Brown vs. Schad: Who do you believe?

As the Big 12 world turns continues today with conflicting reports! Oh happy day! Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, who has been ahead of everyone else in this entire conference realignment story, is reporting that conference commissioner Dan Beebe has somehow convinced Texas to stay, saving a 10-team conference that is now minus Nebraska and Colorado.

Contradicting this report is ESPN's Joe Schad, who reports that the move of Texas to the Pac-10 or Pac-16 or whatever it's supposed to be called is imminent. All sources agree that Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech will stick with Texas, so if Schad is right, those four will all go to the Pac-10 and if Brown is right, those four will stay in the Big 12.

But wither Texas A&M? It appears that they are still considering all options, including joining Texas in the Pac-16, sticking with Texas in the 10-team Big 12 and venturing out on their own to the SEC.

Brown's report contradicts all of his other reports that indicated Texas was as good as gone to the Pac-10, which is fantastic irony in and of itself. Skeptics among us believe that both Brown and Schad are correct in their latest scoops. Brown would be right that Texas would in fact be willing to stay in a 10-team Big 12 (Beebe, presumably, has guaranteed big dollars in a new television deal while also allowing Texas to start their own network). Schad would be right that Texas and the others are gone because Texas A&M is gone (most believe A&M is as good as gone to the SEC). If there's no Texas A&M, there's no 10-team conference, paving the way for Texas (and the others) to leave.

This sounds like the dream scenario for Texas, which can then leave and publicly place the blame for the death of the conference on Texas A&M, Nebraska and Colorado for jumping ship, even though all three (well, maybe not Colorado) jumped ship because Texas' indecisiveness put the conference on shaky ground in the first place.

I don't foresee Texas successfully escaping blame for the collapse of the conference under this scenario because, you know, most people have a brain and know that all of this talk would have ended months ago if Texas had just stated they had no intention of leaving.