4:06 p.m. Update

Take this for what it’s worth, but I thought it was interesting to see. Might as well follow this thing out to the end, right?

Utah has been invited by the Pac-10 and a source indicates that the Utes will accept. Makes you wonder where KU stood… not that it matters now.

Utah to the Pac-10?

Sources out west are telling me that if Utah bolts the Mountain West, the MWC might look to Fresno State, Idaho State or Nevada-Reno to replace them. Major conference realignment may have been averted but there are still some dominoes falling. They’re just the smaller, more quiet kind.

Also, for those who haven’t seen it in other places on the site, here’s the audio from Lew Perkins’ press conference earlier today. Full audio has been posted.

11:03 a.m. Update:

Well, things are starting to calm down substantially now, as the rumors are being put to bed and the 10 Big 12 schools that made it to the other side are discussing the future — with excitement, no less — and talking about the conference’s and their own strategies for moving forward.

That includes Kansas University, which made most of its coaches available yesterday and will make athletic director Lew Perkins available at noon today.

We’ll be there and we’ll have plenty of reaction and comments from Perkins after the press conference.

Around the league the focus has shifted from mere survival to the specifics of the television dollars that are expected to pour in in the future. Some schools are expressing absolutely joy, others are saying it’s not exactly what they had hoped and still others are saying it doesn’t matter because all they care about is that the league survived.

That last one is kind of how I feel.

Anyway, while you’re waiting for Perkins’ press conference, which can be seen Live on Channel 6, here’s a few more links to ween you off of this incredible ride we’ve all been on the last few days. Enjoy and check back later for reaction from Perkins.

The first comes from our own Tom Keegan, who has it on good authority that if the Big 12 ever does look to expand back to 12 in the future, these two schools might be at the top of the list.

Next up, we’ll give you a little bit of the specifics regarding the money, both from television and from the penalty payouts levied against Colorado and Nebraska for leaving. Many media outlets have written about this, but here’s a great article from the Street & Smith’s sports business journal.

Finally, from our buddy Chip Brown at Orangebloods.com, here’s a little excerpt from a story of his that outlines what sources have told him about how the Big 12 was actually saved. According to the report, it was more because of a mistake by the Pac-10 than a heroic act by the Big 12. Who knows how accurate this is, but it’s at the very least interesting. The best part? It doesn’t really matter now since the league is saved and the Big 12 is moving forward.

Here’s the meat, again, from Chip Brown at www.orangebloods.com:

Larry Scott and Pac-10 chief operating officer Kevin Weiberg fly from Oklahoma City to College Station Sunday morning. A meeting between Scott, Weiberg and A&M president R. Bowen Loftin and a couple regents is short and not so sweet. Texas A&M tells the Pac-10 officials they are not ready to accept an invitation. The Pac-10, which is actively falling in love with Kansas, takes this as a refused invitation.

Scott and Weiberg fly from College Station to Lubbock and are met with a king’s welcome. If Tech’s board of regents could have accepted a bid to the Pac-10 right then and there, they would have. Scott and Weiberg leave Lubbock feeling like they’ve got Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Tech. All they need now is Texas, and they can figure out the rest (sub Kansas for Texas A&M)….

And Scott and Weiberg made one critical mistake in the courtship of the Big 12. Other than its somewhat foggy math that a 16-team Pac-10 could readily get to $20 million in TV revenue per school, they wanted to substitute Kansas for Oklahoma State late in the process, according to multiple sources in the Big 12.

Texas was really starting to feel queasy now, sources said. UT officials knew deep down Texas A&M wasn’t coming to the Pac-10, despite Bill Byrne’s assurances, according to sources. And now Scott and Weiberg were looking to dump Oklahoma State in favor of Kansas. If A&M was a no-show, the Pac-10 would add Utah. Scott was looking to add new TV markets, not stick to the deal that was agreed upon a few days earlier.*

Check out the complete story, a day-by-day recap of the events that unfolded, here.

More to come so stay tuned in to KUsports.com throughout the day.