Never Mind: Texas Won't Move, Killing Big 12 Realignment Nightmares

Texas is really, truly staying in the Big 12 … or the Big 10 … or whatever it is now. Put it this way: No Pac-16.

The announcement came on the university’s official website, which means it’s more solid than almost anything else that’s been reported on this so far.

The University of Texas at Austin’s athletics programs will continue competing in the Big 12 Conference, the university announced today.

Of course, logic would say they change the name of the conference, but the Big Ten’s been at 11 teams for years, so those are details. Meanwhile, Yahoo!‘s Dan Wetzel is tweeting that Texas A&M will follow suit, apparently spurning the SEC’s efforts to make the Aggies the 13th team in that league.

This could end the biggest upheavals in the conference realignment game, taking away the incentive for the Big Ten and / or the SEC to plunder the ACC or the Big East for more teams to either counter a Pac-16 or balance an A&M pickup. But the Mountain West could be in trouble, with the Pac-11 now looking for a 12th team and the Big 12 potentially considering new additions.