Latest rumors swirling around the world of college athletics has some interesting implications for two of the nation’s premiere conferences, the Pac-10, and the Big-12.
…the Pac-10 is prepared to offer membership to six Big 12 schools to form a mega 16-team conference that would cover the western half of the country and break into seven of the nation’s top 20 television markets. LINK
Whoa!
Mike Slive and the SEC have been sitting back and weighing offers to UT and A&M for the Western division, and FSU and Clemson for the Eastern Division (that is, if you believe any of the stuff you read on the innernut message boards). Still, for any of the major conferences, the big prize is the Texas television market.
Whether or not any of these rumors are true is anybody’s guess. I surmise that if I hear the phrase, “it’s about academics and competition, and not about the money,” I’ll know the rumors are true. And, if it’s true, then watch the rest of the conferences make a mad dash to make sure they’re not left out in the cold.
Scheduling for major football schools is completed years in advance, so any realignment would necessarily take place over several years, with many traditional rivalries being discarded in favor of more TV moolah.
Stay tuned, sports fans!
Related: Big 12 abruptly cancels news conference
Filed under: sports Tagged: Big 12, college sports, pac-10, realignment, SEC
