So many places to go this AM, from Nebraska to Colorado to Planet Ocho, which is only slightly less nutty than the probated SoCal Trojans, but has a better beat. Domino #1 fell in quasi-amateur sports yesterday. Colorado goes to the Pac-10. Nebraska is expected to be the 12th member of the Big 10 today. Obvious question is, where does it stop?
2nd obvious question: when the bomb’s done blasting, what’s UC’s place in the wreckage?
Lately, most of the Big 10 talk has centered around Nebraska and Missouri, and Notre Dame. But if the 10 wants to be bigger than 12, it will look East quickly. That could mean Rutgers and Pitt and what would become of the Big East then? The obvious danger to UC is it could end up in a lesser, non-super conference league, which would really screw up any and all ambitious football notions.
Conferences that dont want to be left out will move quickly to add schools and TV markets. Maybe only the SEC, which already has a cushy TV deal, will stand pat.
ESPN.com checks in w/retired SEC commish Roy Kramer, who started it all 20 years ago, when he swiped Arkansas from the Southwest Conference. (That was a league that used to have Texas in it, kids.)
Kramer said he thinks the Big Ten will eventually become a 16-team conference. I mentioned that a Chicago Tribune story suggested otherwise, that the Big Ten didn’t want to be perceived as causing “college football Armageddon.”
Kramer scoffed at the theory.
“The Armageddon is already there,” he said. “If the Nebraska domino falls, the Armageddon is out there. Now forget about your conscience and do what’s right for your conference. … You got to look at it from 10 years from now, eight years from now, six years from now.”
To emphasize the point, Kramer recounted a phone call he received from a conference commissioner as the recent expansion rumors heated up.
Said the commissioner to Kramer: “How did you keep people from being mad at you?” Said Kramer: “You really didn’t.”
In other words, it’s every conference for itself.
The Big 12 is headed for extinction; it’d seem the Big East would be next. In that scenario, UC better be ready to make its case to the ACC, lest the Bearcats go back to playing Memphis on a Saturday afternoon, in front of 10,000.
From the NY Times:
“I see this thing coming down to four major conferences, if things go the way that they appear to be going,” said Jake Crouthamel, the former Syracuse athletic director. “Someone has to start the process. It seems like Colorado has started that process, along with Nebraska.”
That means four 16-team leagues. Is UC a Top 64 team?
Of course, if you’re an OSU fan, the prospect of playing Nebraska every other year in Columbus is pretty damned exciting.
Interesting, scary times.
http://cincinnati.com/blogs/daugherty/2010/06/11/the-morning-line-611/
2nd obvious question: when the bomb’s done blasting, what’s UC’s place in the wreckage?
Lately, most of the Big 10 talk has centered around Nebraska and Missouri, and Notre Dame. But if the 10 wants to be bigger than 12, it will look East quickly. That could mean Rutgers and Pitt and what would become of the Big East then? The obvious danger to UC is it could end up in a lesser, non-super conference league, which would really screw up any and all ambitious football notions.
Conferences that dont want to be left out will move quickly to add schools and TV markets. Maybe only the SEC, which already has a cushy TV deal, will stand pat.
ESPN.com checks in w/retired SEC commish Roy Kramer, who started it all 20 years ago, when he swiped Arkansas from the Southwest Conference. (That was a league that used to have Texas in it, kids.)
Kramer said he thinks the Big Ten will eventually become a 16-team conference. I mentioned that a Chicago Tribune story suggested otherwise, that the Big Ten didn’t want to be perceived as causing “college football Armageddon.”
Kramer scoffed at the theory.
“The Armageddon is already there,” he said. “If the Nebraska domino falls, the Armageddon is out there. Now forget about your conscience and do what’s right for your conference. … You got to look at it from 10 years from now, eight years from now, six years from now.”
To emphasize the point, Kramer recounted a phone call he received from a conference commissioner as the recent expansion rumors heated up.
Said the commissioner to Kramer: “How did you keep people from being mad at you?” Said Kramer: “You really didn’t.”
In other words, it’s every conference for itself.
The Big 12 is headed for extinction; it’d seem the Big East would be next. In that scenario, UC better be ready to make its case to the ACC, lest the Bearcats go back to playing Memphis on a Saturday afternoon, in front of 10,000.
From the NY Times:
“I see this thing coming down to four major conferences, if things go the way that they appear to be going,” said Jake Crouthamel, the former Syracuse athletic director. “Someone has to start the process. It seems like Colorado has started that process, along with Nebraska.”
That means four 16-team leagues. Is UC a Top 64 team?
Of course, if you’re an OSU fan, the prospect of playing Nebraska every other year in Columbus is pretty damned exciting.
Interesting, scary times.
http://cincinnati.com/blogs/daugherty/2010/06/11/the-morning-line-611/