ESPN College Football

AUSTIN, Texas -- It's been a busy morning. A horde of media just heard from Texas president Bill Powers, athletic director DeLoss Dodds and women's athletic director Chris Plonsky.

Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe is preparing to speak to the media via teleconference. I'll have plenty more this afternoon.

A couple of quick tidbits from this morning.

• Don't plan on keeping the Big 12 title game. There's no indication, according to Texas, that the league will petition to hold one.
• On the name change: "We're looking for leadership from the Big Ten on that," Dodds said.
• In short, Texas says it stayed for "hundreds" of reasons, but they were convinced that the Big 12 was more financially viable. The league's contract with ABC/ESPN will stay the same through 2016, but with fewer slices to divvy up, everyone gets more money. The league will try to sync its deal up with Fox by extending through 2016. At that point, the conference's deal would grow, Texas believes.

Plenty, plenty more to come throughout the day.

Oklahoma State alumni and benefactor T. Boone Pickens has been named to the board of directors of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame.

Pickens is among a group of six new persons who have joined the board, including broadcasters Troy Aikman and Jim Nantz and former Tennessee coach Bill Battle.

The National Football Foundation has a deep connection with the Big 12. The group's president and chief executive officer is Steve Hatchell, the original commissioner of the Big 12. And other board members include Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne, Texas women's athletic director Chris Plonsky and former Baylor coach and current American Football Coaches Association executive director Grant Teaff.

It's a big honor for Pickens to be added to this group and will help expand Oklahoma State's national reach because of Pickens' influence in this blue-ribbon panel of sports leaders.