No people, Dan Bebee is not running the show. Once I heard the figures he was spouting out revenue-wise, there was no possible way he could have come up with a plan like that which didn't involve outside help. The usual suspects asserted themselves Monday when Texas seemed willing to return to their Big 12 roots.
Hmm...I wonder what TV network would want to keep conferences weak and the BCS in place?
It figures that unnamed televison network, which now has huge television contracts tied into the BCS, the SEC, the ACC, the Big Ten, the Big East and several other mid major conferences would do their best to maintain their hold over the other two big kahunas in college sports. They would have to pay super extra bucks for television rights for a Pac-16. They would be happy to keep the conferences in their. More importantly, it would jeopardize their hold on the BCS, which would be one step closer to oblivion if the super conferences came into form.
Unnamed television network doesn't want competitors to enter the scene. They don't want some fox to come along and challenge their dominion over college football by taking over TV rights for half the country. They don't want a conference to band together and become top dog over any of the other conferences unnamed television network has in their pocket. They sure as hell don't want the BCS to die--no matter how much money a playoff might generate, when something is making good money, the people in charge feel very little desire to change the system to even consider the risk of losing those profits. As the dominant power over all of college football, it was clear they had to make a move to hold onto their power or risk being cut in half with one swift stroke.
So unnamed television network promised the quick fix. They contacted the commissioner and promised enough TV money to keep the conference financially stable. They shill out the extra money for a Texas TV network (pocket change for unnamed television network compared to the vast loss Texas would be if they ended up on a competitor's network) to keep the Longhorns placated, since that's all they wanted to begin with. Then they promise bigger, better contracts to ensure more TV games, better exposure, etc. No matter how much more profitable Pac-10 expansion might be, nothing works as well as the magical wand of unnamed television network promising more TV for everyone, especially Texas, right here and right now.
While I'm not sure if all of these events have occurred as I've plotted them out above, I'd bet quite a bit that events of a similar nature have led to what appears to be the dissolution of the Great Scott Experiment. And unnamed television network (not Bob Delaney, not Larry Scott, not the NCAA) gets what it wants--supremacy over college sports.
Or I could be all wrong about this, and Dan Bebee has found a way to utilize unobtanium.