On Wednesday, day the NCAA voted to allow the Big 12 to stage a football championship game even without divisional play or at least 12 members, Boren released a statement to the OU Daily, the campus newspaper.

David Boren has his sights set on something bigger than conference expansion or a Big 12 title game. The OU president is focused on what started this whole “psychologically disadvantaged” Big 12 in the first place.

“The Big 12 is disadvantaged when compared to the other conferences in three ways. We do not have at least 12 members, we do not have a conference network and we do not have a championship game. I think that all three of these disadvantages need to be addressed at the same time. Addressing only one without addressing all three will not be adequate to improve the strength of the conference.”

What Boren is talking about is the end of Bevo TV.

The Longhorn Network was the catalyst for much of the Big 12 exodus. Certainly Texas A&M and Missouri in its wake. Nebraska’s departure a year earlier was Texas-related, but more broad-based than just UT’s impending 20-year, $300-million contract with ESPN.

While other conferences, particularly the SEC and the Big Ten, have flourished with conference networks, the Big 12 has been a European caste system with The Longhorn Network. Texas is flush with money, most of the rest of the schools have garnered little from the broadcast rights available to market on their own. And a Big 12 Network is not possible as long as Texas has Bevo TV.