Big East and Big 12 conference and school officials have been exploring ways to merge their embattled leagues, but talks have centered on an arrangement in which what's left of the Big East schools would blend into the Big 12, and not vice-versa, multiple Big 12 sources told ESPN.com's Andy Katz.

The sources said that if Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State were to leave the Big 12 and the five remaining schools do not have an opportunity to join the ACC, SEC or Big Ten, the Big 12 would move to absorb remaining Big East schools -- not the other way around.

Boards of regents from Oklahoma and Texas voted Monday to give their presidents the right to choose a new conference, though Texas' regents still held the right to give a final approval.

If the Big 12 loses those four members, Missouri, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas and Kansas State would be left to scramble for a future conference home.

One Big 12 source said the reason it would absorb the Big East is the conference's ability to secure a television deal, currently with Fox, and three more years with ESPN/ABC -- although a new configuration could open it up to a new arrangement.

But the Big 12's BCS bid won't be a lock under a new configuration.

Big East commissioner John Marinatto told The New York Times that it would hold Pitt and Syracuse, who have announced they will be leaving the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference, to the bylaw of a 27-month departure. But if other schools are gone from the Big 12 sooner, then it will have to act quickly to grab the remaining football playing schools in the Big East.

Big East athletic directors and presidents of the surviving football-member schools -- Louisville, West Virginia, South Florida, Cincinnati, Rutgers and Connecticut -- are scheduled to meet Tuesday night in New York, a conference source confirmed for ESPN.com. The meeting will not include Pitt and Syracuse.

"It's a chance to look each other in the eye and get a feel for who's in and who's out," the Big East source said.

The most likely Big East candidates to be scooped up by remaining Big 12 schools are Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida and TCU, with the prospect that UConn and Rutgers may not be available if each school can land in the ACC.

West Virginia would obviously be high on the list and the first one to be invited in any kind of merger if the Mountaineers don't wind up in the SEC.

Without Syracuse and Pittsburgh, the Big East still has six football members, Cincinnati, UConn, South Florida, Rutgers, Louisville and West Virginia. Plus TCU is slated to join in 2012, giving the Big East a presence in Big 12 country.