Amidst reports coming out of Missouri that MU’s board of curators had authorized Missouri chancellor, Brady Deaton, to handle the school’s conference affiliation, Kansas University athletic director Sheahon Zenger released a statement late Tuesday night pledging KU’s support to one of the Big 12 Conferences’s best rivalries.

“We value our long-standing conference rivalry with Missouri,” Zenger said. “We believe the Midwest deserves a strong conference for student-athletes, fans and alumni, and it is our desire that Missouri will stay committed — as Kansas is — to the Big 12 Conference.”

While Tuesday’s news regarding Mizzou did not seal the Tigers’ fate, it certainly did nothing to enhance their commitment to the Big 12.

Despite real change taking place in the form of new leadership and a conference-wide agreement on equal revenue sharing, Missouri remains fixed on looking around at all of its options, the most obvious being a potential spot in the SEC.

Although the SEC has not confirmed any interest in Missouri — in fact, on Tuesday, one SEC official said the league could remain at 13 members for as many as two years — reports continue to pop up all over the place about Missouri following in Texas A&M’s footsteps in leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC.

Although Deaton, who on Tuesday resigned as the chair of the Big 12’s board of directors, now has full authority to negotiate for MU’s conference alignment, no timetable was set for any kind of decision.