Mack Rhoades rolled into Ball Arena waving an olive branch in one hand and an invitation in the other.“I’ll say what I’ve said before: I don’t think anybody’s rooting for the demise of the Pac-12,” the Baylor athletic director told me with a grin as we chatted outside the Bears’ locker room, where his team is preparing for its NCAA Tournament matchup with 14th-seeded UC Santa Barbara here Friday.
“I think everybody’s talking about it right now — I think there’s a lot of side conversations going on,” Rhoades continued. “I think it’s safe to say we’re all having conversations amongst the ADs within the Big 12 and certainly within the Pac-12. And I’d be disingenuous if we didn’t say that there’s Big 12 ADs talking with Pac-12 , relationships that go back years.”
Hey, if you’re the Buffs, it’s always good to have options. But just like politics these days, the “truth” on how cozy things ACTUALLY got between the Pac-12’s “Four Corners” schools — CU, Arizona State, Arizona and Utah — and the Big 12 depends on your sources. And your world view. Arizona’s president told Bay News Group’s Jon Wilner earlier this week a “competitive” media rights deal