Editor's note: To read the counter-point to this issue, click here.

“The University of Oklahoma stands on its own. We make our own decisions,” said Athletics Director Joe Castiglione. “We choose what’s best for us. No one else.”

As the dust settles from the current round of conference realignments, it appeared as if OU had been hooked on the nose by the Longhorns and was simply taken for a ride.

In the words of ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friend.”

Remarks by OU President David Boren present a vastly different picture.

Boren is quoted as saying OU and Texas A&M were offered invitations to the SEC.

Not Texas or Oklahoma State. Only OU and Texas A&M.

In one fell swoop, OU goes from being a Texas lackey to an impartial cool and collected group looking to make the best decision for the Sooner athletics and the university.

Castiglione even became visibly irritated when it was suggested at a press conference that led to the above quote.

Leading up to the press conference armchair analysts and keyboard commandos from across the Sooner nation voiced its concerns through various means. It appears now, OU firmly had control of its own destiny.

According to Boren, what stopped any choices being made is Texas politics. That saved the school from a tough choice.

Was staying with the Big 12 Conference the best thing to do? Maybe, maybe not.

That’s not a decision that can come lightly. Look at Texas A&M. Especially, look directly at College Station.

Ask the fan base, the alumni and boosters there how they feel. Donations are being pulled; people are allegedly canceling various ticket packages because the folks down there are tired of being UT’s doormat.

They are willing to flush 100 years of tradition down the drain to get away from Texas. There is so much tradition between the two schools that A&M’s opening line of its fight song is about the Longhorns.

“Goodbye to Texas University, so long to the Orange and the White.”

Many affiliated with A&M were ready to go to the SEC. Goodbye indeed to the Longhorns. Instead, they are mad as hell.

Even Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin wrote a letter to the public in regards to A&M’s decision. Some fans even have gone as far as calling it the University of Texas – College Station. Ouch.

One major thing we can take away from Boren’s comments today is nothing set in stone and we may be revisiting this topic in the not too distant future. That’s a good thing.

Talk of money and individual university sport networks had a lot to do with staying with the Big 12. Staying with OSU and Texas was a major part of it.

OU stuck with the other schools within the Big 12 for many reasons, ones that obviously won’t ever be told, but the athletic staff and the administration did it in the best interest of our university.

Knowing we had options that did not include Texas makes all the decisions look much better. That I can respect and so should the Sooner nation.