After evaluating the long-term value of U. Texas’ position in the Big 12 Conference, officials announced Tuesday that the University would assist in holding the conference together and decline the invitation to join the PAC-10 Conference.

President William Powers Jr., men’s athletic director DeLoss Dodds and women’s athletic director Chris Plonsky spoke with reporters in the morning to discuss why the University is remaining in the 10-team conference.

“In reaching this decision, we’ve taken into account the impact on our student athletes, the financial ramifications of the various options and the interest of our Big 12 partners,” Powers said. “It has always been our top priority to keep the Big 12 together. We believe a newly reconstituted 10-member conference will continue to benefit all of our institutions and the University of Texas at Austin.”

Powers said there was no single issue that propelled him to decide that UT would stay in the conference — the “economics” of its position in the conference, the student athletes and the traditional rivalries between UT, Oklahoma and Texas A&M were all taken into consideration.

“The Big 12 has served its members well,” Dodds said. “We move forward with the commitment and confidence of 10 Big 12 universities to ensure the very best academic and [athletic] opportunities for the student-athletes we support.”

Since the University of Nebraska’s move to the Big Ten Conference on Friday, university presidents, conference commissioners and athletic directors have been speaking behind closed doors about what could have been the most significant shake-up of college sports in years. Late Monday, UT announced that a Board of Regents meeting to discuss the potential move was canceled, and Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott told The Associated Press in an e-mail that UT had not accepted the invitation to join.

Later that day, Texas A&M, the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State also announced they would remain in the conference.

With 10 teams remaining after the University of Colorado and Nebraska announced they would leave the conference, NCAA rules will prohibit the Big 12 from having a conference championship game.

Powers said he received personal assurances from other Big 12 university presidents that they would not move to the Pac-10 but there was no official
contract between them. He said no money from penalty fees derived from the outgoing universities’ broken contracts has been allocated toward any university, and that he opposes such a deal.

Despite the loss of the conference championship game, UT football head coach Mack Brown said he was happy that the Big 12 is staying together. Brown said the 12-team conference did not provide a fair way to determine a champion anyway.

“It’s very, very difficult, in my estimation, to crown a champion unless you play everybody in the league,” Brown said. “I don’t think [the 12-team conference] is fair, because a lot of times you don’t get to play the best two teams. I like the fact that there are nine [games] and we will all play each other.”

In a telephone conference call with reporters, Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe said Tuesday that nine universities had announced their intentions to remain in the Big 12 and only Texas Tech had not announced its intentions. Tech was invited to join the Pac-10 along with UT, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and other Big 12 universities.

State Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, said in a press release that Texas Tech announced its decision to stay and that the House Higher Education Committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday regarding the college decisions has been canceled.

Branch said Texas Tech’s decision to stay made the meeting unnecessary. “Moreover, the decisions by our Texas schools to remain in the Big 12 appear to be a positive result for our students, families and universities,” he said.

Contrary to earlier reports, Beebe said he had not reached an official TV deal to create a campus sports network with UT and there have been no set contracts with any other university going into 2011.

Plonsky said UT officials had received “assurances” that they would be able to continue their pursuit of a television network, which would focus on UT’s 20 athletic programs.

Powers said the network would also feature academic and cultural aspects of the University, such as orchestra performances in Bass Concert Hall.