Late Tuesday night, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott announced the conference would not expand further, remaining a 12-member conference.

Prior to the statement, rumors had swirled that Big 12 members Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech would be invited to join the Pac-12, creating a 16-team super conference.

Scott said the following in his statement:

“After careful review we have determined that it is in the best interests of our member institutions, student-athletes and fans to remain a 12-team conference. While we have great respect for all of the institutions that have contacted us, and certain expansion proposals were financially attractive, we have a strong conference structure and culture of equality that we are committed to preserve. With new landmark TV agreements and plans to launch our innovative television networks, we are going to focus solely on these great assets, our strong heritage and the bright future in front of us.”

Realignment talks heated up this summer with Texas A&M’s announcement that it would leave the Big 12 and the SEC’s eventual invite to the Aggies, pushing the conference to a 13-member league.

The Pac-12 added Colorado and Utah during realignment shufflings in 2010, and had been rumored to be interested in adding Oklahoma and Texas from the Big 12.

With the Pac-12’s decision to remain a 12-team league, the future of the Big 12 becomes unclear. Early this week, reports surfaced that the conference was positioning itself for a merger with the Big East — another conference affected by realignment already this fall — if the Big 12 were to dissolve.

Big 12 schools that would have remained without affiliation had Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State departed for the Pac-12 would have included Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Baylor.

As late as Tuesday evening, there were reports saying Missouri could be a candidate to enter the SEC to push that conference to 14 members.

The Big 12 also lost Nebraska, a charter member of the conference, to the Big Ten last summer.

With Texas A&M’s departure, the conference currently sits with nine members for the 2012-13 academic year.