Half of Big XII to Join Pac-10??

[HPF Bob]

Rumors are flying fast and furious that the Pac-10 may be prepared to invite six Big XII schools - Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St. and Colorado to join them in a 16-team superconference. At a Big XII meeting last week, nine schools vowed to stay together as the Big XII but three schools - Colorado, Missouri and Nebraska would not commit. Colorado has been listening to overtures from the Pac-10 while Missouri and Nebraska have been preening themselves for possible expansion into the Big 10.

It's all about television revenue, market penetration and the next round of tv contracts. The SEC has a 15-year deal with CBS and ESPN. The Big 10 has its own tv network which is making good money with coaches shows, live games of non-marquee matchups and video replays of famous games of the past (yet they are having trouble with market penetration outside the Midwest).

The Pac-10 has been eyeing Utah and Colorado but would truly love to add Texas. Texas apparently says they aren't interested unless A&M and possibly Tech and Oklahoma join them. The Texas state legislature also has a say, as they did in allowing Texas, A&M, Tech and Baylor to leave the Southwest Conference for the Big XII.

If the change is going to happen, I'd prefer the six new Pac-10 schools to be Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska and Utah. That gives the new conference the greatest tv market penetration and name recognition. Sorry, but Tech, Baylor and Okie St. just don't have the size, prestige or market base to make the cut.

You'd then have a 16-team superconference divided between the old Pac-8 schools and the six new schools with Arizona and Arizona St. That allows the new teams to avoid the Pacific time zone for most of their contests so the time zone/travel problems are less than they might otherwise be.

[Nconroe]

So, for now, only defections are Nebraska to Big 10 and Colorado to Pac10. I think Colorado and Nebraska hadn't been doing so well lately anyways.

And Big 12 now has 10 teams. Sounds like their TV revenue will be increased now as well. And perhaps since less teams, no conference championship game.

Overall, I am not a big fan of BCS bowl system or colleges continuously shifting leagues, but, all about money, so it will happen.

[painekiller]

I am not happy with this news. The whole driving point to this farce was that instead of a Big 12 network or a super Pac 16 network with the TVs of LA, SF, Phoenix, Houston, DFW, San Antonio/Austin, Denver and Oklahoma City, a network for everything orange.

How stupid are the Aggies? It seems to be pretty danged stupid.

The Big 10 has laid the model out for the other conferences and the Big 12 and Pac 10 could have merged into a super conference with a huge TV following, but no, the longhorns are going to do their own thing and again make more money than anyone else.

Stupid Aggies.

How does the Big 12 add more TVs then they could have with the merger? They don't. Adding U of H does not get them more TVs, adding TCU does not get them more TVs, they already own the TVs in Houston and DFW.

This whole thing has been designed to get UT their own network and for that I am mad.

[HPF Bob]

For A&M, I thought the smart play was to join the SEC if the invitation was there. Aggies are tired of being treated like UT's little brother and the only way to escape that shadow was to forge their own destiny apart from UT. This was their best chance to do that.

For the "Little 5" that would have been left behind, staying in a watered-down conference was their only way to stay relevant. Missouri was the first to preen themselves for the Big 10 and then got left at the altar in favor of Nebraska. How pathetic do they look?

As for Texas, it's definitely a rich-get-richer scenario, especially if their own network gains traction (Oklahoma seems prepared to try the same thing). Which makes me think the Big Whatever may be in the strongest position someday to attract Notre Dame since the precedent of a school with its own network having already been set. That would be a game-changer.

Want another odd name to make an even dozen? BYU. The new conference could stand for religious tolerance having a Baptist school, a Catholic school and a Mormon school sharing revenue. Due to their religious affiliations, both ND and BYU have a much larger fan base than they do an alumni base. Then, if you want a "super conference" of 16, why not add the three service academies and one more school? That would make for a lot of intriguing rivalries with national (and international) fan bases that could easily be sold as a national contract to one of the major networks (NBC, perhaps?)

All just speculation on my part but if the Big Whatever (btw, drop the "Big" thing and become the Heartland Conference or the American Legend Conference) could do that, it would be able to flourish and not just survive.

But, yeah, the remaining schools owe a big thank you to A&M for holding the conference together because, if they'd joined the SEC, I think the other nine collapse and the bigger dogs join the Pac-10.