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Conference Expansion Remains Messy, Unsettled Affair, And Everyone Wants Texas

by Andy Hutchins • Jun 6, 2010 12:45 PM EDT

Baylor to the Pac-10! A 22-team conference! The Big 12 still thinking it has some modicum of control over what happens! Texas in the eye of the storm! All this and more as the Conference Expansion Carousel spins!

Ultimatum. This was the splashy news this morning, because "ultimatum" is a fun word to say, I guess: The Big 12 has given Nebraska and Missouri a deadline to commit to the conference or explore joining the Big Ten. I'm not entirely sure why those two teams are the ones the Big 12 is focusing on, though. After all, their biggest problem should be...

Texas Defection. ...the chance that every Texas team in the Big 12 is now a Pac-10 target. Apparently, Texas politicians are okay with the biggest steer on the range, Texas, leaving for the Pac-10—as long as Baylor is invited, too. As those teams would be part of the six-team exodus that would also likely include Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma, it might mean the Big 12 loses half its conference and the Texas TV market in one fell swoop. And that would be bad. But then, so would...

Total Assimilation. ...the full merger of all 12 Big 12 schools with the Pac-10. That's one of four scenarios the Pac-10 has before it. It's probably a less appealing one than the six-team raid, but it might be second on the list, ahead of adding Colorado and Utah to form a Pac-12 and standing pat.

But the looming doom and gloom of those scenarios is probably just a distant dark sky at the moment, because Texas has no incentive to rush to anything except its best deal.

The Longhorns are the bluest of blue-chip stocks on the college football trading floor, and in the enviable position of being able to marginally improve on a pile of riches or stand pat with a fortune every other program envies.

UT doesn't need to be hooked up with other teams to be raking in the dough (cough, Iowa State and Kansas State, cough), and has been rumored to be working on its own TV network for years. If the primary allure of the Pac-10 is the riches of a prospective TV network, why should Texas take on more travel costs for a bit more revenue when staying put and working its own broadcast contract out might make more sense and cents?

And what if the SEC comes calling? Nothing's been said publicly just yet, but there's a lot of logic to a marriage of college football's richest conference and its richest team, both in ledgers and on maps.

The carousel hasn't stopped spinning yet. With conference presidents' meetings ending today, this might be the day for a bold move. Or it might not, if new variables like the SEC come into play. Lots of things are happening, many rumors are flying, and calling it all crazy would be an understatement.

But it's not done yet. Not nearly.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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<![endif]—>This
could be the week that dominoes start to fall in the college football expansion
game. If Nebraska and Missouri head to the Big Ten, the landscape of college
sports is quickly going to change dramatically.
http://philiptortora.blogspot.com/2010/06/college-football-expansion-game-about.html

by PhilipTortora on Jun 6, 2010 2:08 PM EDT reply actions

Texas is poison for any conference. Texas floats rumors that everyone wants it. The sports writers gobble it up. Fact is, the Pac 10 wont wont Texas at their terms Nor with the Big 10 or SEC. Texas has been whoring itself out for months now, pissed that Missouri (and later, Nebraska) would dare question its reign on Big12 matters. Sadly, A&M, OU, OSU and Tech are fairly impotent in this entire mess. Time for the tide to turn. Banish UT. They cheat at everything, anyway. They also have an absurdly large university (and state for that matter) which is simply a sad attempt to shore up their insecurity. An burnst orange. Really? painful on the eyes. Let UT go independent. Then, don;t play them. They can tangle with North Texas and San houston State for all I care.

by sfprman on Jun 6, 2010 4:27 PM EDT reply actions

I wonder why the ultimatum is only for Nebraska and Missouri. Why not the six who are rumored to be on the way out west? The truly sad cases here are the four who are left out. Nobody wants Baylor, or Iowa St., or Kansas St. Kansas, I assume, could sell itself on the wonderful basketball program, but there still seems to be very little interest in them, either. Maybe if the Big East falls apart, Kansas, Kansas St., and Iowa St. could join with Cincy, Louisville, West Virginia and Pitt to start another conference. I am sure they could get Memphis to join. That’s eight right there. It would be a pretty good basketball conference.

by Sexy Pete on Jun 6, 2010 5:36 PM EDT reply actions

sfprman sounds like a Nebraska fan to me…

Nebraska owned the Big 8 and were quite comfortable with their position on top. Texas came in with demands for higher admission requirements and elevated academic standards (what is wrong with better academics?)…and the tide turned. Texas’ location and richness of talent in hoops and football allow them to be pickier about the athletes they choose…instead of sweating over athletes…the athletes practically fall into their lap. Nebraska dominated by getting talented athletes nationwide…but now they had to deal with a school that had more talent in it’s own backyard plus having the same ability to cherry-pick across the country.

The reason that Texas has such leverage is because the other Big 12 North schools (ISU, Kansas, Kansas St. etc.) remember how much the Huskers smacked them around…they figure that even if Texas is some kind of disgusting, monolithic behemoth…Nebraska is full of hypocrites because not long ago..they were and did everything they accuse Texas of being/doing. Nebraksa could care less about the Iowa State’s of the world…Nebraska only cares about it’s Cornhuskers…they just don’t like the fact that they are dealing with a school in Texas that knows how to wheel and deal…and take advantage of it’s enormous strengths more adeptly than they do.

by JGN1986 on Jun 6, 2010 8:19 PM EDT reply actions