OSU booster Boone Pickens: We're looking for another team or we're looking west

With the news that Texas A&M is leaving the Big 12, what's your take on the future of the league and Oklahoma State?

I guess the Aggies are gone, but I haven't seen where the SEC's invited them yet. Has anybody seen that? I'd like to see that to confirm it. So, I guess we're looking for another team in the conference or we're looking West.

I dunno. Don't rush the monkey, and you'll see a better show. What I'm saying is, maybe be a little patient here and see what happens. We don't have to decide this this weekend.

Do you feel like there's been a rush on a decision?

Gosh, yeah, everybody's frantic. I've talked to everybody here, and that's all we talk about. But if we're going to take somebody, the obvious one to me is TCU. I don't want Notre Dame. Notre Dame's already got a network, and you know, I guess they're damaged merchandise as far as I'm concerned. So, I don't want Notre Dame. And BYU, who in the hell knows where Provo, Utah, is? The natural one is TCU. If that's it, do it and go forward.

Five years from today, if you had to bet your last dollar, is the Big 12 still in existence?

I don't think it'll be in existence. I think this discussion's going to come up every year as long as the conference is not equal, so you've got to have an equal deal like the SEC or the Big Ten. If you don't have, it'll always be a sore spot that'll be continually discussed.

But I think this may be the first step ... that you're headed for regional conferences that lead to the national championship. It starts to look like the basketball in some ways. You have regionals — southeast, southwest, northeast, northwest or something — that put everybody in play and give 'em a chance to be a national championship.

If the old Gallagher-Iba were sitting over here and football games were still being played at Lewis Field, how would that have changed the landscape for OSU in terms of conference realignment?

If you go back and look where Holder and I were seven or eight years ago, he said that if we're going to get competitive, we were going to have to spend $300 million. And I said, "Mike, there is no way I'm going to do that." Well, I was wrong. We talked about it, and I said, "I do want to get competitive because I don't think the Big 12 can survive." He said, "Who do you think goes out of it?" I said, "Well, I can tell you this ... we're right at the top that are not going to survive. It's gonna be us and two or three others. I don't want that to happen." But we had that conversation several times that if we didn't do something for ourselves, nobody's going to want us. I think we did something for ourselves. I think we're competitive and everybody sees it that way. We have facilities that are as good as any and better than most, and I think our coaching staff, Coach Gundy's done a very good job, I think Holder's done a very good job. Somebody asked me the other day, "Did you get your money's worth?" I said, "I got my money's worth plus." I'm very happy with the results. Now, I can give you a couple ballgames that I wish we would've won, but overall, I got my money's worth.

Where do you see OSU ending up when all is said and done with the conference shakeout? What conference?