It was rumored yesterday that the Big Ten extended conference invitations to Missouri, Nebraska, Rutgers, and Notre Dame. So far, it's proving to be just that, a rumor. B10 head-man Jim Delaney has vowed that he will contact any conference before any of their teams are contacted, and so far no one's hard from him. Both Big-XII schools have denied an offer was made, Rutgers may be re-thinking the opportunity, and Notre Dame, as always, is uninterested (at least publicly...for the moment).
In the mean time, the Pac-10 and Big-12 are getting uncharacteristically chummy, maybe hoping to work together to secure their place as important conferences...or maybe to hash out the movement of the flagship Texas schools. It was believed that whatever the Big Ten does, the PAC-10 would follow suit and we'd see a picked clean Big-XII. That could be the case, if the P10 lands Texas...or maybe their hedging their bets to protect each other. At this point, anything's possible.
If Texas manifests its destiny and joins the PAC-10, A&M would have to be part of the deal too. That would leave Florida as the obvious frontier for SEC expansion - FSU, Miami - and then maybe NC and VA beyond that if need be.
And then there's this. Not terrible, but the new Big East needs cleaning up and clarifying who's where for football divisional consideration.
That would make the SEC very tough in not only football, but baseball as well. Adding Miami, FSU, Tech and Clemson makes since geographically. Also getting the Tigers back on the schedule more often would excite most dawg fans.
ReplyDelete