It is just a matter of time. Colorado is already gone. Nebraska should make it official today.
It’s all up to what Texas and Texas A&M do. They still don’t seem to be on the same page.
Sources close to Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech told Orangebloods.com throughout the last week that if Nebraska moved on to the Big Ten, the Big 12 was dead.
Texas president William Powers and athletic director DeLoss Dodds met with UT coaches on Wednesday and told them they did everything they could to save the Big 12 but were unsuccessful.
There appears to be divided sentiment in the A&M community between going west and going to the SEC.
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive appears to be pulling out every enticement he can to lure Texas and Texas A&M to the SEC, including possibly moving two teams from the SEC West to the SEC East to allow Texas and Texas A&M in the SEC West, one source with knowledge of the SEC said.
But Texas does not appear interested in the SEC no matter what.
The funny thing to me is that Oklahoma seems willing to be completely tied to Texas. Texas A&M is playing the part of the angry little brother that hates being told to follow the older brother’s instructions.
The Oklahoma part is no small reason why that whole rumor yesterday about the Big 11/12 back in the game for Texas and Texas A&M is bunk. Not to mention the Texas Tech issue.
The Aggies are playing a risky game. Who would go with them? I guess Missouri would be willing at this point. Could Kansas and Kansas State split apart after all? With Kansas taking A&M’s place in the Pac-10 while K-State joins A&M in the SEC? Would the SEC just grab Florida State, Clemson or VT from the ACC? Well, maybe not VT — at the moment.
I’m in this camp. Texas A&M may be sincere in preferring to go to the SEC over the Pac-10, but at the end of the day they will go with the rest of their Big 12 South buddies
Baylor, by the way, is still screwed. They overplayed their hand by being too blustery and openly aggressive about trying to force their way into the Pac-16 expansion over Colorado. They forced Colorado to not take any chances and jump early. There’s a good chance they had no chance to get to the Pac-16, but by forcing Colorado out early they further damaged chances of the Big 12 staying together.
As for Missouri, their leaders appear to be staying calm under the threat of finding themselves without a chair in conference expansion.
I’m told Missouri Athletic Director Mike Alden has been calm during this potential storm. Some folks close to the athletic department are convinced he has an ace up his sleeve … even though all the Big Ten attention has been centered on Nebraska the last 48 hours. I’m told that the major players in Missouri athletics — starting at the top with Alden and football Coach Gary Pinkel — have taken a serious oath not to leak a single word of the school’s plans and any communications with the Big Ten. “Not to their family, their lawyers, friends. Nobody,” one prominent booster told me. Frankly, the tight seal around this topic is rare for Missouri. Someone at the highest level of the state government made the comment to me on Wednesday that, “Is it just me, or is Missouri exercising rare discipline in keeping quiet on this topic?” I absolutely agreed.
It could be that they are taking a longer view and believe they will still get a Big 11/12 invite — just not for a while longer. Or it could simply be a case where they are just simply clamming up rather than panicking and leaking stuff.
Here is a good case for the SEC going to 16 with Texas A&M, Missouri, Florida St and Virginia Tech.
Or Mizzou could be getting their own Senators on board with other Big 12 remnants that are making threats.
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said Wednesday that he and other federal lawmakers from states likely to be adversely impacted by wholesale athletic conference realignment will look at ways to delay or prevent it.
Speculation continues to swirl about the status of the Big 12 Conference as talk of impending expansion in the Big Ten and Pac-10 looms.
Grassley, a Republican, said options could range from asking the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a review of whether the changes violate federal anti-trust laws — something U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking member of the Senate anti-trust committee, brought up Wednesday.
Serious consideration also could be given, Grassley said, to introducing legislation to end the federal tax deduction permitted to college athletic contributors.
“My goal would be to make sure Iowa State would not get hurt by however this might turn out,” Grassley said in an interview with the Des Moines Register.
Good luck with that.
Going to be another fun day of monitoring this crap.
Ha….hahahaha….baahahahahahahahahHAHAHAHAAH!!!!
Since geography seems to be going out the window anyhow, perhaps the distances between schools could be overcome. I still think the bigger issue is what do you do with the basketball only schools? If the Big East adds 4 new schools, they almost certainly would have to dump at least 4 of the basketball schools. That list would almost certainly have to include Providence, but does anyone actually think the leadership of the Big East would ever undertake such a thing? I just can’t see the current leadership being that proactive.
Frankly, the more likely scenario would seem to be that the football playing schools force the Big East to fold and then form a new conference with the Big 12 castoffs.
I don’t know…
PAC 16 will surely get the remaining desirable Big 12 (Tx, TxAM, TTech, Okl, Okst) to join Colorado and become the first Super Conference with TV markets stretching from SoCal to TX and Denver. Clever move on the the PAC 10 Commiss as he caught everyone sleeping and grab the biggest fish
BIG Ten- They get Nebraska and that is it. They may have wanted more but that is all that they get. Sometimes you spend too much time admiring yourself in the mirror. I think that this was the case.
SEC – Frozen at 12 for now unless sleezing FlaST and Miami can prostitute themselves to the SEC. Neither has any real loyalty to anyone but themselves (circa 2002 Miami). Depending on how well the PAC 16 superconference does with TV you could see the SEC make a push for FSU, Miami, Gtech, and Clemson over time. Two years before that happens.
BIG EAST (or whatever the fball conference will be called). PITT, WVU, Rutger (for now), SU, UCONN, UC, UofL, USF stay put and add the remaining BIG 12 bridesmaides with the biggest plum being Kansas Basketbal. Add to them Missouri,KSt, Iowa St, Baylor and guess who? You got it…. The Golden Domers ( they get another sweetheart deal where they get to keep the NBC contract to themselves but don’t share in BIG EAST fball TV revenue.
here is what it would look like
BIG EAST North
PITT
SU
UCONN
Rutgers
WVU
UC
ND
BIG East South
UofL
Missouri
Kansas
KSt
Baylor
Iowa St
USF
Because of the ND deal (free up as much nonconf scheduling) the only games that count towards the BIG East Championship Title Game are those in your division. This free ND up not to have to schedule the BE South team thus freeing them up for 6 non-conference games (traditional ND rivals – USC, BC, Mich, MSt, Army, Navy). The remaining BE teams play an assortment of non-con and opposite Big East divisional teams.
When Rutgers gets plucked (they too are prostituting themselves) then the BE adds Memphis or UCF to the BE south division and moves UofL to the BE north to replace Rutgers.
ACC – Stable for now until the SEC decides to move. Then they collapse. BIG TEN then goes after Rutgers, Maryland, and Missouri to add the final pieces for a BIG Something super conference of 14
Summary of final count when the dust clears
PAC 16
(north)
Wash
Wash St
Oregon
Oregon St
Stanford
USC
UCLA
UC Berkely
(south)
Az
AzSt
Tx
Tx AM
TTech
Okl
OKSt
Colorado
BIG Something (14)
(north)
Mich
Mich St
PSU
OSU
Rutgers
Purdue
Minnosota
(south)
NWestern
Ill
Iowa
Nebraska
Wis
Mizzo
Maryland
Indiana
Conference formerly know as Big EAST fball(14)
(North)
PITT
SU
UCONN
WVU
UC
UofL
ND*** (special deal)
(south)
Kansas
KSt
Baylor
Iowa St
USF
UCF
Memphis
SEC (16)
(east)
Fla
GA
SC
Gtech
Clemson
FSU
Miami
Auburn
(west)
Tenn
Ky
Ark
Vandy
ALA
LSU
Miss
Miss St
ACC ??? Could be the one left begging if the Big Somethng grabs Maryland and the SEC grabs Gtech, Clemson, FSU, and Miami. That would leave them with the following schools
Bridesmaids
BC
Duke
NC St
UNC
UVA
Vtech
timing is everything so the above schools would have to act early inorder to be included in on a BE deal (my guess that the ship would have left by that time and it would be difficult to add more teams to the New BE even if they included the above).
This will really get interesting thanks to the BIG TEN 🙂
Aww, c’mon, man. How can you say that? This stuff is fun!
This will be historic. I haven’t seen anything like this in college sports in my lifetime. There’s more stupid shit going on right now than a VW full of clowns. How can you not love it?
The Stache has really built a solid pipeline into the New Jersey area. We’ve gotten quite a few of their top players over the past couple years…it’s good to see Wanny pushing the recruiting boundaries outside of PA.
Texas A&M is the one holdout, apparently, and is seriously considering the SEC. Having lived in Austin for 9 years, I find this strange…but then again, most things about A&M are strange.
“So now the big 10 is the big 12….and the big 12 is the big 10….but they dont swap names…am i right? ”
Yup. The VW is coming up the street now. And I can see the clowns!!!
hehttp://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college_ucf/2010/06/is-east-carolina-ad-terry-holland-crazy-or-innovative-for-writing-an-open-letter-to-fans-full-of-expansion-conjecture.html
They must have a death wish.
Can we then remove some basketball only schools? Would we really miss Depaul, Marquette, Providence and Seton Hall? We replace them with Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Missouri. Pick up either UCF or Memphis and now we have a stronger basketball conference and a football championship game.
It’s still too early to really speculate on Big East survival but there are more options out there now. We just have to time it right and go in for the kill before a lesser conference takes advantage of the situation. That time might be as early as next week.
If this is so, I repeat my last closing statement.
Only other reasonable scenario: We jump ship and forfeit the $5 mill to the likes of DePaul, Seton Hall and the RI kingpins.
I’m starting an alumni fund to do the latter with $5. All I need is 1 million more alumni to chip in.
What a mess.
I agree, I can’t believe the BE survived longer than the B12 either….but that might be a sad commentary on the Big East…we have no desirable teams to poach.
More and more, I think we’ve got to break up the basketball only schools. They’re just riding the coattails of the moneymaking football schools. I love the rivalry that we have with Georgetown and Villanova. But as for the others, what rivalry is there? Providence? St. Johns (haven’t been relevant for a while). Seton Hall? Marquette? DePaul? I would love to maintain some sort of an inter-conference deal with this group, to play maybe 4 teams a year from this group, but our big Basketball Rivalries now go right along with the football ones (WVU, UConn, Cincinnati, Louisville)
It’s time to make a move that will keep these football schools relevant.
“Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany … said the conference would “pause” from further expansion over the next 12 to 18 months. He declined to comment on whether Notre Dame or any other school was on the league’s radar.
Pitt
Penn State
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Notre Dame
Syracuse
Maryland
Those are seven fun games a year… plus the backyard brawl and say a Nebraska or Wisconsin every other year!
One last expectation. I think the Big East name will remain with Basketball only schools and this league too will expand with the likes of Xavier, St Joes, Duquesne and Lasalle.
Wonder if the Big Ten will still let us “Sweet Caroline”!
The league may well now act in phases after gauging what else is happening around the country. Missouri still makes a lot of sense … geographically as well as access to two big TV markets but I think the big fish righ now is ND. Unfortunately, Cuse and RU also makes sense … the wait continues.
