Opinion: Pac-12's decision to not pursue expansion 'at this time' is latest body blow to Big 12

The Pac-12's public declaration on Thursday to not pursue expansion "at this time" comes as the latest blow to the uncertain sports future of Texas Tech and seven other schools in the Big 12.

First, Texas and Oklahoma filed for divorce from the Big 12, effective no later than 2025, and then the Pac-12, the Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference countered by  cobbling together some sort of alliance, pointedly not inviting the Big 12 into the discussions.

Now the Pac-12 has said, in effect, it won't be dropping lifeboats for the schools UT and OU are leaving behind. Not anytime soon, at least. 

MORE:Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt says Big 12 expansion plans are under way

If this were a UFC event, they'd describe this as raining down hammer fists. 

Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt, university President Lawrence Schovanec and others have been working feverishly behind the scenes to secure the Red Raiders' future beyond 2025, so far to no avail.

Here's the reality: The people who love Tech are highly motivated to find out what conference the Red Raiders and the Lady Raiders will be calling home a few years from now. The conferences that can make that happen don't have to do anything today or next week or next month.

So get used to the anxiety. No one knows when this ends or how. 

Hocutt put his best face forward — as he should — in front of the media Thursday evening. He referenced the body blows from Texas and Oklahoma, the exclusion from even talks among the three-conference alliance and the Pac-12's decision to sit tight.

"Given all that," Hocutt said, "I still remain very bullish on what Texas Tech has to offer and that our future ahead of us is going to be a great one."

If nothing else, maybe we can finally put an end to the notion that four 16-team conferences is inevitable. Folks have speculated that for a decade. As we sit here today, the number of 16-team conferences in the FBS remains zero, with only the SEC set to change that.

The Pac-12's decision Thursday suggests the conference out west believes it can gain  the exposure it wants into other time zones via the newly announced three-conference alliance without having to further split TV revenue by adding new members.

And it might well achieve that. 

In addition to the fallacy of four 16-team conferences being inevitable, here's another: That the Pac-12 is vulnerable. If you believe that the Pac-12 is vulnerable and the Big 12 is on its deathbed, you're saying half the country's major-college football teams don't matter.

We disagree with that, by the way. 

Collectively, they absolutely matter. These aren't the best of times for the Pac-12 or the Big 12, but the dismissive approach toward both shows no grasp of either's rich history. Of course, college sports wouldn't be college sports these days without a heavy dose of dismissive attitude: Television partners being dismissive of major conferences and major universities, fans being dismissive of major conferences and rival universities, fans being dismissive of their own teams. 

So allow me to join in being dismissive. 

It bears repeating that the only good options for Texas Tech are unlikely options — coaxing former Big 12 members back from other Power Fives, landing an invitation from the Pac-12 or an invitation from the SEC. Maybe something will materialize on one of those fronts, but again, not as soon as you're hoping. 

And, as far appealing outcomes, that's pretty much it.

Nothing about adding schools from the group of five should excite anybody, though as Kirby Hocutt said later Thursday, the Big 12 is taking steps to vet new members. 

Football programs such as Cincinnati and Central Florida, who have had their moments lately, are only as good as whomever their coach happens to be and how much momentum he can build. They can just as easily backslide when that guy moves on to a better-paying, higher-profile job. 

Tech's leadership will keep pitching whomever will listen on their school's pluses: the brand recognition of the Double T. A university with 40,000-plus enrollment in a county of 300,000-plus. And a broad-based support.

Tech alumni blanket the Lone Star State. Among Texas college sports teams, the Red Raiders are second- or third-most watched in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, San Antonio and Houston.

They have their work cut out for them.

This doesn't have to end badly. But the uncertainty is unlikely to end soon, and that's going to make for a lot more anxious days.