Big 12 to meet with Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado today.

Who said anyone was believing it? Why does that need to be spelled out, it's a report. 

After the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, Sultan Selim II's Chief Minister, the Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokullu, boasted to the Venetian emissary Marcantonio Barbaro that the Christian triumph at Lepanto caused no lasting harm to the Ottoman Empire, while the capture of Cyprus by the Ottomans in the same year was a significant blow, saying that:

"You come to see how we bear our misfortune. But I would have you know the difference between your loss and ours. In wrestling Cyprus from you, we deprived you of an arm; in defeating our fleet, you have only shaved our beard. An arm when cut off cannot grow again; but a shorn beard will grow all the better for the razor."

Despite the loss at Lepanto, the Ottomans were able to expand for the next 4 1/2 years, but the loss of so many experienced sailors crippled the Ottomans at sea in the long-term, which precipitated a centuries-long reversal of fortune, which arguably continued for at least the next 350 years.

Get back to 12 teams, and don't worry about what is beyond our control.

Right now, it seems like UCLA and USC are an arm.  But, in the end, they are just Cyprus.  As long as the six founding Pacific Coast Conference teams stay together, greater, brighter days are ahead, even if the next couple of years hurt a lot.  

The Aghlabids sacked Rome in 846.

Three years later, a second larger invasion force massed off Sardinia.  Caesar of Naples sailed out to destroy the Aghlabid Fleet.  Before he left, Pope Leo IV blessed the troops.  Partway through the battle, a divine storm came and ravaged the Aghlabid Fleet.  With the fleet dispersed, Caesar of Naples was able to defeat the whole of the Aghlabid Fleet in detail.  So much Aghlabid treasure washed up on shore that the Romans were able to fund the building of a great wall around Rome, the Leonine Wall (named after Pope Leo IV), which would not be breached until 1527, after cannons were in wide use.

Without a Fleet, the Aghlabids tried to consolidate gains in Sicily in a slow and sustained decline.  Their vassals, the Fatimids, utilized religious dissent to chase the Aghlabids out of the Central Mediterranean and then Egypt and into ultimately into the dustpan of history.  (That is to say that the loose confederation that composed the Aghlabids turned on itself in the face of Italy and were defeated by themselves.)

Sometimes, your greatest victories are grown from the seeds of your greatest defeats.

Because some believe everything they read is fact. I have no idea who was believing it or not believing it. Some of the reports are complete B.S. 

Nice call.

Well, I was able to compare this to the 846 Sack of Rome and the Ottomans taking Famagusta in 1571.  I think that we all know who the real winner is.