When teams were considering leaving, the Big 12 tried to force a "time out, which caused Nebraska to leave. Sure, they may have left anyway, but their way of dealing with teams that were thinking of leaving only helped push those teams out the door.

They then made the mistake of not replacing Nebraska and Colorado when they left, opting to make more money per team. This caused many of the problems, as it made the conference seem like it could collapse at anytime. Chances are, if they'd gone back to 12, Oklahoma doesn't start thinking about jumping to the PAC again, which helped push Missouri and A&M to the SEC. I'm not saying those two teams wouldn't have gone but it seems like it would have played out much differently, since teams wouldn't have felt the need to explore options for a "safe landing spot".

I could go on but there has been a terrible lack of leadership in the Big 12; most moves have been reactive, and have been more about each individual team looking out for their own interests rather than trying to improve and strengthen the Big 12.