The issue in this article was college institutions and their desperate need for money due to the downward spiral of the American economy. Dan Beebe was on the verge of losing at least half of the 10 remaining schools due to empty financial promises from opposing conference commissioners. The economy forced universities to put pressure on athletic departments to raise revenue.
As the commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, Dan Beebe was a leader. As a leader he had to make decisions based off unfortunate circumstances and threats. The schools in the Big 12 Conference were under pressure from other leaders, one in particularly Larry Scott new commissioner of the PAC-10 Conference
In my opinion money makes the world go around, without the need for money a lot of things that happen in life would never take place. In this case, money was the vehicle that was driving the decision making process of each university considering leaving the Big 12 Conference.
Larry Scott had a plan and Dan Beebe had to come up with one. In a two day span the University of Colorado and the University of Nebraska left the Big 12. Larry Scott persuaded Colorado and the Big Ten Conference earned a new member in Nebraska. Dan Beebe was down to 10 schools, which were all being promised higher television revenues if they accepted Larry’s offer to join the PAC-10. As a leader, Dan had to come up with a plan, I agree with the decision the Big 12 Conference made to keep it intact. Deals were made, and schools were temporarily satisfied with their so called raises, at the end of the day, despite having to forfeit their traditional championship game the Conference is still afloat.