A Point Of Clarification

Conference realignment can be tricky when trying to remember which schools now compose a particular conference.  For instance, I, if offered $1 million right now, would not be able to accurately name the schools of the Mountain West Conference and the Western Athletic Conference.  This is somewhat odd considering the attentiveness I have to college football, but I refuse to accept the blame for my confusion.  Seemingly every five years or so, the two conferences have a meeting (I've been told Fort Collins, Colorado), throw all the teams into a hat, and draw to create new conferences.  I haven't verified this stat, but since this policy began in the '90s, Fresno State has switched conferences 57* times. 

Now, to add to the confusion, the Big 12 and BigTen/B1G/Big Ten/B1B1B1 will continue to go by their current names despite those names not accurately describing the number of teams in their conferences.  This has been a standard practice of the B1G for years, as they've had 11 teams since 1993 yet maintained the name containing 10.  And with the addition of Nebraska, they'll have 12 teams and a 10-team name.

Keeping up with the conference it trusted not to steal its members, Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said his conference will continue to be called the Big 12 even though it is down to Texas, Oklahoma, and eight teams receiving less money than those two, which will ultimately lead to the destruction of Beebe's conference and Beebe himself (until the Fiesta Bowl finds a spot for him!).  Conversely, the Pac-10 has added two teams and will change its name to the Pac-12.

If you lost track during all of that:

B1G/Big Ten/PICK SOMETHING LESS AWFUL THAN A "1" IN YOUR NAME:  12 teams
Big 12:  10 teams
Pac-12:  12 teams
WAC/Mountain West:  Somewhere between 18 and 47 teams

So, yes, this does mark the first time people on the West Coast of the United States of America have made a more clear, conventional, and logical decision than good people of middle America.  Are you noticing this, people of the Great Plains and Midwest?  PEOPLE WHO ONCE VOLUNTARILY LIVED IN TREES, ELECTED THE TERMINATOR GOVERNOR, AND BIRTHED HIPPIES ARE MAKING BETTER DECISIONS THAN YOU.

Please fix this ASAP.  Thanks.

*This includes a short stint in the now-defunct Valley Conference, which was composed of Fresno State and no one else.  The conference was disbanded when Fresno realized no other school resided or wanted to reside in the San Joaquin Valley.