Expansion rumors have run rampant the past couple days. There has been a lot of speculation on whether the Big Ten is going to invite Nebraska and Missouri this week, the specifics of the deadline given to Missouri and Nebraska, whether the Big Ten intended to wait for Notre Dame before inviting anyone, and whether a 15-person bloc in the Texas state legislature, combined with lobbyists, could replace Colorado with Baylor in the list of Pac 10 invitees.

If this report from Orangebloods.com is correct, the answer to the last question on the list is no. Orangebloods.com, who broke the story on the Pac 10's plan to invite six Big 12 schools, is now reporting that C0lorado is going to make a major announcement tomorrow after a special meeting of the regents today, and that the announcement will likely be that Colorado will be accepting an invitation to the Big 12. Assuming that this is true, then it is an excellent move by both Colorado and the Pac 10. It would preemptively kill any chance of Baylor gaining sufficient momentum to replace Colorado on the list of Pac 10 invitees, something that the Pac 10 would be very hesitant to do even if it was the only way to get Texas, and changes the debate in the Texas state legislature from whether or not to push for Baylor to replace Colorado to whether or not to damage the three public schools in the Big 12 by forcing them to stay for Baylor's sake.* It also puts a lot of strain on the Big 12 as it loses a major television market, which could lead the other Big 12 schools that are sitting on the fence to decide to leave. And even if the other Big 12 schools decide to stay put, then they can go to their Plan B and invite Utah, thus expanding to 12 teams. Or they can do what the Big Ten does now and have 11 teams.

Of course, this all could be completely off base. It may well be that the announcement has nothing to do with athletics at all. Or maybe the Big Ten invited Colorado. OK, probably not that last bit.

*There is a third option, namely attempting to get all the Texas schools into the SEC. However, Texas is guaranteed to balk at that so it is almost certainly not realistic.

UPDATE: The Denver Post has reported that Colorado has yet to be invited, so this is completely premature. Nevertheless, I still think it makes sense to invite Colorado regardless in order to preempt the Baylor issue.

UPDATE 2: The Omaha World-Herald has reported that Nebraska may join the Big Ten as early as Friday, citing sources from other Big 12 schools. Nebraska has yet to confirm this and the paper in question hasn't exactly been great in its expansion coverage, but then again they're primary job is covering Nebraska. Take it for what it's worth.