Print edition: 
COLUMBIA | Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton this morning suggested he hoped to reveal Mizzou’s future conference address in “days or possibly a week or two.”
Deaton — in both an interview on Columbia radio station KFRU-AM and in conversations with newspaper reporters in the station lobby before and after the broadcast — stated Missouri’s view of whether to pursue admission to the Southeastern Conference to remain in the Big 12 Conference have coalesced around a probable choice.
“We’ve reached firmness in where we are headed,” Deaton said, “where we want to analyze and focus our attention.”
Deaton did not reveal that probable choice, but his comments revealed continuing and long-standing concern over the viability of the Big 12 Conference.
Deaton noted the speculation that last month dealt with the anticipation of Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State leaving the Big 12 for the Pac 12. The Pac 12 ended that, for the time being, when it said it was not currently going to expand.
However, Deaton said Missouri “had been assessing our status over the past year.
“We were carefully analyzing how we stood nationally, what our options might be, as we looked at continuing instability which was driving us, really, from the Big 12 perspective.
Sources continue to tell The Star that Missouri is headed toward becoming the 14th member of the SEC for next season, joining Texas A&M which has already declared itself a former member of the Big 12 in acceptance of being the 13th member of the SEC.
Many people expected Deaton to announce, at a meeting of the Big 12 Board of Directors in Dallas on Monday, that Missouri was conditionally withdrawing from the Big 12 in anticipation of being accepted into the SEC.
While the Big 12, in a statement on Monday, noted conference realignment was discussed, Deaton said he left the room while those discussions were underway and abstained from voting on all matters on the advice of legal counsel.
Deaton, upon being authorized on Oct. 4 by the MU Board of Curators to explore Missouri’s conference options, resigned his position as chairman of the Big 12 Board of Directors.
Deaton said he and other Big 12 presidents and chancellors had “a professional understanding” at Monday’s meeting, “if a bit cool,” but added:
“It was more pleasant not to be chairing the meeting.”
Deaton referenced the nostalgia felt by many for Missouri’s traditions in the Big Six, Big Eight and Big 12 conferences. But he said Missouri’s conference membership could not be decided by emotion.
“Our head has to outweigh our heart in achieving some of the objectives,” Deaton said, “because the heart won’t necessarily in this case lead to where the University is going and needs to be going.”
Deaton indicated the timeline of Missouri’s revealing its decision is complicated by the number of moving parts that include two conferences, two boards of directors, two sets of legal counsel, two sets of financial analyses.
“Three if you count the University separate from the Big 12,” he said. And then “you have a commissioner of whatever conference you’re dealing with.”
Time and again Deaton referred to concerns of “future security, stability,” as being more important than financial considerations.
“These issues, such as stability, take on very, very important long-term meaning,” Deaton said. “We’re trying to look ahead at where we’re going as a University, and where the Big 12 is going, or the SEC is going, and where the world of sports entertainment is going.
“These are not decisions that can just be made at the press of a button.”
