Ah, yes, remember just two days ago when I said the only event that would happen in expansion would be Notre Dame joining the Big Ten? Well, as usual, I could not have been more wrong. In the past 10-ish hours, the Big Ten appears to be on the verge of gaining a team not named Notre Dame, the Big 12 is teetering on the brink of extinction, and the Pac-10 is set to gain at least 17 more teams. Oh, and toss in the news that USC just got hit with a level of NCAA probation that gives an indication that justice and order still exist in this world (more on that after a few more very important sentences), and I was struck with a temporary blindness that only occurs during extreme joy or terror. And IT WAS AWESOME.
A quick recap of Wednesday's events:
-Nebraska has informally decided that they will leave the Big 12 and join the Big Ten.
-Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado all have offers to join the Pac-10 and all seem ready, especially Colorado, to do so. Although, there are some very busy and very important people meeting on Thursday in Austin to discuss what the Texas schools will do.
-This article emerged saying that Texas A&M and the SEC have also had talks over the last few months about the Aggies joining the league (Take that you long-haired, no-job, Godless hippies).
-Kansas spent all day on the phone trying to persuade other schools not to leave the Big 12. They were ignored.
-One Pac-10 school kicked its quarterback off the team (and not for shitting the bed against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl).
-USC finally has to pay the toll for using the freeway of cash giveaways and illegal recruiting tactics. They received a two-year bowl ban and loss of 20 scholarships. Not to worry, Trojan fans, Lane Kiffin and Ed Orgeron are in charge.
I'm still, and I'm sure we all will be for at least a few more weeks, trying to comprehend what has happened and what it about to happen. For all the years I've watched college football, something like today and the next few days has never come to fruition. I suppose the closest occurrence was the dissolving of the Southwest Conference, which should be known as the Big 12 1.0 (and don't forget the old Metro Conference...actually, everyone already did and agreed it never happened), but its end and scattering of the teams didn't have nearly the impact as the coming shift will. I remember the addition of South Carolina and Arkansas to the SEC, and the additions the ACC made, both allowed for a 12-team league and a conference championship game, but not exactly earth-shattering at the time (I think you can argue that the SEC going to 12 teams and having a conference championship game was the moment that lead us to today, as it was the beginning of major, major clumps of, as Randy Moss once said, "Straight cash, homey" becoming a part of college football.).
But the complete collapse of a 12-team conference and the formation of one, possibly three mega-conferences (assuming the Big Ten and SEC add a few more teams)? Surely there is lots of jesting taking place. Conferences just don't disappear or grow by six teams and LANE KIFFIN FINALLY DIDN'T FIND THAT RANDOM $20 IN HIS POCKET. I find myself confused and delighted. Confused because I'm not sure what I truly think of the prospect of mega-conferences (it may be great at first, but what's stopping the really big schools from one day forming the official NFL Minor League System, effectively ending college football as it is now?), but ultimately delighted on this day because Lane Kiffin's anti-lottery day arrived. Sure the odds of it happening were about the same as getting mauled by a polar bear, a Kodiak bear, and struck by lightning all in the span of 20 minutes, but it happened, dammit. It finally happened.
With that said, so long Big 12 conference, Kansas football, Lane Kiffin's smirk, Ed Orgeron's recruiting budget, college football of my youth, Washington State's chances of winning more than two games before 2018 and Jeremiah Masoli. We shall not really miss any of you. Now, if the World Cup would hurry up and get here asd;lfk ababnmn g53fhky weop238dsasd
/TEMPORARY BLINDNESS RETURNS
I think this expansion may be really bad long-term. We will no longer see teams play any decent games "out of conference". B/c now USC may have a conference schedule with Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Cal, UCLA on it. Why would you add on an Ohio State or Auburn to that brutal schedule?? TV contracts are going to explode over this, so there won't be any incentive to play a big regular season game for "TV $", b/c it will already be there.
ReplyDeleteAdd on to your goodbyes: Regular season excitement like Penn State/Alabama, LSU/North Carolina, Tennessee/Oregon
I wasn't able to read your response over the awesomeness of the arrival of Lane Kiffin's long overdue misfortune.
ReplyDeleteI don't see the benefit of mega conferences for the fans. I am sure that the schools and conferences will make money (see the NFL) but it downgrades the excitement. 25% of College football is about conference superiority. And what the crap is the SEC gonna do? Pick up Houston? Arrrgggghhahhahah. I don't like this. And when does all of this go into affect? Next week? Am I going to see Vanderbilt v. Houston on the SEC network this year? Crap.
ReplyDeleteThe SEC won't even make eye contact with a school like Houston or anything that smells like C-USA. Its standards have a floor of Duke and a ceiling of Texas.
ReplyDelete