It was a game of musical chairs. The Pac-10 was trying to expand by taking a chunk of the Big 12 (Colorado, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and OSU) to grow to 16 schools. This would leave the rest of the Big 12 in a rump conference, and those schools (Mizzou, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State) were desperate for a landing place.
At the same time, the Big 10 was interested in adding one school out west to move to 12 schools. Missouri and Nebraska were the two choices, and Nebraska out-maneuvered Missouri in the negotiations.
The Pac 16 deal subsequently blew up because Texas A&M balked at moving to a league on the west coast and the PAC 10 would not accept Baylor as a substitute for Texas A&M, so they settled for expanding with only Colorado and Utah.
Knowing that the Big 10 was weakened, the SEC spoke with Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma about joining. Texas refused, and Oklahoma could not move without Oklahoma State. Texas A&M accepted, and Missouri was offered membership as the SEC needed another team to balance the conference.
When the Big 10 did expand later, they moved east with Rutgers and Maryland.
(#80 continued)
… after which the Big Ten had 12 teams, while the Big XXII had 10 teams …
… and now the Big Ten has 14 teams, while the Big XXII has 10 teams …
(But the Pac-12 at least has a name matching the number of teams.)
Factors other than the quality of the football program goes into these decisions to invite schools to power 5 conferences. No one think’s Rutgers is a powerhouse.
The SEC wanted Mizzou, because it was an AAU member, and it fit the culture (large land grant flagship). They also needed to go from 13 (with TAMU) to 14 for scheduling reasons.
The B1G thought Nebraska would also be an AAU member…Rutgers and Maryland are AAU members.
The Pac12 wanted to be the B1G (from a revenue generation standpoint, network deals, etc.), which requires them to expand to add teams/games and a championship game.
The ACC wanted to keep up with everyone else or lose teams to the other conferences (back when everyone thought the leagues would expand to 16 teams).
EDIT: How did TAMU end up in the SEC? It all started because TAMU’s president at the time, R. Bowen Loftin,(does that name ring a bell?), would sit next to UF’s president, Bernard Machen at the AAU meetings (seating is done alphabetically, “L” next to “M”.). Once UT pulled it’s “Hey, we’ve decided you guys are coming with us to the new Pac16, no need to thank us!”, it open the door to TAMU to think about it’s options…and Loftin already had a relationship with Machen.
MU should announce a new Chancellor soon, It’s taken them about 18 months to fill that slot. Also note that due to MU-Columbia’s issues (and the overall state allocation cut) the other campuses must also cut their budgets.
Minimum qualifications
Top 50 percent of high school graduating class
Graduation from an accredited high school
Composite ACT score of 27 or higher (or an SAT score of 1280 or higher for the new exam/1210 or higher pre-March 2016 exam)
U.S. citizen or permanent resident
Non-Missouri resident
Enrollment at MU the first semester after high school graduation
First-time college student: non-resident
Award amount
Class rank*
ACT 30-36 or SAT 1390-1600 and Top 25%: $10,000
ACT 30-36 or SAT 1390-1600 and Top 50%: $7,000
ACT 27-29 or SAT 1280-1380 and Top 25%: $8,500
ACT 27-29 or SAT 1280-1380 and Top 50%: $5,000