Big College Football Stuff Going On

Shoes are beginning to drop all over college football. As of right now (subject to change in the next hour), Nebraska has moved to the Big Ten, and Colorado moved to the PAC-10. Oh, and Boise State moved to the Mountain West. Other than that, everything is just rumor. Talk of the Big Ten going to 16 teams which will make the PAC-10 to do the same. Then who knows what the SEC and ACC will do then, but most people think the Big 12 is done. The worst part of it is that it almost appears that the Big Ten started all of this in an effort to get Notre Dame. I almost believe that they wanted to scare Notre Dame into thinking all this huge expansion would destroy the Big East which would make Notre Dame worried about their non-revenue sports enough that they'd join the Big Ten. But they end up taking Nebraska first. Apparently Nebraska didn't like Texas being the big dog in the Big 12 so they wanted to move away. I'm sure they'll love being with the snooty ass Ohio States and Michigans of the Big Ten. And ironically, one rumor has Texas petitioning the Big Ten for membership where they'd still get to look down on Nebraska. I doubt Texas has made any overt move there because the Big Ten would take Texas in two seconds. Other rumors have Texas going to the PAC-10 and taking the Oklahoma schools and Texas A&M and Tech with them (I think Texas to the PAC-10 is the most likely). But other rumors have Oklahoma trying to move to the SEC. And another rumor has Texas A&M deciding to between the PAC-10 and SEC which sounds retarded that they'd go somewhere other than wherever Texas ends up.

But since the moves began, it's almost like no one is planning anymore. Everyone is reacting. The rumors are the Big Ten and PAC-1o could stop at twelve or blow up to sixteen. No one knows what the SEC and ACC will do. Missouri played footsie with the Big Ten but didn't get an invite. The PAC-10 doesn't seem interested. Screwed themselves over. But what if the Big Ten, PAC-10, SEC and ACC scavenge the Big 12 and ACC for members and all go to 16 teams? You could end up with four super-conferences. I'm not sure they understand what it could mean. For one, when you start destroying conferences for TV money, that tax exempt status those athletic departments get because they are part of "education" could very well be gone. It's hard to behave like a corporation in running up profits, but then claim to be a non-profit. And what if the super conferences freeze the rest out of the money? Will that destroy the NCAA? What will that do to the basketball tournament? You might notice that Kansas isn't mentioned in a lot of expansion talk. Can you imagine a championship tournament without them? Hell, Louisville could be in the same boat. Which means that at least one team in the last six Final Fours (including one champion) won't be in the mega conferences.

Now, what does that mean locally? Well, for Louisville, it could be good or bad. There is potential for the Big East to lose teams to the Big Ten, and if the ACC and SEC decide not to expand, they could be out in the cold. Or if the Big East falls apart after losing teams to the Big Ten and the SEC grabs teams from the ACC, Louisville could end up in the ACC. Or there is also a belief the Big East could stay together and grab Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri out of the Big 12. The last two scenarios would be good. Ironically, Kentucky could have problems if the SEC expanded. If the SEC took Oklahoma, they'd have to find someone to add to the SEC East. I'm guessing Virginia Tech (a state the SEC doesn't have a presence in). Why is that bad for Kentucky? Another team they can't beat regularly. Kentucky's football strategy is to win their four out of conference games and then only need two conference wins to go to a bowl game. Expansion will probably mean fewer non-conference games, and Virginia Tech would add another hard win for them. But on the plus side for Kentucky, they'll now have another excuse to drop the Louisville game which is more pertinent now that Steve Kragthorpe got fired.

Just proves football drives college athletics in this country. One of the historically top basketball programs, 2008 National Champion Kansas, could be looking for a home. Yet, the Big Ten's addition of Nebraska means they'll now have the two historically worst basketball programs from a major (ie BCS) conference. Nebraska has made six NCAA tournaments. They've never won it. By "it", I mean an actual NCAA tournament game. How can you be in a major conference for over 100 years and never win a game in the NCAA tournament? The only other school from a BCS conference to have no wins when they made the NCAA tournament is South Florida. But they only joined the Big East a few years ago and didn't have basketball prior to the 1970s. So, Nebraska gets the call as the second worst basketball program from a BCS conference. Why only second? Northwestern has never even made the NCAA tournament. That's friggin' pathetic.

But even though this is about football, there is still some real shit going on. For example, why was Colorado wanted by the PAC-10? Yes, they have that 1990 national title (with the help of a fifth down), but their record since joining the Big 12 is 85-82. It's been even worse in recent years. So, why would you want them over Kansas or Kansas State? Both those schools have made BCS bowls in the past few years (and would add an actual basketball program). And since destroying all these conferences for money proves tradition no longer matters, why should serial underachievers in football get to stay in lucrative mega conferences while teams that have put time and effort into vastly improving their football product are left out? Are you telling me that Northwestern (last bowl win 1949), Duke (last bowl win 1960; no winning season since 1994) and Vanderbilt (1 winning season since 1982) add any value to their conference brand? Duke has been such a joke in football that when they canceled a contract with Louisville for a three game series, they argued in court that they shouldn't pay damages because any team Louisville could get to play would be better than Duke. Yet, they won't have to sweat the realignments and Louisville will? And don't give me academics because this whole episode has shown that isn't relevant.