OUInsider - Owen Field

It was mainly due to all the teams in the conference being on some form of NCAA probation which in effect hurt the revenue stream of the conference from teams not being on T.V., not playing in Bowl games, etc. The SMU ordeal didn't help things either and in regards to Arkansas, they felt as an outsider with all the other Texas schools and bolted for the SEC. The SMU documentary actually explains some of it.

I memory serves me right, the Big 8 wanted TCU and not Baylor. At the time, Ann Richards was the governor of Texas and a Baylor grad and pulled the strings to have Baylor in the Big 12.

It was cut throat down here. As the above posters said, Arkansas jumped for the money and were tired of being left out of decisions since they were the only non-Texas school. As TV money got bigger, attendance at the SWC schools (all but A@M, UT and Tech were small) shrunk. The SMU death penalty and several teams on probation basically did them in along with losing top recruits to out of state schools. And the winner of the conference? Got to play in the Cotton Bowl! That is the one thing I've always hated about the Big 12. It basically saved the 4 Texas schools who joined and has been a windfall for Baylor. NO WAY they would have been able to upgrade their facilities without the Big 12.