On February 25, 1994, college sports first "Super Conference" was born. The conference was the 8 members of the Big 8 conference (Missouri, Iowa State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State Kansas, Kansas State, and Colorado) joined forces with four Texas schools which came from the disbanded Southwestern Conference (Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Baylor).
The Big 12, as it would come to be known, was supposed to rival the Southeastern Conference for college sports superiority. Think about it. Football powers Texas and Nebraska were set to collide in football on a yearly basis. Oklahoma and Texas, members of the Red River Rivalry, would have even more on the line in their yearly meeting. This was going to be gigantic.
And...we fast forward to last December. The Big 10, which has been one of the biggest grossing conferences in the past couple of years due to it's own network, started talking about expanding to at least 12 teams. This would make it possible to have a conference championship game in football as the NCAA mandates there has to be 12 teams to hold such a game. Also, another team would mean more money for the conference.
The Big 10 wanted Notre Dame first, who rejected the Big 10's initial offer back in 1990 to join the conference. (At that time, the Penn State Nittany Lions joined the conference to become it's 11th member) The Big 10 tried a second time to add Notre Dame in the late 90's, but again, they refused. The Big 10 tried a third time recently, but we'll get to that later.
The most recent version of Big 10 expansion talk has put college sports on tilt. Because the Big 10 talked expansion and the possibility of turning into a "super conference," the Pac 10 decided to jump into the frenzy. The Pac 10 started courting Big 12 schools. But why would Big 12 schools want to leave the Big 12?
Simply because it never lived up to the hype that the Big 12 promised. The Big 12 South completely owned the Big 12 North. Granted, when you're Texas, it's easy to pound the hell out of Iowa State and Colorado in most sports. They also don't have a TV deal, which is what most schools covet due to the success of the Big Ten Network.
So, the first two dominoes in the demise of the Big 12 fell late this week. First, Colorado decided to leave the Big 12 for the Pac 10. The Pac 10 is currently looking to add 6 schools to become the Pac 16. It's rumored that the Pac 10...or 16...or whatever...is looking to also add Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Baylor. However, that wasn't the biggest blow to the conference.
Nebraska, with it's storied football program and the large income that the Cornhuskers generate with it, decided to bolt the Big 12, spelling it's demise. This is the most important thing for this neck of the woods as the Huskers are going to join the Big 10 in 2011. This gives the Big 10 twelve teams. There is a rumor that the Big 10 wants to get up to 14 (Notre Dame? Missouri?) or 16 (Pittsburgh? Syracuse? Rutgers?). There's also a rumor about what will happen to the orphans of the Big 12 (Kansas, K-State, Iowa State). But, let's talk Big Ten for now.
The Big 10 has it's 12 teams, so what divisions should they have? Should they even have a championship game. Well, we do know that there will be 2 divisions for college football no matter what. Here's what is rumored.
Big 10 West
Nebraska
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Illinois
Northwestern
Big 10 East
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Penn State
Indiana
Purdue
First of all, how tough is the eastern division going to be? Wow. Second, it's clear that the Gophers will never sniff the Rose Bowl while I'm alive, or my children are alive. And third, I like this alignment. All the rivals are together, with the exception of two of the Gophers rivals, but seriously, do they really need to get spanked for the Governor's Victory Bell and Little Brown Jug every year?
So obviously, we know the Big 10 and Pac 10 are winners right now. But there is one conference who's cashing in as well, and that's the Mountain West. I think that those orphans from the Big 12 are going to go there, and that means they'll get Kansas basketball, which is a cash cow in it's own right.
Still, we have no idea why schools are doing this. Well, you can say it's about the money, and it probably is, but it's actually all about football. Why else would Kansas be left out? This is all about the destruction of the Bowl Championship Series.
The Pac 16 would have 2 eight team conferences if this happens, and it's going to. So first of all, there are two conferences in one, and the Pac 10-16 does not want a championship game. They want two BCS bids. Also, if the other conferences expand, what will be the standards for handing out bids to the BCS? There could be two conference teams playing for the BCS Championship!
Also, the bowl system as we know it has gone to hell. The Big 12 had at least 6 or 7 bowl affiliations. Well, since the conference is dead, the bowls will have to look for something else, and that might lead to finding inferior competition, which would lead to a bad product, which would lead to not many people wanting to see these bowls, which leads to less travel...tickets sold...and DEAD.
So, really, nothing can be said until the dust settles. Well except for the chances of a college football playoff have just gone through the roof.
No comments:
Post a Comment