— A week’s worth of posturing and back-door meetings has come to this:

Twelve minus two equals, well, 12.

If anything should come out of the near-Big 12 breakup this week, it’s that wise leaders of college institutions need to get real with the math.

In other words, the first step Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe needs to do now that he has saved the Big 12 from extinction, with an apparent assist from Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione and the approval of Texas AD DeLoss Dodds, is to drop the numeric from the conference name.

The league now has 10 teams and to be frank, why mess with the copyright red tape that would have to be untangled to swap names with the Big Ten, now at 12 after having lived by fuzzy math since Penn State’s addition in 1990.

The “Lucky to Be Here” conference? It’s a suggestion. The Lone Star Conference? Unfortunately it’s taken but it sure would be appropriate with the way Texas’ strong-arming on TV issues among other things drove Nebraska away.

So long Huskers. A trip to Lincoln is always a nice one. Classy fans, classy community in Lincoln, where opponents leave the stadium, win or lose, with a standing ovation. The Big 12-2 will miss you more than it might admit.

Bye-bye Colorado. Prior to the merger, you guys were one of the hottest things going. Now, you’re nothing more than collateral damage. Things really haven’t been the same for you in a while. Last league title? Thanks to Chris Simms, a Longhorn QB who was 0-4 career against Oklahoma, 2001, but that’s ancient history.

What to do now?

For those who remain, kiss and make up and make the most of what is. A lot has been said, many feathers ruffled and some damage done. Gone will be a conference championship game, or at least the one played annually in December. Barring some protests from unexpected precincts, that has been moved, in effect, to an October Saturday in Dallas.

A culture of mistrust is in play now as well. It can’t be anything else after what’s transpired over the last week or so.

But on the bright side, gone are the thoughts of 9:30 p.m. kickoffs and tipoffs on the west coast — something you as a fan really didn’t want with the Pac-10 marriage. Nor did you want, as OSU coach Mike Gundy suggested, a division-less conference which would have increased the late games. T. Boone Pickens might be able to afford flying to the west coast, but a lot of Cowboys fans, I’m sure, would prefer drives to Manhattan, Kan.

There’s a lot of positives left.

OU and Texas will reap a sizable amount of cash in this new arrangement, more than its eight counterparts, and I bet Baylor doesn’t mind. Baptists all across Texas are crediting prayers and some phone call pressure from Texas legislators for saving whatever BCS hiney is on their backside. In other words, the Bears haven’t had a sniff of a football bowl game much less a conference title game.

Yet they’ll still benefit from some nice welfare checks and a basketball program that can hold its own.

Missouri? Some believe you guys went “Show Me” all over the Big Ten and started this mess to begin with. Sit down and shut up now.

Iowa State? No begging for Big Ten love from your in-state counterpart.

Kansas (and to a somewhat lesser point, Kansas State), justice is yours baby. You didn’t deserve any of this to begin with.

Meanwhile, if I were Beebe, I’d be looking to play the aggressor now. Consider yourself on a roll from where you sat a week ago, but to sit pat and exhale just isn’t productive.

The conference has been weakened, no doubt. OU’s been smart about stocking up on a tough non-conference slate through the end of this decade with Ohio State, Notre Dame, Tennessee and Florida State among the lineup. Texas better start looking beyond Rice. Those RPIs are going to need a little punch with what at least is a tougher Big 10 plus two.

Beebe could help things by going after BYU, Air Force, Utah, TCU or hey, if you can hand Texas and Oklahoma the kind of concessions you did, including the freedom to create their own television networks, how about a pitch toward Notre Dame? Or how about Boise State? An annulment with their new partners in the Mountain West might be a little dicey, but hey, just think of those BSU-OU encounters.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

And besides, you need two if you really want to be credible with that conference label.