Texas commits to '10-team league'

University of Texas President Bill Powers said his school is committed to a 10-team league and gave unequivocal support to what's left of the Big 12 Conference in a Tuesday morning news conference.

Texas spurned an invitation from the Pac-10 Conference, as did Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Those schools, along with Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Baylor will form the foundation of the conference.

"This is a long-term and unequivocal commitment," Powers said.

Last week, Colorado and Nebraska bolted for the Pac-10 and Big Ten, respectively, leaving the conference's future hanging in the balance. After two weeks of heavy speculation and discussions with the Pac-10, Texas chose to remain in its current conference.

"We've been committed to the Big 12," Powers said. "We did become concerned when there was a lot of talk of other schools leaving to the Big Ten. Instability is not good for any conference."

At the Big 12 meetings two weeks ago in Kansas City, Powers said Texas "led the way" in trying to preserve the Big 12's status quo.

"Two of the teams reacted to that by leaving the conference," Powers said. "We liked Nebraska in the conference. We liked Colorado in the conference. ... We respect their choice.

"But now we have stability. We are in a far better position than we were three months when there was instability."

Powers said the league will not have a reduction in television revenue from current contracts with ABC/ESPN and Fox Sports despite Nebraska and Colorado's departures. Texas also remains interested in forming a Longhorn television network.