Top Oklahoma Prospects Weigh In on Big 12

Originally Published: Jun 15, 2010 10:2 AM CDT

Dave Carty
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

Admit it. You got wrapped up in it.

Some of you may have even plugged in the distance from Norman or Stillwater to the University of Arizona or Arizona State on Google Maps – both Tempe and Tucson are about 1,000 miles away in case you were wondering.

Sure, the media did its part by fueling the rumors – Oklahoma Sports included – but college football fans couldn’t help but stay glued to the latest in conference realignment talk.

But what about the players? And what about the commits?

The thoughts and opinions of the student athletes got lost somewhere along the line - take Oklahoma State commit David Glidden from Mustang and University of Oklahoma commit Dylan Dismuke from Duncan.

“I’ve just been not paying attention to it,” said Dismuke. “They’re going to be saying all kinds of stuff. I’m just going to see what happens and leave it at that.”

“At first I didn’t pay too much attention to it,” said Glidden. “I blew it off and thought there was no way it would happen.”

While Dismuke was relatively unaffected by the chatter, Glidden was soon wrapped up with the prospect of Pac-10 expansion, which would take the fleet of foot receiver places he’s never been.

“I’ve never seen the west side of the country before,” he said. “That would just be a definite positive.”

When the rumors came, they came fast and furious. Soon, everybody in the Mustang community – people at Glidden’s school and church – wanted to know what was going on with conference realignment.

There was just one problem. Glidden had no idea.

The soon-to-be Cowboy would find out that many current players and coaches were also in the dark.

“I talked to [wide receivers] coach [Gunter] Brewer last week about it and he said he’s not even sure about anything that’s going on,” he said. “[Justin Blackmon and Tracy Moore] said they didn’t know anything either. People would be texting them, asking about it and they know nothing about it.”

In Norman, all was equally quiet, which was fine by Dismuke.

“They never really said a word about it,” he said. “They’ve just been talking about recruiting and what I need to do to get better.”

Now it seems the crumbling Big 12 has refortified, strengthened on the wings of a new television contract.

Dismuke and Glidden will have to put any hopes of a west coast vacation on hold, but that’s no problem with the seniors.

“I was figuring either way we’re still going to be playing Texas and OSU,” said Dismuke. “I thought it would be fun if we went to the Pac-10 out there, go out to California and all that. It’s cool with me either way.”

“That’s perfectly fine,” said Glidden. “That’s the tradition. When I committed to OSU, that’s what I pictured.

“That’s definitely going to be fine with me – the same old football that I’m used to seeing.”