College Football Conference Realignment Madness!

[Droford]

My Brain hurts reading this (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/stewart_mandel/06/07/expansion-scenarios/index.html)

Notre Dame joining a conference in football is probably a sign of the Apocalypse, but apparently it might happen and it would set of a bunch of teams moving around and conferences folding up completely (Big 12, buh bye! Adios Big East!). At the end theres the idea of setting up 4 16 team super conferences which would make it easier to set up a College Football playoff system finally but this seems like a lot of trouble to go through to get to that.

Crazy stuff. Plus I wonder what effect it will have on college basketball, if any..

[Emperor Smeat]

Assuming the Pac-10 becomes a super conference like the Big East, the Pac-10 would replace the SEC as the #1 football conference and would either be rated #2 or #3 in basketball. Definitely behind the Big East for basketball but could swap positions with the ACC.

The MWC would be expected to go from a mid-major conference to a BCS level assuming they pick up Boise State and a few mid-power schools in football.

[Droford]

Well, the first domino will fall on Friday, but its not Notre Dame..

Nebraska is going to the Big Ten.


Nebraska, a Big 12 power, was considered vital to keeping the league together, but it now appears the 14-year-old conference will dissolve with the Cornhuskers’ impending departure. Nebraska’s announcement was pushed forward because of the Big 12’s two-week ultimatum given a week ago demanding a commitment from its members, the source said.
Also, as the Big 12 splits up, Texas and Texas A&M haven’t ruled out becoming members of the Southeastern Conference, the source said. UT officials confirmed Wednesday there is a meeting scheduled between A&M and UT on Thursday to discuss their courses of action. That could include pushing for Baylor to be a part of the Pac-10.
Whether Notre Dame decides to join the 11-member Big Ten will have no bearing on Nebraska becoming the league’s 12th member, the source said.
Also, Colorado is preparing to announce that it will join the Pacific 10, the source said, as a preemptive strike to Baylor making a push through Texas lawmakers to join the other five Big 12 South schools in forming a Pac-10 south division, along with Arizona and Arizona State.
With Nebraska’s announcement scheduled for Friday, the remaining Big 12 members will then have time to sort out where they’re headed, with a south division of the Pac-10 consisting of UT, A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado a very real possibility.

[Rev. Hallowell]

I wonder if my team will join a conference.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3123/2737453556_9f20fe227c.jpg

[McLegend]

Well as of right now Texas is staying in the Big 12.

[Emperor Smeat]

Way too much money Texas would "lose" if they left the Big 12 (or Big 10 since they have 10 teams now).

As of right now they get the most shared revenue along with Texas A&M and Oklahoma and then they don't have to share anything they make on their own network.

Pac-10 won't allow them to have their own network if they don't share the money and SEC would split conference revenue equally.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

Wow, so now it's coming out that ESPN is going to still pay the Big 12 the money it should've lost from losing two schools and the conference championship game. That's how the Big 12 was able to keep Texas. ESPN was so worried about losing Texas to Fox who does the Pac 10 games, that it ate millions of dollars in revenue that it was already losing. Nice.

[Emperor Smeat]

Could ESPN even reduce the money though since they signed a contract for a set number of years and not based on how many schools were in the conference?

The opposite would be true had the Big 12 expanded since the deal was done years before.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

Well the rules are you can't have a championship game without at least 12 teams in the conference and I doubt any contract could get around that. Like no matter what, ESPN wouldn't have a championship game to broadcast. I guess ESPN could've sued the Big 12 for breach or tried to get a rebate, but they decided against it.

[Emperor Smeat]

Forgot all about the deal involving conferences with championship games since it makes sense if ESPN wanted money back should they lose a game they paid for initially.

[James Steele]

Apparently, the Big 12 wants to stay with 10 teams (while the Big 10 now has 12). I think the Big 12 should try and get Arkansas and TCU or TCU and Houston (more likely) and then move both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to the North division.

[Droford]

The Big 10 and Big 12 need to change names. Way too confusing.

[James Steele]

Utah invited to join the Pac-10. Hopefully, Boise State gets an invite to a major conference.