NCAA Conference Musical Chairs

Per JB's suggestion.

The latest, listing multiple of the 'latest' rumors.

Pac-10
""There is an enormous amount of speculation about conference expansion right now and I think with the Pac-10 that anything is possible, all the way from remaining with the status quo, where we are today, to a full merger with the Big 12 and anything in between,'' Washington athletic director Scott Woodward told the Seattle Times on Thursday. "All possibilities are viable and open for discussion.'' " -- http://espn.go.com/blog/big12/post/_...merger-in-play

Rivals.com: Pac-10 set to invite six from Big 12

Big Ten
Big Ten expansion: E-mails hint eyes are upon Texas; OSU's Gee says UT president 'would welcome a call'

"It appears that the Big Ten has been heavily discussing the following five schools: Texas, Texas A&M, Maryland, Virginia and Vanderbilt. I’m not saying that these are the only five schools being discussed, none of the “usual suspects” such as Nebraska and Rutgers will end up being included, or the Big Ten has forgotten about Notre Dame, but these are apparently all targets that the conference is focusing on." -- http://frankthetank.wordpress.com/20...r-the-big-ten/

Mountain West
Boise State could become newest member of Mountain West. Could come as early as Monday.

[T]he MWC could try to pick up the four teams in the Big 12 that could be left hanging without a conference home -- Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Baylor. None of those schools fits the traditional Mountain West "footprint," but could conceivably help establish an eastern division of a 14-team league. -- http://www.sltrib.com/collegesports/ci_15230177

SEC
REPORT: SEC ALREADY EYEING SIX TEAMS FOR POSSIBLE EXPANSION

http://www.newsok.com/is-nebraska-on...rticle/3466077

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DeLoss Dodds stood in a Kansas City hotel hallway this week and told the truth about conference realignment as only a straight-talking Texan can tell it.

"We didn't start this," said the Texas athletic director. "But if we need to finish it, we'll finish it."

I think Texas is ready to finish it, and here's how.

Nebraska has a deadline.

When Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe emerged from a presidents meeting Friday and talked about a "process" by which the league will decide how to sort the dalliances of some schools with the Big Ten, what he meant was, Nebraska has been called out.

I don't know for sure. I wasn't in the room. But I've talked to people who know what they're talking about. And this is about Nebraska.

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"Nebraska has until 5 p.m. on Friday to tell us what they're going to do," one school official said, according to the The American-Statesman. "The same deal for Missouri. They have to tell us they're not going to the Big Ten."

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http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5257088

Gotta love the ultimatum. Ummmm if we don't tell by Friday, you'll do what?

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Originally Posted by JBHuskers

Gotta love the ultimatum. Ummmm if we don't tell by Friday, you'll do what?

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kick you out of the Big12 :p

Exactly. Nebraska is desired by conferences. If the Big 12 kicks them out then someone will gladly take them.

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Originally Posted by Rudy

Exactly. Nebraska is desired by conferences. If the Big 12 kicks them out then someone will gladly take them.

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Last year was their try out for the Sun Belt Conference... they passed so we'd certainly let them in if they would like.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5257774

The Pac 10 Commissioner has all authority to make the expansion happen now. And there is an end of the year deadline. But it could be announced as early as July 27. So it's happening quick.

I was a bit skeptical about the whole thing, but I'm actually getting kind of excited to hear what's gonna happen now.

Not exactly. He has authority to "explore" expansion possibilities. My understanding is that the vote will still need to occur and unanimity for all prospective members would still be a necessary requirement.

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

Not exactly. He has authority to "explore" expansion possibilities. My understanding is that the vote will still need to occur and unanimity for all prospective members would still be a necessary requirement.

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??? Sounds to me that he is the voice for the conference at this point. I think the vote you mentioned has been taken.

Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott emerged from the final day of conference meetings Sunday and announced that university presidents and chancellors have given him all the authority he needs to expand the Pac-10."What direction that process takes still could go in different directions, everything from remaining as we are as a Pac-10 that's got some very bright days ahead of it to a bigger conference footprint," Scott said. "I have the authority to take it in different directions, depending on various scenarios and discussions we're going to have."
In addition to giving Scott the power to negotiate expansion, the conference also has made him the only voice on the matter.

The vote I'm referring to would be this one:

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By Pac-10 by-laws, expansion of the league is permitted only after a unanimous vote of the presidents and chancellors. Scott would not say whether a vote was held this weekend.

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It would make sense to me that such a vote could only occur after the schools are determined.

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The Pac-10 concluded its meetings Sunday by giving commissioner Larry Scott the authority to pursue any possible expansion, while not committing the conference to adding any more schools.

Scott addressed the chancellors and presidents on the final day of the weekend meeting about possible expansion scenarios and was given permission to move ahead with the process without having to go back to the board for approval.

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What suddenly made the PAC 10 so great compared to the Big 12? They don't have a TV network. Best case scenario for me? Notre Dame agrees to join the Big 10 and the Big 10 only expands to 12 teams. The PAC 10 and Big 12 stay the same but create a TV network together. I just don't want to see football conferences bigger than 12 teams. The schedule just becomes stupid.

Yeah I'm not sure how 16 team superconferences improve the game. I like my SEC the way it is, not with 5,000 teams. I think it waters down the league.

Personally what I think would be best for the game would be all 9 team conferences. That way you play every team in your conference every year and still have 4 non conference games. The conference champion is determined during the season and then that feeds into DA DA DA DUH... a playoff.

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Originally Posted by gschwendt

Personally what I think would be best for the game would be all 9 team conferences. That way you play every team in your conference every year and still have 4 non conference games. The conference champion is determined during the season and then that feeds into DA DA DA DUH... a playoff.

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Yeah good luck getting the conference to give up their conference championship game cash cow. I like it, unfortunately that thought will never cross the minds of anyone with power in the NCAA.

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Originally Posted by UGA14

Yeah I'm not sure how 16 team superconferences improve the game. I like my SEC the way it is, not with 5,000 teams. I think it waters down the league.

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Yeah it's not to improve the game, it's to improve the wallets of the Pac 10 and Big 10 who don't get that extra conf championship cash.

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Originally Posted by JBHuskers

Yeah it's not to improve the game, it's to improve the wallets of the Pac 10 and Big 10 who don't get that extra conf championship cash.

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Actually, they are doing this more to create their own TV network. Everyone wants The Eyes of Texas - the millions of them - which will allow for a bigger and sweeter TV deal. If they just wanted a CCG, they'd add BYU & Colorado and call it good. TV deals bring in way more than a CCG - but expansion will allow them to do both.

Everything is bigger in Texas, including a conference implosion :D

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Originally Posted by JeffHCross

The vote I'm referring to would be this one:


It would make sense to me that such a vote could only occur after the schools are determined.

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Oh I see what you mean. Regardless though, they will vote it in. We should know by the end of the week if the Big 12 is staying together, with Missouri and Nebraska having to make their decision. And they are "very interested and leaning towards the Big 10", according to multiple ESPN reports. I'd say it's almost a done deal in some capacity.

16 team conference would mean 8 teams in 2 divisions. So it would accomplish exactly what a 9 team conference would. You'd play all teams in division, get a division champ, and then there is still a championship with division winners. This setup actually would probably be the first step in a playoff, as now round 1 would be the 'championship games'. Then instead of like 20 conference champions you would have 8 or so. That makes a playoff really simple. 3 games to decide a winner.

Personally, I hate the playoff idea. I don't necessarily always like the BCS setup, but I like the bowl system. But it seems like we are headed that way at some point

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Originally Posted by Jayrah

Oh I see what you mean. Regardless though, they will vote it in. We should know by the end of the week if the Big 12 is staying together, with Missouri and Nebraska having to make their decision. And they are "very interested and leaning towards the Big 10", according to multiple ESPN reports. I'd say it's almost a done deal in some capacity.

16 team conference would mean 8 teams in 2 divisions. So it would accomplish exactly what a 9 team conference would. You'd play all teams in division, get a division champ, and then there is still a championship with division winners. This setup actually would probably be the first step in a playoff, as now round 1 would be the 'championship games'. Then instead of like 20 conference champions you would have 8 or so. That makes a playoff really simple. 3 games to decide a winner.

Personally, I hate the playoff idea. I don't necessarily always like the BCS setup, but I like the bowl system. But it seems like we are headed that way at some point

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Most likely, with a 16 team conference, you're going to have a team playing all the other teams in their division and then 1 or 2 in the other division with a round robin type setup for determining who plays who each season in the other division.

I agree that conference championships should decide who plays in a 8 team playoff system, but then you have the issue of seeding (since the 8 conferences would be SEC, ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, Big East, and either MAC, MWC, WAC, or CUSA and I assume that the MWC and WAC would be deemed most worthy of being in the 8 team playoff though with Boise going to the MWC, that makes the WAC pretty much useless now). Should probably go by regular season record with tiebreakers being left to conference record and then OOC strength of schedule (to get pussy teams like Florida to travel outside of Florida for a freakin' change).