The ledges recently packed with schools ready to jump seem to have emptied. Did they step inside to hide behind the curtains while final details get worked out, or have they reconsidered and reached the conclusion that staying put with a few adjustments here and there makes more sense?

My guess is the latter. Oklahoma president David Boren didn’t survive so long in politics without knowing how to broker back-room deals that benefit his constituents. The best guess: Texas A&M leaves, Oklahoma and Texas stay, and Brigham Young University becomes the 10th team.

It will take other Big 12 members agreeing to increase OU’s revenue share, but since doing so gives the rest of the schools a better deal than they could find elsewhere, nothing should prevent that. A couple of other symbolic moves, such as changing the name of the conference and moving headquarters from Dallas to a more central location, such as Oklahoma City, might also go a way toward changing the perception that Texas runs the conference.

In most circles, Boren will get credit for saving the Big 12, but those interested in the fates of Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri would make sure to credit Baylor president Kenneth Starr for leading the legal charge to make Texas A&M pay for leaving, unless everybody else stays. It’s a more worthy cause than the one that made Starr a star, the investigation of the affair between President William Jefferson Clinton and “that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

The addition of independent BYU grows the conference to 10 teams. BYU isn’t Texas A&M, but it’s not cauliflower, either, particularly in the TV-ratings and appealing-road-trip departments. Provo’s a beautiful city, and the Cougars usually field competitive teams in football and basketball. Plus, they’re different. They lead the nation in receding hairlines, thanks to so many of their athletes interrupting their careers with two-year Mormon missions.

Staying together makes sense for Big 12 schools’ student-athletes, students and alumni, but it’s always wise to pay 100 times more attention to dollars than sense. More than just increased revenue share could be a factor. To follow the money trail, it pays to read Clay Travis, a recovering attorney and the backbone of the compelling website outkickthecoverage.com.

In a Sep. 8 blog entry, Travis wrote, “ESPN and FOX aren’t going to reduce the amount they are paying the Big 12 for television rights even if the remaining Big 12 is a shell of its current state.”

Why? Travis wrote that the remaining schools would have a strong legal argument that the networks breached the TV contract by providing the inducement for other schools to leave for other conferences. So, if the five schools not on the Pac-12’s radar stayed put, they not only would get to divide the exit penalties but would be able to continue earning big TV dollars after filling out the conference with so-so schools. Not a good deal for the networks.

Still, KU’s officials quietly will continue to work every angle — a flight to the Big East with Missouri and Kansas State; some sort of merger between remaining Big 12 and ACC schools — just in case the Big 12 dies and the ACC gets poached.