College Expansion

Things are really starting to shift!! With the Big Ten adding Nebraska and the Pac-10 adding half of the Big 12, let's break down how everything is going to look now.

The Big Ten - Maybe not the biggest winner, but a winner nonetheless

After a successful addition of Penn State which has helped the conference in recent years, the Big Ten/Eleven conference has now become the new Big 12. Adding Nebraska is a great fit for both sides: school traditions, historical success on the football field, education, administration, and drive. Nebraska and Ohio State are the top 2 traveling teams in the country and now will be paired together hopefully year after year. How they break out the 2 divisions is going to be interesting. I think they'll keep Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State together and maybe add in Penn State, Northwestern, and Purdue while the other division sets the western/northern schools like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana. It should a couple nice rivalries like Iowa/Nebraska and possibly Nebraska/OSU. The Big Ten will also double Nebraska's paycheck each year.

The Pac-10 - Best chance of being the biggest winner

Going from 10 to 16 teams in a matter of a couple weeks may push this conference over the top. It also may destroy college football, it could weaken the other conferences just making them mad while the Big Ten, SEC, and Pac-10 really take everything. It's also probably no coincidence that all of this happens while the dominant Pac-10 football program, USC, starts a downward spiral. By the time they really start to feel the effects, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech will all be there to shoulder the burden. The depth of this conference will no longer be criticized as each of the 2 divisions could probably rival most of the other conferences. Texas, USC, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Oregon, Oregon State, Arizona State, and UCLA if they decide to take advantage of the loss of USC recruits over the next few years. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

The Big 12 - Winner of the Biggest Loser

The SEC plays better football, the Big Ten has the most money, the Pac-10 is just a sexier place being mostly located in California...the Big 12 really had nothing left to offer. Nebraska, Colorado, and Mizzou were all more than happy to jump off that bandwagon. Seems like 5 other teams were as well. I thought the Big 12 was going to pick up raid some other conferences like the Mountain West (Utah, BYU, TCU, Colorado State), the WAC (Boise State) and possibly C-USA (Houston) to help cover their losses. But with the Mountain West grabbing Boise State and targeting some of the Big 12 leftovers like Mizzou and Kansas, they may be in a position to catapult themselves into what may be the 6th automatic bid spot with the Pac-16, the Big 12 (formerly the Big Ten), the SEC, the ACC, and Big East. The Big 12 wants to kick Mizzou out which leaves them with Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, and Kansas State. They'll need a lot more teams if they want to even consider competing as a conference.

The Mountain West - A Surprising Wild Card

Utah, TCU, and possibly (although I don't see why) BYU were all targeted to go somewhere else but will probably end up staying and building up the MWC. With the addition of the only other relevant non-BCS team, Boise State, they've now got their sights on Kansas and Mizzou. Mizzou would be a stretch travel-wise but would make a lot of sense for their conference. It's a good basketball and football school, not great but good, and it helps solidify the rest of the conference so it's not just the big 3 and then the rest of the conference. It gives them more depth. Kansas and Kansas State are both great basketball programs and decent football programs. However they work it, adding any of these teams would really help this conference who a lot of people thought would end up losing more than gaining but apparently not.

The WAC - Not as big a loser

By losing Boise State, the WAC just became the MAC. Neither Hawaii nor Fresno State can carry that conference on a national level, so it just becomes a good watch if you're into mediocre football that end in close games. The most attractive girl just left the nerd group to go hang out with some cooler people.

The SEC - The non-player

Everyone keeps talking what the SEC is going to do. Why? They just signed a new contract for $17.5 million per school and they've been consistently the top conference for the past decade. They don't need to make any moves. They boast the past 5 of 6 national champions in Florida (twice), Alabama, and LSU (twice). The only addition I could see them making, and it's a stretch, would be to pick up Mizzou who will be getting booted out by the Big 12 (now the Big 4). It would put them at an odd number, though, so they may need to get another team with them making it less probably the SEC makes any move.

The ACC and Big East - Are they still playing football?!

Now that we have the conference breakdowns, there are some wild card schools that could shake things up a little bit depending on where they go. Most are already mentioned above: Kansas, Kansas State, Houston, and Mizzou. It'll be fun to see what happens with all of these new conferences.