

The KOMU post went on to admit that:

"There isn't any other official confirmation of this report, on ESPN's website or elsewhere."

KOMU has since taken the story off its site.

All it took to determine if "a done deal" had really been done, or if it was not done, or undone, or well done, or whatever. . . was a telephone call to Missouri athletic director Mike Alden.

I made it. Actually, I had made it the previous day, but Alden and I didn't connect until Thursday morning.

"We have not been contacted," Alden told me.

As he has about every 10 days when I've called him since The Star first "broke" the story that Missouri would be willing to listen to the Big Ten about leaving the Big 12.

Do I believe Missouri will be contacted by the Big Ten? Yes, I do. But this wild speculation that a protracted look at expansion that might take a year and a half had suddenly become more immediate, has been just that. Wild speculation.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney just said as much again recently, stating the Big Ten's timeline had not shortened.

But Missouri media outlets that initially pooh-poohed the Mizzou to the Big Ten possibility as ridiculous have started to take the proposition seriously.

And suddenly even when there is a hint that somebody, somewhere, might know something, there is suddenly somebody, somewhere, who is willing to trumpet that as breaking news.

The basic tenet of the New Journalism seems to be journalists using other journalists as sources, named or unnamed.

In that light, let me say I believe Missouri is going to hear from the Big Ten Conference and that after that happens, Missouri's departure from the Big 12 very well could be a "done deal."

There now. Someone pick up that statement. Put it on a web site. Talk about it on the radio. Invite me to appear on a segment of some TV sports show.

But aside from some inflammatory remarks about why Missouri SHOULD consider bolting the Big 12 - and how interesting it is that up in Nebraska some are starting to talk about the Cornhuskers going with the Tigers - what you're going to get, for now, is just what you're getting here.

An opinion that will remain only that
until the Big Ten informs the Big 12 that it plans on talking to Mizzou. And then does it.