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4) Who are going to be the biggest winners (and losers)?

If things go according to plan, the biggest winners early on will be Nebraska and Missouri. Missouri hasn’t been shy about wanting to join the Big Ten to become more prestigious academically while getting a much higher national profile. With the Big Ten TV markets and the reach to the Atlantic Ocean if Rutgers comes aboard, Mizzou would grow by leaps and bounds. The same will go for Nebraska, who would go from being known as a powerhouse football school to being in the big boy club academically as well as advancing the brand name even more athletically.

Of course, the biggest winners overall will be the Big Ten and the Pac 10, who’ll make money hand over fist with the expanded leagues, the better product, and the stronger TV deals. The Pac 10 needs to expand more than the Big Ten does, but the Big Ten wants to keep its dominance as the biggest conference in America by trying to control most of the top markets.

However, if Missouri and Nebraska choose to stick around, then the Big 12 will be one of the biggest winners simply by weathering the first part of the storm, while the Big Ten would be a huge loser with egg on its face after getting spurned. Rounding out to just 12 teams by bringing aboard Rutgers would be a failed Chicago Olympic bid-like embarrassment of epic proportions.

As bad as things will be for the Big 12 if there’s a mass exodus, life will be even worse for Kansas if it’s the biggest-name school left standing when all the music stops. KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little has made phone calls lobbying to Nebraska and preaching solidarity (although the school would LOVE to get an invite from the Big Ten or the Pac 10). Gray-Little has expressed well-founded concerns that the university’s status and prestige would take a major hit if everyone else of note leaves. The same goes for Baylor, who has influential alumni all across the Texas government. It’s a slap as is to not be included in the Pac 10’s invite of the other five members of the Big 12 South, but there isn’t a lot that school president Kenneth Starr can do.

5) What’s going to happen to the Big 12?

There’s a lot of huffing and puffing from those not involved in the Big Ten and Pac 10 expansion talk, but there isn’t much that Kansas, Baylor, or Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe can really do if the six courted schools want to go.

It’ll be a total and complete shock if Nebraska and Missouri’s move to the Big Ten isn’t an unannounced done deal. There’s no way Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, one of the sharpest knives in the drawer, would’ve let the media speculation get this far without there being some truth behind the rumors. If this wasn’t a done deal (or really, really close), the Big Ten would’ve spun this about ten different directions about how it really didn’t want Nebraska or Missouri in the first place.

A wounded Big 12, if it loses six schools, could end up trying to merge with the Mountain West in some way while also bringing aboard a few select Conference USA schools like Houston and/or SMU.

6) In the Big Ten’s perfect world, what does it want?

At this point, the most realistic scenario has Nebraska, Missouri, and Rutgers joining the Big Ten as soon as possible to create a 14-team league for now, with Notre Dame signing on in either in 2015 after the NBC deal is up, or earlier if there’s a buyout either from NBC (the ratings haven’t been stellar) or from the Big Ten (who’ll pay ANY sort of a fine if it means getting the Irish). The dream would be to bring in Texas as the 16th team, but that’s not going to happen without Texas A&M coming along. More realistically, the Big Ten will get hit with a major lobbying effort from Kansas, or it’ll end up continuing the expansion east by bringing in Pitt.

7) In the Pac 10’s perfect world, what does it want?

Texas. The Pac 10 doesn’t care what other five schools round things out as long as it gets the Longhorns. Colorado has been all but putting the Pac 10 logo on its letterheads when all the expansion talk started, and Oklahoma has been a surprisingly underrated and undervalued part of the puzzle. If the Pac 10 gets Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech, everything will work according to the Pac 10’s biggest pie-in-the-sky plans.

8) Does this mean the end of the BCS (and does this make a playoff more likely)?

No, and it probably means the BCS will become more firmly entrenched than ever. Schools will be making so much money that the presidents and administrators will never want to get out of the treasure bath. Because of all the dough coming in from TV deals and expanded bowl payouts for the biggest post-season games, the lure of making more money from a playoff, while radically changing the college football world even further, will be lessened.

9) How will Notre Dame fit into the picture?

If the Irish aren’t going to the Big Ten right away, they’ll likely sit back and wait until the smoke clears. There’s no real hurry or urgency to join a league. Money isn’t a problem, the football team is no position to contend for a title in the Big Ten, SEC, or Pac 10, and everyone around there loves the independent status. Again, assume the Big Ten expands to 14 now and leaves the door open for Notre Dame to come join the party in a few years. However, Notre Dame’s biggest issue could be scheduling, considering it books games and matchups several years in advance; it’ll have to break several contracts to join a league. Notre Dame will almost certainly be in a conference at some point in the next five years, but don’t assume it’s going to be the Big Ten. The SEC will have its say in the debate before all is said and done.

10) Is expansion a good thing or a bad thing?

If things go according to form, this isn’t going to be a bad thing in any way for the fans other than the Big 12 die-hards. The games will take on an even bigger feel, no Michigan-Ohio State-like rivalries will be split up, and new monster matchups will form. Imagine Oklahoma and USC in the same division, or Nebraska and Iowa facing off in a regional battle that would instantly become one of college football’s fiercest rivalries.

Remember, the world kept spinning after the Big 8 and Southwest Conference combined forces to create the Big 12, the Big Ten was more than fine after bringing in Penn State, and the ACC has grown into a far more interesting conference after raiding the Big East (even though no one’s watching). And to those of you about to whine about college football looking more professional in the presentation and coverage, that ship sailed long ago. (Remember, college football was more professional looking than professional football back in the first fifty years of the last century.) There’s always D-III and the Ivy League to give you the amateur feel you’re longing for.

The bigger TV packages will mean more coverage, better on-line access to every team, and more choices (like a Pac 10 network and an expanded Big Ten Network) to provide as much access to as much entertainment and as much information as a fan could want. More access to games is a good and necessary thing, especially considering the voters in the college football polls need to be as informed as possible.

There’s a chance this could end up being as big a deal for the academic side of the equation as it will be for the sports teams. The Big Ten and Pac 10 have a far better academic reputation than the other conferences, especially the Big 12, and to join means a major upgrade in how a degree will look. From a research and prestige standpoint, changing conference alignments would be a really, really big step forward for several schools currently in the Big 12.