The Southwest Conference ended 25 years ago the same way it lived: with fire in its belly and pettiness in its heart.

Then, invariably, somebody would come to us and say, "Coach, I talked to so-and-so at TCU, and they're going to run this trick play.".

The immense state pride of the Texas teams also played against the conference.

John Jenkins, Houston offensive coordinator 1987-89, head coach 1990-92: [In the 1980s, SMU] started lining up and beating the likes of Texas and certainly A&M.

And that's when some problems started occurring ... the bitterness of rivalries, the intense competition of recruiting.

But at that point in time, I think many would have considered football recruiting in the Southwest Conference to be -- I don't know what the right term is ... but almost [with] no limits.

I almost had a revolt on my team.

Toward the end, attendance had become a major problem for the league's smaller schools, with Texas, Texas A&M and Arkansas essentially subsidizing the rest of the teams.

According to the book "Bob Bullock: God Bless Texas," by Dave McNeely and Jim Henderson, Bullock summoned Texas and Texas A&M's presidents to his office in early 1994 as the merger neared.

I don't think it was about television.

Slocum: In my heart, it's my take that had it not been for the Longhorn Network, there's a good chance Texas would've gone to the Pac-10.

Rossley: I was personally surprised that OU and Texas stayed [in the Big 12].

Kyle Kallander, the league's last commissioner, said once he took over in spring of 1995, "People really worked together to make things the best they could be.".