Conference Realignment is OFFICIALLY On
3:15 PM
Seth9
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Big Ten Expansion
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Conference Realignment
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Pac 10 Expansion
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According to Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, the Omaha World Herald, SportsCenter, and others, Nebraska is going to leave the Big 12 for the Big Ten on Friday. Meanwhile Chip Brown has also stated that six Big 12 schools, (not including Baylor) are likely to accept the Pac 10's invitation very soon. Meanwhile, Missouri is not being invited at this time, as the Big Ten has apparently decided that they think they can do better. Summary of today's events can be found here.
Obviously, these moves, assuming they go forward, will reshape college athletics as we know it. Furthermore, they are not necessarily the last moves that occur during this phase of conference realignment. I will cover these moves and their ramifications in more detail if and when they become official. For now, however, I will summarize the winners and losers from the aforementioned moves:
Winners
- Pac 10: The Pac 10 will capture two top level football programs and they project that each school in this arrangement will receive $20 million a year, which is comparable to the Big Ten and SEC.
- Big Ten: The Big Ten gets a top flight football program to strengthen its football conference and network, while leaving itself plenty of room to maneuver.
- Nebraska: Their revenue is about to nearly double and they get to join a stable conference.
- Colorado: Colorado gets to join a conference that they greatly prefer to the Big 12.
- Texas Tech: Texas Tech also finds a home, thanks to Texas state politics.
- The Big East and Mountain West: Both conferences get to pick at the scraps of the Big 12, which could get the Mountain West a BCS bid and revenue and save the Big East.
Losers
- Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, Iowa State, and Missouri: These schools are left twisting in the wind hoping for mercy. This is especially crushing for Missouri, who openly courted was anticipating a Big Ten invite (which they shouldn't have, if they were using their brains).
- SEC: The SEC loses the A-list of their expansion targets, as expanding their geographic footprint becomes much more difficult and they lose out on the Texas market. If the SEC decides to expand, they'll have to raid the ACC or the Big East.
- Boise State: A Mountain West invite just became a lot less likely.
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