College Athletics will never be the same

With Nebraska head to the Big Ten, and a number of other teams in the Big 12 being rumored to head to the Pac-10, now what is going to happen with the Big 12 and the rest of the teams in that conference. The Big Ten announced late last year it is considering adding at least one school, and possibly more, to add a league championship game in football and broaden the reach of its cable television network. Because of its decision is looks like it is going to reshape major college sports. With the Big Ten making its move it has caused the Pac-10 to mull its own expansion and now has threatening the survival of the Big 12.

Rumors and reports is that Baylor is locked in a battle with Colorado for what is presumed to be the sixth spot along with Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State that would create a 16-team super-conference with the Pac-10 schools. Most think that the Pac-10 would take Colorado over Baylor because of Colorado’s presence in the Denver TV market.

Because of these moves it would leave Baylor, Iowa State, Missouri, Kansas and Kansas State without a conference unless the Big 12 would want to try obtain schools from other conferences like, the Mountain West Conference, Western Athletic Conference and Conference-USA.

We all know that this is all because in college sports football is king and bring in the money for the other sports, but because of this one of the premier men college basketball programs in Kansas could possible be forced to move to much lower level conference in competition.

If I was the Big 12 I would take the teams I have left and try to add the following ten teams to make a super conference of my own. I would add Boise State, Nevada, TCU, Utah, New Mexico, UNLV, BYU, Memphis, Houston, and Tulsa. With the combination of the following schools you get the two best programs in football that aren’t in a BCS conference in Boise State, and TCU. You also bring some good basketball programs in Memphis, UNLV, and New Mexico. Utah, Nevada, and BYU have shown that they had solid programs in both football and basketball in recent years. With being in a BCS conference these teams would be help with more revenue that could be generated.

We will have to wait and see how it all shakes out for the landscape of college athletics will never be the same.