[NU Sports] Conference Shakeup - The Sequel ...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

So, it appears ATM is jumping the Longhorn ship.

And FSU, Clemson and Mizzou are next??? Can't really see Mizzou as an SEC school, but the others seem to fit.

And I don't blame ATM either -- we all knew last year that the Big XII's new makeup wouldn't last long. Texas was getting their own network, taking the UNL/CU shares and it was about to become Texas and the nine dwarfs.


I feel sort of bad for the old Big XII north remainders ... UNL and Colorado knew this was a sinking ship and left, but K-State, Iowa State and especially Kansas are looking for a life boat in a hurry right now. But then again, they knew they were signing a bad deal to stay with the new Longhorn League.

Not sure if this will affect the Big Ten -- Delaney made a smart move with UNL, but ever since then it's been bonehead decision after bonehead decision, from the names to the 9-game schedule.

I don't think the ripples reach us ... unless the ACC falls apart and the Big Least and ACC merge to form a super basketball conference and thus have the power to issue an ultimatum to the Evil Empire of "join fully or there's the door." If they do that, the Irish may go east for football too with traditional rivals Miami, BC and Pitt there ... or they may finally come to their geographical senses and join the Big Ten.

If that happens, the ideal foursome to add would probably be ND, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas (help the hoops rep :) ) ... but it would be hard to get those four great additions without Okie State, K-State, Texas Tech and Iowa State tagging along, and that would make no sense. Neither would going after Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati or Maryland.

We're at a good spot now with the 12 we have - Texas and Notre Dame would be huge additions and a reason to expand - it would essentially give the Big Ten all of the mega-names in college football's top-tier royalty except for Bama and SC. Oklahoma and Kansas would be nice too - the Sooners would have natural rivalries with the Huskers and Horns and KU would be a big boost on the hardcourt. But the rest would just be fluff and almost as stupid of a reason to expand the league as naming the divisions by those awful labels.

But it should be fun to watch the dominoes continue to fall the next 12 months.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT
 
* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
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