Jason Williams

jwilliams@enquirer.com

This story was originally posted February 14, 2016.

President Santa Ono has led a quiet and diligent effort to position the University of Cincinnati to join the Big 12 Conference, one that’s won high praise from a powerful official who is key to deciding whether the league will expand.

The university released emails, travel records and other documents to The Enquirer last week that give insight into UC’s attempt to join a Power 5 conference – a move that would position the Bearcats among the haves in a growing schism in college athletics rooted in television money and influence.

Big 12 expansion is not imminent, but UC is believed to be on a short list of schools to join a 10-member conference that includes traditional football heavyweights Oklahoma and Texas. Big 12 presidents and chancellors met earlier this month and reportedly discussed expansion, but no decisions were made. They are scheduled to meet again in May, when a decision on adding universities could be made.

“I am indeed optimistic that through these efforts the University of Cincinnati is positioned exceptionally well to continue to compete at the highest level,” Ono told The Enquirer in his first public comments about the efforts to move to the Big 12.

Doc: Big 12 money would be nice for UC

Here is a look at the findings in the documents, which The Enquirer obtained through a public records request:

1.) University of Oklahoma President David Boren appears to really like Ono and UC.

That’s a big deal. Oklahoma and the University of Texas are the Big 12’s power brokers, and major decisions flow through their presidents. Boren and Ono talked in Washington, D.C., while they were in town for a social function early last year, according to emails. Boren followed up with a brief email to Ono on Feb. 13, 2015, saying it was a “real pleasure” to see him.

“You are truly an outstanding leader and knowing that you are at the helm in Cincinnati makes me even more inclined to support your cause,” said Boren, a former Oklahoma governor and U.S. senator.

Boren also told Ono that he, West Virginia President Gordon Gee and Baylor President Ken Starr had been appointed to a Big 12 subcommittee to look at expansion. “We still face an uphill battle with several of our other colleagues,” Boren wrote.

“I appreciate the leadership of yourself, Gordon and Ken and stand ready to provide you with any information you might need about the University of Cincinnati,” Ono wrote to Boren the following day. In the email, Ono also said he was willing to visit Boren in Oklahoma.

2.) Fortune 500 executives have helped promote UC to top Big 12 leaders.

Kroger and Macy’s executives have promoted the university, apparently at Ono’s request, according to emails.

In a brief email on Oct. 7, 2014, then-Kroger CEO David Dillon told Ono that he had separate discussions with Kansas State University President Kirk Schulz, the University of Kansas chancellor ( Bernadette Gray-Little) and a member of the Kansas Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s two Big 12 schools. Schulz “was complimentary of the upward trajectory of UC,” Dillon, a Kansas native and University of Kansas graduate, told Ono.

Macy’s Senior Vice President Carl Goertemoeller told Ono in a Nov. 12, 2014, email that he had met with a business acquaintance who was a cousin of the president at Texas Christian University, a Big 12 member. “I asked him to do me a favor and tell his cousin to get behind the idea of bringing UC into the Big 12,” Goertemoeller wrote. “He said he would definitely carry the message.”

The Macy’s executive also said in the email he had used the “elevator talking points” that Ono had provided him.

3.) Former Kansas State president Jon Wefald has advised Ono, but says UC may have to take a financial “haircut.”

Wefald, who retired in 2009, was K-State’s president when the Big 12 formed in 1996. He sent several emails to Ono and his staff in December 2014 and January 2015, some of which give insight to the enormous amount of television money involved in major-college sports and the possibility UC might have to settle for a smaller share initially if it were to change conferences.

In a Dec. 18, 2014, email to Ono’s executive assistant Larry Lampe, Wefald said the “timing is right now with no time to waste.” Other messages indicated that Wefald emphasized the sense of urgency because the Big 12 had recently been shut out of the newly formed and lucrative four-team College Football Playoff.

Many believed conference titans Baylor and TCU were left out at the end of the 2014 season because the Big 12 lacked enough teams to hold a conference championship game to determine a true champion. (Last month, the NCAA gave the Big 12 permission to hold a title game with 10 teams.)

In a Jan. 26, 2015, message to Ono, Wefald said he had talked to several key Big 12 leaders, mentioning Boren and then-Texas President Bill Powers.

“David is impressed with Cincinnati,” Wefald told Ono. “He knows that UC is a big-time school. ... Now, I did not talk to him about the revenues that each school gets. I doubt that he would be enthused about any kind of a ‘major haircut.’”

Later in the email, Wefald said: “The only way I see to get Cincinnati into the Big 12 is this: that UC and the 2nd school would have to volunteer to take the financial haircut yourselves. Why? Because the three major networks will never add enough monies to allow the next two schools to have the same revenues as the 10 to (sic) now.”

Wefald continued: “The emphasis of UC right now should be this: Get into the Big 12 and worry about equal revenues later. So get in now and tell the other 10 universities that you and the second school will take the haircut.”

Television revenue can amount to more than $20 million per school in conferences such as the SEC, where Missouri and Texas A&M moved from the Big 12 four years ago.

Texas’ Powers “likes the idea of 10 schools,” Wefald told Ono. Powers resigned from Texas in June.

4.) Ono has traveled to meet with Big 12 leaders.

In January 2015, Ono took two separate trips to Texas. He traveled to Dallas early that month for the National Panhellenic Conference Sorority Symposium. Records provided by UC make no specific mention of meetings with Big 12 officials, but the conference’s offices are based in suburban Dallas. Later that month, Ono traveled to Austin and had lunch with Powers “to discuss future collaborations with the University of Texas,” according to records.

Ono traveled to Manhattan, Kansas, Nov. 28-30, 2014, according to records. He met with K-State President Schulz and Assistant Vice President Emeritus Bill Muir “to discuss collaborations with Kansas State.” UC paid for a $326.38 dinner for the three of them at the Manhattan Country Club on Nov. 28.

In an interview with The Enquirer last week, Wefald said he met Ono in a stadium suite at K-State’s home football that weekend. Wefald is not officially working on behalf of K-State and the Big 12 regarding expansion, he said.

No other travel records were provided in the public records request. But according to the UC Foundation board meeting minutes from April, Ono “personally visited every Big 12 president regarding the merits of the University of Cincinnati and its academic and athletic programs.” It is possible private donors paid for Ono’s additional travel, as it’s common for athletic boosters to provide such support.

5.) UC has produced data comparing it to Big 12 schools.

Boulder, Colorado-based Pacey Economics and UC officials analyzed athletic budget, fundraising, academic research, enrollment and TV market data to see how the university stacked up against current Big 12 members.

In a splashy brochure dated November 2014, UC shows how it compares to the Big 12 schools in 10 categories – including annual giving, National Merit Scholars, total research expenditures, enrollment and endowment assets. Cincinnati would rank in the conference’s top 5 in each category listed, except the U.S. News & World Report rankings, which would put UC seventh.

Pacey’s research, completed in late 2014, looked at athletic budgets, football and basketball success, academics and TV market size. UC’s annual athletics budget ($27.7 million in 2015) would be the lowest in the Big 12, but Pacey pointed out that would be expected to increase in a conference where the athletic department could make more money.

If UC joined the Big 12, it would put the conference in Ohio, a state with 4.5 million TV households, according to Pacey research. Only Texas – where four Big 12 schools are based – has more TV households among states where the conference has members.

“In terms of statistics that matter, Cincinnati stacked up favorably,” firm owner Patricia Pacey told The Enquirer. Her firm performed the work for no cost at the request of UC Athletic Director Mike Bohn, who had developed a relationship with Pacey Economics when he was the AD at the University of Colorado.

What is UC hiding about Big 12 Conference?

Move could generate extra $20 million per year

On Nov. 17, The Enquirer asked UC for Big 12-related records dating to Oct. 1, 2014.

The university released them on Wednesday, a day after The Enquirer requested to talk to the board’s legal counsel.

Most of the records provided were dated late 2014 and early 2015. Very few records were provided from the second half of 2015. Nonetheless, Ono’s statement to The Enquirer indicates the university’s efforts are ongoing.

Ono remains committed to doing his part to get UC into a conference that could generate in excess of $20 million a year more than what the university brings in as a member of the American Athletic Conference.

“It is true that one of my biggest responsibilities as president of the University of Cincinnati is to represent the institution’s record, accomplishments and dynamism,” Ono said. “It is an honor and privilege to tell that story. I do so with tremendous pride."

Ono continued: "I think there is widespread and ever-increasing recognition of the outstanding strengths of the University of Cincinnati as an academic institution and as a destination for Division I athletics. Our brand has never been stronger.”

Expansion dependent on TV money

The Big 12 has reached a critical point in its 20-year history, according to media reports, and the league might make some big decisions by this spring that could determine whether it has a long-term future. It is the only Power 5 conference that doesn’t have a football championship game and one of only two of those leagues that does not have its own TV network.

Oklahoma’s Boren and West Virginia’s Gee reportedly favor expansion, but they apparently still have been unable to convince a majority of the Big 12’s presidents and chancellors to get on board. Boren had publicly talked about his desire to expand until the leaders agreed during this month's meeting to keep talks private, according to the Dallas Morning News.

“I have a policy of not commenting on Big 12 possibilities for any specific college,” Boren told The Enquirer.

The Enquirer also reached out to West Virginia’s Gee, Baylor’s Starr and Kansas State’s Schulz, who chairs the Big 12 board. None of them were available for comment.

If the Big 12 expands, it most likely will add two schools to get back to 12 members. UC is believed to be competing with about a half-dozen schools, including BYU and current American Athletic Conference rivals Connecticut and Central Florida. UC and BYU appear to be the front-runners, according to Sports Illustrated.

In the end, though, it may not be about which school puts forth the best effort to impress the Big 12’s decision makers.

“It’s all about TV,” said Lee Igel, a sports business expert and co-director of New York University’s Sports & Society program.

And TV money seems to be a major reason the Big 12 has not been in a hurry to expand since losing Nebraska, Missouri, Texas A&M and Colorado, starting in 2011. (The conference added West Virginia and TCU in 2012 to get to 10 members.)

"The problem with the glut of unattractive candidates is there's a concern the league won't be able to keep the same share of television money if it expands," Sport Illustrated's Pete Thamel recently wrote. "The general thought in the conference is that adding two teams would get the Big 12 close to where it is now revenue wise."