Well, that was fun while it lasted.
A day after a report emerged that the Big Ten had engaged in “preliminary exchanges” with Texas about moving to the conference, the league’s commissioner attempted to throw cold water on the hot-burning rumors.
Speaking to a Chicago radio station by way of Adam Rittenberg‘s Big Ten blog on ESPN.com, Jim Delany said that not only had there been no preliminary talks with Texas, but the league has held no “informal or formal” talks with anyone.
“There were reports a few weeks ago about one institution [Pitt],” Delany was quoted as telling WSCR. “This week, there were reports about another institution [Texas]. I can report to you guys we haven’t had any informal or formal interface with any institutions. We’re in the process of an internal study, and we’ll take those studies and those options and talk to our athletic directors, who then will pass on their thoughts to our presidents. I hope, by the spring or the summer, we’ll have an idea of what it is we’d like to try to do, if anything.”
Not only did Delany say that Texas has not been contacted, he also seemed to rule them out by saying that the conference “will continue to have a pretty significant geographic connectivity to it.”
Of course, at this early stage, nothing can be concretely ruled out either way with anyone rumored to be a favorite to take part in expansion.
However, Delaney’s words seem to indicate that the Texas-to-Big Ten talk is right back to where it was the day before yesterday -- a pie-in-the-sky dream that will likely not happen.