O’Colly
Kayse Shrum had her back against the wall less than a month into her job as president of Oklahoma State.
When OU and Texas announced their decision to leave Big 12 for the SEC in July 2021, the remaining eight schools were cast into uncertainty. Everything from adding teams or staying put, to merging with another conference or each going its separate way was all on the table. OSU’s athletic future was on the chopping block, and Shrum had to navigate it.
The Big 12 now sits at 16 teams for the 2024-25 season after the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah the past few weeks, and OSU’s foundation sits on rock, not sand.
“It’s much better to be on this side of conference realignment,” Shrum said Thursday evening at “A Night with OSU” in Oklahoma City.
OSU football coach Mike Gundy and athletic director Chad Weiberg gave their thoughts on conference realignment last Saturday at OSU Football Media Day, but Shrum had yet to address it publicly. On Thursday, she looked back at what transpired on the realignment front since she took office and said it’s worked out nicely for OSU.
That wasn’t the tone Shrum had two years ago, when she called the move a “detriment to the State of Oklahoma” and said it “broke a bond of trust between our universities in existence for decades.” Although, she’s the first person to admit she’s changed her stance.
“If you would have asked me two years ago if I felt like it was a good thing that the school down south followed the other school, Texas, out of our conference and that was the first domino, I would have said no,” Shrum said. “But today, looking back on it, I think they did us a huge favor.”
The Pac-12 missed chances to end the Big 12 a couple times, as Shrum pointed out. In 2021, a proposed merger with the Pac-12 would have given the Big 12 remnants a home, and the Pac 12 would have been here to stay.
“And they chose not to,” Shrum said. “And I think their downfall was greed and snobbery, I guess. Because they didn't want to be diluted, and they didn’t think that we were on par.”
Shrum said being aggressive is important making decisions, and that’s something Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark did with the addition of the four Pac-12 schools and former commissioner Bob Bowlsby did with bringing in BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF.
She said that kind of leadership and unity within the universities is what allowed the Big 12 to survive the run ins with trouble. There’s trust between the schools in the new Big 12, and that’s important to Shrum.
“Look at what's happened in the Pac-12, where the schools that held out and didn't want to add any teams are the ones that have left their conferences,” she said.
“And so, we don't have any prima donnas in our conference anymore. They’re gone. And we have a group of presidents that respect each other’s university and do what’s right for the Big 12.”
www.ocolly.com
Kayse Shrum had her back against the wall less than a month into her job as president of Oklahoma State.
When OU and Texas announced their decision to leave Big 12 for the SEC in July 2021, the remaining eight schools were cast into uncertainty. Everything from adding teams or staying put, to merging with another conference or each going its separate way was all on the table. OSU’s athletic future was on the chopping block, and Shrum had to navigate it.
The Big 12 now sits at 16 teams for the 2024-25 season after the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah the past few weeks, and OSU’s foundation sits on rock, not sand.
“It’s much better to be on this side of conference realignment,” Shrum said Thursday evening at “A Night with OSU” in Oklahoma City.
OSU football coach Mike Gundy and athletic director Chad Weiberg gave their thoughts on conference realignment last Saturday at OSU Football Media Day, but Shrum had yet to address it publicly. On Thursday, she looked back at what transpired on the realignment front since she took office and said it’s worked out nicely for OSU.
That wasn’t the tone Shrum had two years ago, when she called the move a “detriment to the State of Oklahoma” and said it “broke a bond of trust between our universities in existence for decades.” Although, she’s the first person to admit she’s changed her stance.
“If you would have asked me two years ago if I felt like it was a good thing that the school down south followed the other school, Texas, out of our conference and that was the first domino, I would have said no,” Shrum said. “But today, looking back on it, I think they did us a huge favor.”
The Pac-12 missed chances to end the Big 12 a couple times, as Shrum pointed out. In 2021, a proposed merger with the Pac-12 would have given the Big 12 remnants a home, and the Pac 12 would have been here to stay.
“And they chose not to,” Shrum said. “And I think their downfall was greed and snobbery, I guess. Because they didn't want to be diluted, and they didn’t think that we were on par.”
Shrum said being aggressive is important making decisions, and that’s something Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark did with the addition of the four Pac-12 schools and former commissioner Bob Bowlsby did with bringing in BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF.
She said that kind of leadership and unity within the universities is what allowed the Big 12 to survive the run ins with trouble. There’s trust between the schools in the new Big 12, and that’s important to Shrum.
“Look at what's happened in the Pac-12, where the schools that held out and didn't want to add any teams are the ones that have left their conferences,” she said.
“And so, we don't have any prima donnas in our conference anymore. They’re gone. And we have a group of presidents that respect each other’s university and do what’s right for the Big 12.”
'They did us a huge favor': OSU President Kayse Shrum addresses OSU's, Big 12's position in conference realignment
Kayse Shrum had her back against the wall less than a month into her job as president of Oklahoma State.
www.ocolly.com
