(I can see comments on my work computer, but have to respond via mobile, so this is likely my only response)

First, I never said Alden should not speak with Beebe. Far from. And In fact, I am quite sure they did. Why wouldn’t they have? But, once again, because there was no press release about it (hey…news guy..you do know things happen without releases all the time…right?), you seem to be stuck on the idea not enough was done to prevent what happened.

In this case with the Big 10, I think Mizzou is playing this exactly right. Let all the stories be written about how good a fit we might be, but do so without any official comment? You know why? Because there is nothing to comment on. Pressure is going to be (and already is all more than likely) brought simply through the news cycle. This way, no matter how it turns out, no bridges are burnt, but everyonne potentially sees how we should be treated (whether from the big 10 or big XII)

I realize this still won’t be good enough and you still want Alden to come out and voice his disappointment, but what happens then? Say he does that, and in turn, starts our full court press for the Big 10 (because…again…he would likely become the first AD of a BCS school to come out voicing disappoinment in their conference since no evidence was ever found to the contrary) But they take Pitt instead…then where are we? Did not get what we wanted, and now we need to crawl back to what we had, having given the big XII even more of the upper hand against us.

We get it. You did not like it and you wanted some answers, beyond of course what was already out there. But don’t think for a minute that either I did not want alden to talk to Beebe, or that it did not happen anyway. Stuff does happen without your knowledge :-)

They tried that in the mid-90s with a 16-team WAC. It lead to the conference splitting and forming the MWC. Revenues split 16 ways makes for a very crowded playing field.