LINCOLN — Big 12 presidents and chancellors looked at the impact of conference realignment at a regular meeting in Dallas on Feb. 8, four months before the most recent get-together.
That information was gleaned from 57 pages of e-mails obtained by The World-Herald through a state open records request. Correspondence by NU Chancellor Harvey Perlman, Athletic Director Tom Osborne and various conference commissioners about expansion was pursued.
On Feb. 12, Commissioner Dan Beebe contacted Big 12 executives and administrators to say “expansion was discussed at the board meeting."
Beebe noted that he had been busy in the four days since that meeting with his work on the NCAA basketball committee and the NCAA football rules committee.
“Nonetheless," Beebe wrote, “I have been devoting a lot of time and attention to the issue, and I am developing strategies to address how we will proceed."
On Feb. 19, Beebe e-mailed the CEOs and A.D.s with a talking-points memo on how to discuss the realignment/expansion issue with the media and staff.
What followed were three paragraphs detailing Big 12 successes in competition, media exposure plus revenue and how rivalries have been maintained or developed with many in reasonable distance for athletes and fans.
“I request that your public comments express the positives about the Big 12," Beebe wrote.
“To the degree you feel you have to placate constituents who would like for you to express interest in another conference, I hope you can indicate that your institution is a proud member of the Big 12, but that you will monitor the environment."
Missouri President Brady Deaton apparently got the memo.
At last week's Big 12 meetings, during a three-minute interview, Deaton six times used some version of “we are a proud member of the Big 12," going on to add that his ears were open to other discussions.
About 50 of the 57 pages of correspondence released were simply forwards of newspaper and website stories about realignment and expansion.
The only indication by e-mail of direct contact on the topic between Nebraska's two key figures came from an April 20 e-mail from Osborne to Perlman.
“I spent some time with Jim Tressel from Ohio State yesterday," Osborne wrote, “and think it would be a good idea if we met sometime soon regarding the expansion landscape."
Tressel is the football coach at Ohio State. He was in Lincoln at that time to speak at a banquet.
The scarcity of e-mail communication on the topic indicates how closely Nebraska is guarding its position, at least in publicly available documents.
Also, Perlman has squashed all interview requests on the subject since a Kansas City radio station claimed a month ago that NU, Missouri and Rutgers had been invited to the Big Ten.
Contact the writer:
444-1024, lee.barfknecht@owh.com
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