1. Oklahoma and Kansas agree to move to the SEC. The lure of greener pastures is too much to pass up.

2. Texas wants to keep the Big 12 together, but playing football in the league is no longer viable. They seek out independence as the best of what they consider nothing but less than ideal options.

3. West Virginia wants to move to the ACC at this point, but Notre Dame doesn't like the idea of going all in yet.

4. A deal is struck to move West Virginia into the SEC with Vanderbilt dropping to partial membership. Their football team still gets 4 or 5 SEC games a year, and their other sports are still fully involved.

5. Texas build a coalition around keeping the Big 12 together:

The remaining members of Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, TCU, and Baylor make a few additions. BYU, Houston, UCF, and USF all come aboard.

They maintain their 9 game round robin for the conference championship.

Meanwhile, Texas plays an independent schedule in football with the standard 5 game deal with the Big 12. Texas maintains their annual game with Oklahoma.