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June 10, 2010

It's Official: Colorado Joins the Pac 10

The Pac 10 conference announced today that The Colorado Buffaloes are joining their conference. This announcement was made moments ago. (Source: ESPN). This is on top of the likely news within the next 48 hours that Nebraska is joining the Big 10.

According to ESPN (and this was also discussed last night by Pete Thamel of the NYTimes):
Texas and Texas A&M officials are scheduled to meet [today] at an undisclosed location to discuss the future of their athletic programs and the Big 12 amid speculation the league could be raided by rival conferences and broken apart.
Things are moving very quickly. One of the big problems with expanding to 16 teams is...how do you keep fans happy when they are fewer titles to go around? Well, the Pac 10 may have dreamed up a very obnoxious answer to that question (ht - blutarsky):
The coach said it's possible the Pac-16 would push for two automatic bids to the BCS, one for each division champion. That potential bonanza could open the possibility of the two division champs from one league playing for the national title, and it would eliminate the need for a conference championship game.

"The Pac-10 doesn't believe in a championship game," the coach said. "And coaches in the Big 12 don't like it anyway."
If they move in that direction, the Pac 10 is essentially not a single conference at all. It's a modified version of the Pac 8 meets the Southwest Conference in a marriage for TV purposes only.

Imagine the SEC applying this thinking and expanding to 16. You'd have a league whereby the SEC East and SEC West champs both earned a BCS slot automatically, but there would be absolutely no "settling it on the field" in that scenario as the two division champs wouldn't meet in Atlanta. Bizarre.

See Also:
-- Texas A&M and the SEC in talks? - SI.com
-- Scrambling to save the Big XII - NY Times

PWD

16 comments:

Andy said...

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

Dubbayoo said...

Theoretically speaking, would having GT in the SEC help or hurt us? With that game then being a conference game would we likely replace it with an easier OOC game? (as of 8 of 9 isn't easy enough)

Anonymous said...

PWD - I do not think the Pac 10/16 is that far-fetched, although I reject the idea that they will not have a conference championship game. My guess is that is just posturing to get the other conferences to negotiate. I reject a scenario where the SEC, ACC, and Big 10 would agree to a situation that two teams from the same conference could meet in the post-season to determine the champion while the other conference title holders would be shut out. I think we would see the end of the BCS under that scenario.

I think that statement is an opening negotiating position designed to ensure that both of the Pac 10/16 title participants are included in the BCS. If I remember correctly, didn't Missouri get screwed over by the BCS two years ago? I think they beat Kansas in the reg season but lost the Big 12 game which kicked them out of the BCS. But I digress.

I think the Pac 10/16 has pretty good intel that the following will happen: the Big 12 will dissolve/no longer be a BCS conference, Notre Dame will join the Big 10, the Big East is getting out of football. Under that scenario, you would have four conferences and 10 BCS slots.

Under this theory, you could have each conference division winner automatically qualify for a BCS spot (seeding determined by conference title games) and two spots available for non-BCS conference undefeateds or at large teams.

Crane said...

If SEC can get Texas, and Texas A&M then it should also expand with FSU and Clemson.If it can't get Texas and Texas A&M, don't expand at all.

Adding Georgia Tech does nothing to the league adds a financial liability to the conference.

Crane said...

I wonder how Seantrel Henderson is feeling today?

Tommy said...

I wouldn't rule out the Big XII holding it together after CU and NU bolt. In Austin, there's a lot to like about being an even bigger swinging dick in a 10-team conference -- more scheduling flexibility, no Tom Osborne to contend with at conference meetings and a truly one-game schedule. Given Texas' pro rata share, I doubt the TV money changes that much for them.

Hobnail_Boot said...

Dubbayoo-

Yes, it would help us tremendously.

Crane said...

If GT joined the SEC it would have enough money to fire Paul Hewitt.

Chris S said...

Yes, let's give the PAC 10 two automatic berths. That makes a lot of sense given they've only had one team that legitimately deserved a berth in many of the past few years, and that team is about to be banned from post-season play. Of course, adding the powerhouse Colorado Buffaloes could change all of that.

Anonymous said...

Dubayoo- Having tech in our conference would help UGA with scheduling, but we dont want them in our conference, we dont want them recruiting as an SEC school.. the same goes for SC not wanting clemson in the sec, and florida not wanting FSU or Clemson.. allowing them to come to the SEC would help those schools out, which we dont want to see.. but as a conference inviting tech, fsu, miami, or clemson wouldnt do much for the marketability of the conference. sure it would be a nice product on the field and better than doing nothing at all.

but if the SEC wants to keep up with the pac16 and big10[after they add missouri, notre dame, nebraska, and rutgers(tv)] then the conference would rather add va tech, a team like maryland to expand our conference north and then also would love to get texas and tx am(which would mean sweeping in and stealing them before the pac10 does)... if not those schools then you may see the sec go after kansas and TCU(fort worth tv market)

i hope this all makes sense, its all about the money and the tv markets.

Anonymous said...

This is all about $$. There is no way a conference is passing up the opportunity to have a conference championship game and all the extra ad revenue it entails.

Anonymous said...

Whoever said we should take Kansas does not have their head on straight. The only game people pay attention to is their rivalry with Missouri. Plus their in a transition year after the horror stories of the last one recruiting has definitely suffered. Also Kansas is pretty far away. There's a lot of schools in between the current SEC teams and Kansas geographically we could take (who have better programs).

A huge reason the Big 12 is breaking up is BECAUSE of the Texas schools. They run everything, they get the most money, and they dominate the voting scheme and it has nothing to do with winning. Their proudest year was 3 one loss teams and a war over who'd go to the title game. Turned out Florida was infact better than OU, and Ole Miss handed Texas Tech a loss few outside of the SEC saw coming....

What I'm trying to say is would you really want to bring that kind of school into the conference? Someone who's going to try to run everything? They may have a great tv market but I don't think most schools want to deal with the baggage they bring to the table. Money is nice but the SEC isn't hurting. Texas will go to the Pac 10, they need a strong contender after what's happened to USC. If we have to expand we should take from ACC teams to the north of us (VA tech or one of the NC schools) and then A&M or one of the Oklahoma teams. Brings in a different TV market, but also keeps the current schools secure in their recruiting.

Dubbayoo said...

I say no expansion at all but if they insist then go for Va Tech.

Ball-U-Dawg Triangle said...

Reports now are that Missouri will not be invited to join the Big 10, thus leaving it conference-less with the break up of the Big 12.

See where loyalty gets you, Mike Anderson?

JasonC said...

First, the double BSC invite could be the thing that finally breaks the BSC up. I can't see the SEC, ACC and former Big10 sitting by while the Pac16 gets 2 invites.

Second, depending on how many teams leave the Big12, they could still survive. What if they replace Colorado with TCU or Houston? I know that isn't the best fit geography wise (north-south), but TCU has earned it and both schools are in large TV markets.

ColumbiaDawg said...

This is a sad time in college sports. It's all I can say. We're going down a path I don't like.

 
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