Conference Expansion: Oklahoma, Missouri Holding Regents Meetings; Tin Foil Hats On

Texas A&M will reportedly join the SEC in 2012 and the dominoes are beginning to tilt in the world of college athletics. The Aggies were the first to move in this wave of conference realignment, but likely won't be the last. In fact, the next few weeks may shape the future of college athletics.

Naturally, Big 12 schools are beginning to scramble. Monday's announcement that Texas A&M would become an SEC member triggered digging, made all the more complicated by scheduled Board of Regents meetings.

Missouri has a Board of Regents, or Curators, meeting conveniently scheduled on Monday night, with a mysterious agenda item on the docket.

Here's the Mizzou posting for its BOR meeting. All executive session. Pres search and mystery item. bit.ly/oa3IO3

Oklahoma also has a Board of Regents meeting scheduled for a week from Monday, and it John Hoover added a cryptic note about negotiations.

OU regents will meet in Claremore, OK on Mon. My source on Board was asked not to talk. "Negotiations are sensitive," he said. #Sooners

As Bryan Fischer notes, the Sooners' moves may have opened the gates for Texas A&M to join the SEC.

Looks like OU deciding to go West is what A&M/SEC needed as a intervening cause to get rid of Baylor's legal threat.

These could all be normal meetings that completely ignore expansion, but it's unlikely. The topic has to come up, especially with the events of Monday afternoon. Welcome to conference expansion, where backroom meetings and dealings are the norm, and nobody knows what's going on.