The Associated Press

LINCOLN, Neb. — The Big 12 will become a 10-team league next year after all in the wake of agreements Tuesday that require Nebraska and Colorado to forfeit a combined $16 million in conference payouts.

Nebraska, which joins the Big Ten on July 1, will surrender a maximum of $9.25 million.

Colorado gets to move to the Pac-10 in 2011 instead of 2012 after negotiating a deal in which it will give up $6.86 million.

The Big 12, under its bylaws, originally had sought to withhold 80 percent of Nebraska and Colorado’s actual slice of the conference payout for 2009-10 and their projected distribution for 2010-11. That would have been an estimated $19.4 million for Nebraska and at least $15 million for Colorado.

The settlements, negotiated separately, allow Nebraska and Colorado to make clean breaks and avoid having the matter settled in court.

Nebraska and Colorado officials initially said their schools shouldn’t be required to pay anything because the league was on the verge of collapsing when they struck deals with the Big Ten and Pac-10 in June.

Texas and four other schools had talked to the Pac-10 before Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe convinced them to stay in a 10-team league. Nebraska and Colorado challenged the bylaws, saying their moves were based on unstable circumstances that they did not create.