What a week for college football!!
According to Mark Schlabach, here’s what’s at stake in the high stakes of college football realignment.
Let the Hokie Guru remind you… the only think that matters in college athletics is the money… we all would like to think that the student athlete matters in major college athletics… and he or she does… in the Ivy League.
There are several moves already happening…
1.) Former Big 12 conference member, the University of Colorado, has joined the Pacific 10 Conference.
2.) The University of Nebraska Cornhuskers appear to be headed to the Big 10. Stewart Mandel thinks that the Huskers are making the right move.
The Big 12 conference is dead. Look for Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma to join the Pacific 10. Then the Pacific 10 will form two divisions (east and west). The east division will include Colorado, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Arizona, and Arizona State. The west division will include USC, UCLA, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Cal, Washington, and Washington State. Where does that leave Missouri and Kansas? Maybe in an expanded Big 10 later on.
Now, with the Big 12 and Big 10 Conferences both making moves, there are several people think the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) might also address expansion. We might see Virginia Tech, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami, and/or Florida State head to the SEC. We could also see Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh and West Virginia all leave the Big East Conference to go to the ACC (which would probably end the Big East, as well).
And no one knows yet about Notre Dame… my bet is they go Big 10… or stay independent.
Will this make college athletics better? Who knows?
We do know that life will never be the same in major college athletics… and we will be in the edge of our seats in every football game… because every game will matter that much more.
Personally, I would hate to see the Hokies head to the SEC. They have a great recruiting base in VA, but it will be tough for them to compete against teams that have owned the Southern states in recruiting. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the next couple years.
I am so against all of this….I don’t know why…I feel stubborn.
But I like it how it is…
I don’t like it either… a lot of this could have been avoided if Notre Dame would have just gone to the Big 10… then they have had their 12 teams and a conference championship game… and the BCS conferences would have stayed the same.
I think the ACC will remain the same… I don’t see Virginia Tech leaving… the ACC fits the Hokies academic and geographic footprint. On the other hand, I still think it’s possible that the Big 10 picks off a couple of Big East teams, like Rutgers and Syracuse… and ESPN is reporting now that the Pac 10 Conference commissioner is flying to Texas and Oklahoma to sell them on the move… the next couple of weeks could be very interesting.
The problem, of course, is that this is all about money and not about the welfare of the student athlete… and that’s the state of college athletics right now.
Agreed…and I think a little short-sighted on the money side.
I can see this making a lot of alumni mad who really donate the big bucks vs TV contracts
And the dominoes might be falling… Texas A&M now has the votes from the Board of Regents to make the move to the SEC…
Happy to see the Hokie Guru on GovLoop where he belongs!
Honestly I’m more ok with SEC expanding than Pac-10 taking all these good teams…
And Boise State to the Mountain West Conference in 2011-2012…
Looks like Texas might be staying in the Big 12 now. Which could possibly have 10 teams. Makes sense to me.