And if you think Kenneth Starr doesn't know how to use subpoenas to maximum effect, you must have been in diapers in the 90's.

Don't know why you SEC folk are getting all uppity about it anyways. It's not about you. You're just a handy tool here. This is about Baylor scaring off the Pac 12 and keeping the Big 12-3 alive once Aggy's gone. TI wouldn't be much of a threat to the SEC because losing A&M wouldn't produce many damages. With UT, OU and an AQ spot the conference is still viable. But losing OU and OSU next week would immolate the Big 12-3, causing damage to small schools in the hundreds of millions, so the Pac 12 should take the Starr threat seriously.

that may be why Mike Slive is avoiding litigation at all costs… nothing good can come of it

And I think Mr. Pennington is underestimating how massive a pain in the ass a TI lawsuit would be for any conference. Emails, internal memos, phone records, employee interviews would all be subpoenaed. And if any of those sources shows that the SEC offered anything in the way of encouragement or enticement to A&M to break its contracts, the conference will be forced to redress the plaintiffs for economic loss. In the Big East/ACC case it was hard to demonstrate much economic loss; both conferences shuffled teams around and the TV deals didn't really suffer much. In the Big 12 case, if a handful of schools get demoted to non-AQ conferences it wouldn't be hard for them to make a case for a eight-digit penalty. Apiece.

The "A&M doesn't have a contract with Baylor" issue doesn't hold water either. If the SEC is found to commit tortious interference then any party directly damaged by the breach of contract has a right to sue. Liability is not limited to the literal counterparty of the contract. Such an argument would be especially silly in this case because Big 12 Inc. is a corporate entity owned by the schools that would sue, so they are in fact a literal counterparty.

But hopefully OU will succumb to its fate soon and end all of this. A&M can leave but the Big 12-3 will live on, at least through the end of the TV contract.

Can they really go to 20? Or do some basketball only schools get booted?

I am think that you will see an announcement tonight of the B12 inviting boise St. to replace A&M. There is a plane that took off from Alabama, landed in college station for 30 minutes and is flying direct to Boise, ID. This might be what the B12 members need to sign off on the right to sue and let A&M leave cleanly. The B12 does not want to keep them, and A&M does not want to stay. So the B12 is going to try and do everything possible to make all parties happy so this issue will disappear.

Texas, TT, OU, Ok ST go west

A&M goes to the SEC

Baylor & Iowa State cry like babies before going to the Sunbelt or WAC

What about Kansas, K State, MizzWho? Should we be expecting lawsuits from them as well?

Will someone take Kansas & K State? Nobody mentions them ever in all this

2. Perhaps the league doesn’t want to get bogged down in any type of legal red tape. The SEC has plenty of money, but attorney fees can get pretty darn expensive. More to the point, who wants the headaches and all the bad publicity?

3. Perhaps the SEC is just playing chicken with Oklahoma, Texas and the Pac-12.
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I think its 1 & 2

He has always maintained he will not be predatory, but will listen if teams come looking to him. He doesn't want to take the blame if the Big XII falls apart

if A&M leaves, it wont be the end… if OU leaves, then its game over. But its like Dominos if A&M leaves that may cause OU to leave and so on and so on… so maybe Slive doesn't want that on his plate either

He's also been very open about his intentions to avoid lawsuits, just b/c of the headaches and time and energy involved. why deal with such an immense hassle if you dont have to

I dont know about chicken… but I'm know he'd love for the Pac 12 and OU to go ahead and announce a move so he wouldn't have to move first