In a bizarre little twist, the Omaha World-Herald is reporting that the "little 5" weren't forced to give up their share of the penalties Nebraska and Colorado may pay to leave the Big 12.  The W-H reports that Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri offered to give that money to Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma as additional incentive to stay in the conference.

The money potentially forfeited by Nebraska and Colorado, which is headed to the Pacific 10, was highlighted Tuesday during discussion of incentives made to keep the Big 12 together as a 10-team league.

The five so-called "leftover" schools — Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Baylor — came to an agreement, Beebe said. They wanted to entice Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma to stay by giving them more money.

Said Beebe: "They were willing, if necessary — and I fully anticipate when we do our future media deals it won’t be — to use some of the distribution they might get particularly from the departing members to make sure Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Texas were induced to stay."

Texas was appreciative of that gesture, Beebe said, though UT indicated it wasn’t "a driver for them to stay."

UT’s Powers said that there were no perks for the Longhorns.

"We do not have any guarantees from the league or our northern partners," Powers said. "There have been reports that there is going to be a special deal for some of us, using penalty money or other money to guarantee Texas and other schools of particular value.

"We are not part of that. That was not part of our consideration, and we oppose that kind of deal. We will distribute money in the Big 12 according to the normal distribution."

Of course, Texas will still get a larger share under normal distribution patterns, and there's nothing to keep Powers/Dodds/Beebe from lying through their teeth about how the "enticing" happened to be broached.  But it seems fair to admit that the big three may not have strong-armed the little five into coughing up the penalty dough, given how much vitriol I and virtually every other Cornhusker heaped on them when the news first broke.