As the Expansion Carousel Turns

Well, despite the addition of Utah to the Pac-10 today, the complete destruction to college football's landscape appears to be on hold.  This is bad news for the Mountain West, which had a strong case for a BCS bid with the recent addition of Boise State.  However, by getting Boise, the conference is still better off than it was.  A swap of Boise for Utah is better for the conference, at least in terms of football.  And the conference still has a pretty decent case to get a BCS bid.

But back to the issue at hand for Pitt fans.  What does this mean for the Big East?

Well, by the Big 12 appears to be happy, despite losing two teams and their conference championship game.

The Pac-10 appears to be satisfied with 12 teams and the Big Ten now has 12 teams and can have its desired championship game.  With things slowing down, I think that the Big Ten will play nice and not go to a full blown 16 teams right away.

So with that said, the Big East could be safe for now.  But even if the Big Ten goes to 16, adding four more teams, Pitt would have a good chance to be one of those teams.  The Big Ten already has Nebraska and Texas is staying put.  There are other options left, but the chances of Pitt being included, should the Big Ten expand, likely have gone up.

But assuming things stay the same, the Big East cannot afford to sit back and rest.  I don't think they will and the rumors of Memphis and Central Florida being invited are surfacing.  Do they add anything to the Big East?  Not really.  You could even make the argument that by adding two more basketball teams, a purge of the non-football playing members would need to happen.

But.

The Big East needs to do something.  Now, I believe that that something needs to be focusing on trying to secure a conference network.  Get a network and you've got leverage.  Lots of it.  But in the meantime, the conference needs to focus on adding at least two schools to fight off a potential raid in the future.  The Big East is kind of stuck because many desirable non-BCS schools are out west.  So the likes of Memphis and UCF might be all that's left.  And even though their football programs leave much to be desired, the Big East could pick up two decent markets in Orlando and Memphis.

But going back to a purge of the non-football schools for a minute - there are two glaring reasons I don't think you can do that if you have hopes of creating a network.  First, because basketball would be a huge part of any TV deal.  Cable companies wouldn't want a network with Big East football, but Big East basketball would be more desirable.  Second, by dumping the non-football schools, you'd lose several key markets such as Philadelphia (Nova), D.C. (Georgetown), and Chicago (DePaul).

All in all, Pitt comes out of this on slightly more stable ground - for now.

Expansion Madness Continues

                   

The expansion story got ratcheted up a notch with more confirmed moves today. To show you just how far things have gone, Boise State, made a move to the Mountain West Conference.  The second move of the day was much more expected - Nebraska announced it is going to the Big Ten.

But starting with Boise State:

"We are pleased and excited to welcome Boise State University to the Mountain West Conference," commissioner Craig Thompson said in the news release. "Since our inception just 11 short years ago, the Mountain West has experienced tremendous success, and the addition of Boise State will further enhance that strength. The MWC continues to strategize regarding potential membership scenarios and bringing Boise State into the Conference is an important part of that evolution."

I've got to be honest.  If everything stayed as it currently is, the Mountain West should have a real good argument about getting an automatic BCS bid.  A conference with TCU, Utah, BYU, and now Boise State could match up well many years against the Big East or the ACC.  I think they're still a small step behind, but the gap is not significant.  Next up, Nebraska became the second Big 12 school to exit in as many days:

The Big Ten's board of presidents and chancellors unanimously welcomed Nebraska to the club on Friday, just a few hours after the school formally disclosed its interest. The move takes effect July 1, 2011.

Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman said the Big Ten offers stability "that the Big 12 simply cannot offer."

This is likely just the beginning.  The more I think about it, the more it will take some getting used to.  I'm sure that some schools, such as Nebraska, will seek to keep some rivalry matchups as non-conference games.  But honestly, how do you think a school such as Kansas, who may be left out in the cold, will receive an invitation to play Nebraska?  Think Boston College Vs. Big East.

 

The question is, does the Big Ten stop here with 12 teams, or does it seek and destroy, opting for as many as 16?  Only time will tell.

The First Expansion Bomb Goes Off

As I've said countless times, I've really tried to stay away from all of the expansion stuff. I'm not aloof to all of the talk/rumors out there, but frankly, I don't have to time to cover all of them. Chas over at Pitt Blather has been doing a great job with it, so head over there and have at it if you want all the latest on rumors and speculation.

However, I will be checking in once actual things happen or when there are some direct rumors directly regarding Pitt.

The first domino fell today when the Pac-10 announced that Colorado has accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10:

The Pac-10 announced Thursday that the University of Colorado has agreed to leave the Big 12 to join its conference.

"This is an historic moment for the conference, as the Pac-10 is poised for tremendous growth," commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement.

"The University of Colorado is a great fit for the conference both academically and athletically and we are incredibly excited to welcome Colorado to the Pac-10."

I have to admit to being taken aback by the Pac-10 stuff that started a couple of weeks or so ago. For so long, only the Big Ten was being discussed seriously and now, out of the blue, the entire landscape of college football is being changed.

The most intriguing aspect out there to me is the thought of the 16-team Pac-10 league. We keep hearing about schools only expanding so far geographically due to travel and such, but the Pac-10 seems to have that issue figured out:

With Nebraska reportedly headed to the Big Ten, the Pac-10 is poised to extend offers to six current Big 12 members, ramping up its numbers to 16.

Pac-10 officials declined to talk about the deal on the record because of the sensative nature of negotiations, but one with knowledge of the plan said, "It's locked and loaded."

Joining the Pac-10 in 2012 would be Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Colorado.

The new Pac-16 would divide into divisions, with the original Pac-8 schools aligned in one division and Arizona and Arizona State joining the six Big 12 schools in the other division.

So it sounds like essentially there would be a Pac-10 West and Pac-10 East and they would play teams mostly (if not completely) within their division. That of course begs the question, would we see conference remnants align themselves together to create a large divisional conference - say a retooled Big East and a retooled Big 12?

I don't know - that's likely a reach. All of the talk out there is that even the Big 12 is already conceding that losing Nebraska would likely mean the end of the conference. Still, I think it's an option for conferences that may get swallowed up. What's to say there couldn't be a new conference combining the Big 12 (with some lesser schools in the midwest/west) and the Big East (with some lesser schools like East Carolina, Marshall, etc). Not likely, again, just thoughts.

This is exactly why I haven't been posting on this. Things are far from settled and likely won't be for at least a little while longer.