So it is unfolding. (I predict…) Udub, Ducks, Cardinal and Cal to Big10. Big 10 going for elite programs and elite markets.
Ariz, ASU Puke-tah to Big 12. Near elite markets (Denver and Phoenix/Tuscon, not Utah, Byu covers that) and one elite program (yes, Utah)
Big 12 might as well pick up Wash St and Ore State. They’re Kansas/Iowa St/Texas Tech level programs. Footprint into NW and some decent market - but not big dogs in markets. Might as well pick up SDSU and one more Cali school. Does that take it to 20? I think 20 will be the number for Big12, Big10 and SEC.
At end of day, SEC and Big 10 A++ level, Big 12 B. ACC if stays pat, C. Pac8, Pac10 Pac12 to PacZero, flunked out. Pride cometh before the fall!
Poor management can kill a conference and creative management with a vision can save an injured/faltering conference. All the same opportunities and resources were available to both PAC 12 and Big 12 commissioners, but what a difference those commissioner’s decisions have had on the future survivability of those two conferences. I agree with you summary, but would give the Big !2 a B+. for playing with a tough hand losing Texas and Oklahoma. BYU is in a good spot because they put themselves there. Go Cougars!
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Big Ten reportedly eyeing further expansion with more Pac-12 schools (msn.com)
Boy that escalated fast. With all eyes on the Pac 12 TV deal unfolding Aug 1st, the best the Pac 12 could do was 20 Million per School- Abandon Ship, we atta here Big 10 gets Wa, Or and most likely picks up Stanford and Cal. Big 12 will go after the 4 corners schools of Ar, ASU and Utah to get us to a even number with the addition of Colorado.
I do like the idea of adding WSU and OrSt. Makes for easy travel to Western teams and kind of our own division. Big 12 may have other ideas because the have WVU out there in LaLa Land and have been looking to add UConn as a travel partner. UConn makes sense from a BBall point of view. there have been rumors of a Gonzaga/UConn angle???
Would it not be the ultimate slight to take UConn and not Utah? OMG!!! heads popping.
Then there’s BSU out there and SDSU.
Just how genius is it that the Big 12 JUMPED on a TV deal early, not waiting for the current deal to end before negotiating a new TV deal thereby jumping ahead of the Pac 12. Did the BIg 12 see ESPN hemorrhaging $$$ and want to do a deal before the cookie jar was empty? or…blindside the Pac 12, knowing that their deal was up before the B12’s deal? at any rate. So glad to be in the B12 securely, would hate to be Utah this morning.
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Most B12 schools very very unhappy with TX’s chokehold on the B12, revenue sharing was NOT equal. TX had their own ESPN TV deal at any rate, the league is very happy today with eqaulity amongst the schools and a bright future with a very good FB league and by far the best basketball league in the country.
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I will reiterate my call to not have Utah join the B12. We don’t need them at all. The TV market isn’t that big in Utah and frankly it would help the health of the BYU program to leave Utah behind just like it helped Utah to leave BYU behind like they did with the PAC-12.
I am also not sold on Stanford and Cal being welcomed by the Big10. Cal in particular is a complete disaster. UW and Oregon are probably gone to Big10 but I don’t think there is a good political fit for either of those teams with the current Big10. It will be interesting to see how things shake out. Arizona would be a good fit as would ASU for the Big12. SMU and SDSU might also be a good fit for Big12 but I think we ought to go East and pick off the ACC in a merger. That would make the most since and immediately put us into the big leagues!
Understand your sentiment regarding Utah in at BYUs expense. They trashed us around when they left and it would be great Schandenfreude to see them eat garbage. However, if Colorado, Asu and Az go, utah will be in. They are an elite football program (meaning top 10 or top 15).
Cal is horrible and Stanford not far behind (ahead), but if they got Big 10 money upgrade they could get to average in a few years. It’s all about the eyeballs and Bay Area is huge. I would guess that a Big10 adding UCLA, USC, Udub, Ducks, Cal and Stanford actually raises or is equal the average of Conference national talent/team rankings of the current Big10. Indiana, Rutgers, Maryland most of the time, NEB NW, indiana are pretty bad. everyone would like to just add the elites, but doesn’t work out that way long term IMO.
Topic Tittle “Conference of Champions” = “ Conference of Losers”!!!
I hear you loud and clear
but…Utah BYU is needed in this mess. It is good for BYU. Good for traditional football where everyone got up for a good ol fashion hated rivalry. Just ask OkSt and OU.
Hate to say, but Utah would actually help the Big12. They have been an elite/near elite team. They could contend for a title right off. Actually I hope they wint the PAc 12 this year and win a bowl game and roll into the Big 12 hot. Why. I think long term the Big10 and SEC will dominate (the money especially) and the Big12 needs to be as relevant as they can in terms of competition. Utah can help with that. Which helps BYU. If over time the Bigs (alabama, Ohio state Mich etc) create more separation from the next tier and the middle of the pack teams (BYU) and the Big12 becomes more irrevalent, BYU may end up in a MWC type level.
Looks like Oregon and Washington have applied for membership in the BIG10.
PAC12 is dying, I will need to ask my neighbor who works in the Utah AD office if he knows what happens next.
Please ask. It’s moving so fast (Utah and ASU applying) that may already be over.
Picture the U of U, a haughty, arrogant, self-proclaimed trophy fish on the shore about 6 feet from the water. Picture it, laying on its side, helpless, desperately opening and closing its mouth, gasping, the infrequent flapping of its tail slowing. The brutal heat of the sun bearing down, first drying out the eyes with the rest soon cruelly to follow.
So tempting to just leave it there, dying a slow death to mediocrity to become the rotten, decomposing carcass that it so justly earned and deserved. But mercifully, the tide of the Big 12 is rising and soon will rescue the utterly helpless fish now just a shell of itself. Once refreshed and swimming, the red fish will again return to its true, base nature and proclaim that luckily it was in a position to help the mediocre tide out. It will again return to showing disdain for the shimmering, brilliant blue fish that selflessly urged the rescue all the while constantly refraining - “I am a Utah fish, sir”
Well, that was fun!
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Nice, and a totally appropriate metaphor.
Or better
PAC 12 is sinking in The Pacific Ocean
Its what bad leadership can do in a billion $ world. Makes me appreciate the forward thinking of the B12. Just weeks ago, heads were pointing out that BYU has always been a better fit in the P12…and had they not been so arrogant, I would have to agree. but that beast is dead and buried.
Wonder what John Wooden and the big red machine, Bill Walton have to say about these fools that ran the P12 into the ground???
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John Wooden??? He died 13 years ago. I haven’t heard anything from Walton yet. It’s summer and he’s probably up hermittimg in the mountains with is weed.
UCLA’s Chip Kelly suggested they make one nationwide conference. Then we could have total chaos😀
it would seem that as of today, Stanford and Cal have no landing spot. Mtn West and AAC want them but the ACC cast a vote and said, No Thanks to the travel. Meanwhile; Or State and Wash St are not big demographics but quality P12 teams, OSU is ranked this year but it means nothing. They will probably end up in the Mtn. My Guess.
Chip Kelly suggested that we keep leagues for every other sport and have ALL of football be independent. We have a national playoff for 64 P5 team and a 64 team playoff for all the others, just like Basketball NCAAs and NIT. This travel across the continent for the sake of $$ leagues and the lost of traditional rivalies not to mention the stress to student athletes and education…makes a lot of sense.
The simple solution to college football’s realignment problem after Pac-12, Big Ten madness (msn.com)
My brother, a UCLA alumni, said Chip Kelly said have one nationwide conference. Then we could have total chaos. 
They had an offer in the fall of last year for ESPN of $30 million, the P12 countered with $50 mil per school. They walked. The schools instructed PAC-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff to look for better deals and that is how the P12 got to where it is today.
so if Utah wants any sympathy in all of this, They (Utah) created the mess themselves.