Big 10 Report: Conference Realignment

[Mr. Laz]

A source in St. Louis familiar with the situation told NewsCenter 16 Thursday afternoon that Missouri will leave the Big XII and soon join the Big 10. Other schools expected to follow the Tigers are Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers and Nebraska.

Many have speculated that such an expansion would include Notre Dame but ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick told me today that the Irish prefer to stay independent in football and in the Big East for other sports. Swarbrick said maintaining football Independence is such a part of what Notre Dame is.

He went on to say the Big East is a great partner for the University in other sports.

"We do have to monitor what is going on," Swarbrick said. "There will be significant shifts. "Hopefully we can navigate them by keeping our football independent and keeping our Big East affiliation because that is what we care about."

The move of Syracuse, Pitt and Rutgers to the Big Ten from the Big East could categorically change the landscape of the Big East itself. Thus, what Swarbrick is referring to when stating the University must continue to monitor what is going on.

The interview with Swarbrick was done before the late afternoon announcement.

http://www.wndu.com/sports/headlines/92447574.html

[HolyHandgernade]

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

The Pac-10 wont get 2 auto-bids unless 4 16-team conferences are formed. They especially wont get 2 auto-bids as a 16-team conference with no conference championship game. Talk about a big group of 16 pansy schools scared to have a true conference champ.

I'm not saying they will or they won't, I'm just relating what has being bandied about. The argument is based on numbers, not whether or not one has a championship game. The argument is a 16 team mega conference has enough member for two 8 team conferences and with the dissolution of one of the automatic qualifying conferences, that bid should go to the conference that assumed the majority of said conference. This is why there is all the talk of the four sixteen team super conferences, because it eventually leads to one of three conference scenarios:

A four team playoff of conference champions. The most simply but the least revenue generating.

An strait eight team playoff where the division winners of each conference get automatic invites regardless of who wins the conference championship. More revenue, but less importance placed on winning the conference title

A twelve team format, conference winners get first round byes, conference runner-ups get automatic invites leaving four at large selections (these could be non big four conferences, an independent, or even at large big four teams). This is the scenario that projects near a billion dollar windfall.

Conference networks aren't the only money generator these realignments are aiming at. A potential college football playoff system is seen as a huge windfall which is why the two invite rule for mega conferences is being brought up.

[KChiefs1]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100...#ixzz0qc93mtJq

Now that Nebraska has been taken, you can almost see the Big Ten commanders standing over their maps, stickpins marking their next targets.

Notre Dame.

Missouri.

The East.

The Big Ten loves the smell of television contracts in the morning. It smells like victory (with apologies to Robert Duvall and his famous line in "Apocalypse Now").

As was forecasted only a month ago, the Big 12 is now all but history as Nebraska departs for the Big Ten.

That's 12 teams down, four more to go for a Big Ten that will more likely be a Really Big 16 by the time all the continental drift has come to a halt.

Do not for a moment believe Nebraska's commitment is a nice, tidy balancing act that finally makes for an even number of teams in a conference that got out of whack when Penn State came aboard.

Next on the Big Ten's list is the team it has wanted all along:

Notre Dame.

And don't be misled by all the bravado and "give me liberty or give me my own payout that doesn't have to be shared with other schools" cries of the Golden Domers who say Notre Dame will never, ever, become part of any conference, let alone the Big Ten.

Not everyone agrees that's the way to go. There are executives in South Bend who believe it is wise to "listen," as they are at least doing. And there are alumni and fans who aren't so sure Big Ten membership is the worst thing for their football legacy since Gerry Faust.

One big reason the Irish are "listening" to Big Ten sales people is because of their other sports, which is a full boat of men's and women's teams who participate in the Big East. It's very expensive traveling to Big East sites.

It's also tough to travel within a conference that might not exist in another year. The Big East is on footing no firmer than the Big 12.

Elsewhere, what was seen earlier this year is, predictably, happening at the speed only money and security can generate.

Most of the re-shuffling should take shape, at least in its contours, by this autumn. Big conferences with huge TV contracts and heavy payouts to member schools are driving this reconfiguration of the college sports landscape.

For the Big Ten, bringing aboard Nebraska is the first of the dominoes to tumble. Big schools leaving big conferences is a gravitational pull that can't be resisted. In a couple of years, as has been envisioned for some time, we'll be looking at super conferences of 16 teams or so.

The Big Ten will move to add another Big 12 school, probably Missouri, as cold as the trail has gotten in recent weeks. That pathway can warm in a hurry, all because the Big Ten wants St. Louis and Kansas City's television markets.

Meanwhile, the conference will be fighting in the eastern theater:

Connecticut, Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers, maybe Maryland.

Several will fall.

Television markets will be captured.

The Big Ten's colonial empire will expand, absolutely.

Notre Dame figures to be at the heart of it.

It simply makes too much sense.

Fundamentally, there is geography to consider. Less travel is in every conference member's interests, as it is for an independent open to common sense and convenience. Notre Dame is no exception, not in the executive offices, anyway.

Academic reputations in the Big Ten are nothing Notre Dame needs to fear. And neither does a school's football program, which deserves all the financial comforts it has earned the past 100 years, have anything to lose in a conference where top-shelf football is played and member schools earn bountiful annual payouts.

Those paydays will only increase, you can bet.

And one reason is because the day is coming -- as it must -- when college football abandons its hypocritical, Stone Age disposition toward a playoff and gets on with the business of championing in college football everything it professes to celebrate with "March Madness."

So, keep your eye on troop movements.

The Big Ten is about to become a 16-team superpower.

Teams from the East and from the Midwest are destined to be added, with none more likely, or more necessary than Notre Dame.

lynn.henning@detnews.com

[Archie Bunker]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5279018


Report: Mountain West eyes KU, Mizzou

The Mountain West Conference was a geographical misnomer from the beginning, as it launched with San Diego State among its eight original teams before adding TCU in 2005 and Boise State on Friday.

The conference's reach doesn't appear to be stopping there.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Kansas, Missouri and Kansas State are on the Mountain West's radar amid a continuing shakeup of the Big 12.

But Baylor isn't considered a candidate to join the conference, with TCU standing staunchly in its way, the Fort Worth newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources.

"The Mountain West wants to be a national player and continue to grow in that realm," MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said in a conference call with reporters Friday. "We are extremely interested in BCS automatic qualification. We are simply trying to get to the level where each and every year a Mountain West team is playing in a BCS bowl game."

TCU would mount a lobbying effort against Baylor if the Bears are left out of the conference-realignment mix, the Star-Telegram reported.

But the conference covets Kansas -- and its legendary basketball program.

"Look at it this way," Jayhawks coach Bill Self said Friday at a charity event, according to The Kansas City Star. "No matter what, I'm 100 percent confident we're going to land. And we may land in a group that gives us more exposure than we ever could have had before. We may land with somebody that opens up recruiting doors in areas that we never really tested before. We're not gonna lose what we already have. This may open up new avenues for us."

New avenues are assured for most -- if not all -- of the Big 12.

Colorado left Thursday for the Pac-10, Nebraska moved to the Big Ten a day later and Texas and the four other programs, not including Baylor, that make up the Big 12 South in football are leaning heavily toward a commitment to the Pac-10, or in Texas A&M's case, a possible jump to the SEC.

"We are gonna be in a BCS conference," Self said, according to the newspaper.

But count Self among those who still believe in the viability of the Big 12.

"If this league is held together," Self said, "we'll go get two teams or six teams and this league will be better than it ever has been."

[Pablo]

LAWL.

Let's all hold hands and skip to the MWC.

[teedubya]

The Pac-16 West idea seems decent... but I love the ACC idea. I like ONE hour earlier games, instead of 2 hour LATER games.

Plus, that ACC would be ****ing SICK

[Archie Bunker]

Originally Posted by PostRockPablo

LAWL.

Let's all hold hands and skip to the MWC.

Who's coming with me?

[Mosbonian]

Interesting comment I heard on a Sports show out of Cincy last night..the guy was doing a lot of assuming, but he made some sense.

He said that the Big Ten knows absolutely that they have MU in their back pocket so there is no rush to bring them in. They were more concerned with the acquisition of Nebraska, worried that if they invite MU first that NU might be courted somewhere else (Pac-10?).

His comment was that MU brings more than the East Coast teams that are being mentioned, and that they make sense on bridging the territory all the way to Neb.

He lost me when he commented the dark horse for where MU might be asked to join is as an addition to the SEC. None of what he said made any sense to me. Just sounded like a "land grab" possibility.

mmaddog
********

[teedubya]

I hope MU goes to the Big Ten. It would be a good fit for them. I was just butthurt earlier this month, when all of the MUrons were gloating and KU didn't have a pot to piss in.

This seems to be changing, Thank God. lol.

I'd still be concerned if I were KSU, ISU and Baylor.

[Archie Bunker]

Originally Posted by teedubya

I hope MU goes to the Big Ten. It would be a good fit for them. I was just butthurt earlier this month, when all of the MUrons were gloating and KU didn't have a pot to piss in.

This seems to be changing, Thank God. lol.

I'd still be concerned if I were KSU, ISU and Baylor.

I hear ya. I'm hoping MU, KU, and KSU all get legit offers and go somewhere and thrive.

If I'm Baylor I am shitting myself, TCU blocking the MWC leaves CUSA and the Sun Belt as the only options on the table for them. They are in deep trouble.

[Ebolapox]

Originally Posted by teedubya

I hope MU goes to the Big Ten. It would be a good fit for them. I was just butthurt earlier this month, when all of the MUrons were gloating and KU didn't have a pot to piss in.

This seems to be changing, Thank God. lol.

I'd still be concerned if I were KSU, ISU and Baylor.

whatever happened to the 'ku and ksu have to go to the same conference because it's the law' thing? was it bullshit from the beginning?

[Frazod]

While I'm not quite as dejected/depressed/pissed off as I was yesterday (hope springs infernal), I still think MU needs to clean house and rid itself of Alden and Forsee and replace them will people who will not get comically clowned by, well, pretty much everybody.

I saw this post on the stltoday MU board, and I think it sums up the current situation. It certainly sums up the way I feel.

Originally Posted by dctiger at stltoday.com

Amidst all the uncertainty of this week, one thing is certain--the MU administration severely misplayed their hand. They allowed MU to remain at the center of the speculation on conference realignment without any real commitment from the Big 10 or option if other Big 12 schools departed. Whether that was due to pure ineptitude, deception by the Big 10, or some of both, the consequences is that MU is now cast as the school who brought down the Big 12 and, simultaneously, a school no one wants.

Whether that characterization is fair or not, the conduct of the MU administration (i.e., the chancellor and A.D.) has created the environment for reasonable people to believe it. Perhaps most telling is that as the Big 12 crumbled around MU (2 schools having announced their departure, and 5 others widely rumored to be on their way to the PAC-10), the MU Chancellor re-affirmed his commitment to the dying conference. Translation, "oops."

This strongly diminishes our brand. Wherever MU lands we will carry with us this stigma. The most readily observable impact will be in recruiting (as competing schools describe us as second- or third-class), but I suspect it will also affect our alumni donations and television revenue.

The Chancellor and the AD should pay for their mistakes with their jobs.

[teedubya]

Originally Posted by H5N1

whatever happened to the 'ku and ksu have to go to the same conference because it's the law' thing? was it bullshit from the beginning?

I really don't know... but I think the KU Board of Regents know that they need to make sure at least ONE of the Kansas schools are in a big conference.

Who really knows? This thing has been beyond cluster**** status.

[boogblaster]

im pissed ... again .....

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by H5N1

whatever happened to the 'ku and ksu have to go to the same conference because it's the law' thing? was it bullshit from the beginning?

nobody that i know of ever said it was the law, you moron

it's was and still is up to the Kansas Board of Regents

and what has changed is that people are getting desperate about either school ending up in a BCS conference.

I still think that KBOR will push for keeping KU/KSU together up to the point where neither gets in and then they will let them split up.

[patteeu]

I think the word "brand" is way overused. I'm sick of it.

P.S. MU will be fine. And by fine, I don't mean Pac10, WAC, MW, MVC or Big East. That's my opinion, which is no better and no worse than all these conflicting reports based on anonymous sources coming out of just about every major and minor media outlet these days.