Zipper Alignment Gaining Traction for 2011 Pac-10 Expansion - See Alignment

The current alignment gaining the most support once Colorado and Utah join the Pac-10 appears to be the following East and West format:

West
Washington
Oregon State
Stanford
UCLA
Arizona State
Utah

East
Washington State
Oregon
Cal
USC
Arizona
Colorado

Big 12 Conference Expansion Funnies, Worth Checking Out for a Good Laugh

Thanks to our friends at Tigerdroppings

 

Big 12 To Stay Together?

Most of the current news is around the remaining teams of the Big 12 working on a plan to keep the league together. If that happens, Utah will join Colorado in the Pac 12.

U of Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to the Pac - 10

Announcement set and will be released soon.

That leaves one spot open for an additional team. Who will it be?

Colorado Done and Oklahoma State Next Team Committed to the Pac - 10 (Pac - 12)

With Colorado having already announced they are joining the Pac - 10 it appears as though Oklahoma State is the next school to announce they are joining the Pac -10 making a new conference the Pac - 12...for now. The Texas schools are meeting this week to decide who's in and who's out within the remaining Southern Big 12 schools.

Nebraska Approves Move to Big 10. Pac - 10 Conference Likley Pac -16

A source close to the Nebraska Board of Regents told Orangebloods.com the regents met informally Wednesday and have agreed to move to the Big Ten and that a formal announcement Nebraska is leaving will come Friday.

Sources close to Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech have suggested to Orangebloods.com over the last week that if Nebraska leaves, the Big 12 can't be saved.

A Fox television report out of Ohio said Nebraska now has an invitation from the Big Ten.

One of the reasons given for Nebraska's importance to the league is because the relationship between Missouri and the rest of the Big 12 has soured beyond repair.

And to complicate matters for Missouri, the Tigers appear to be falling down the list of priorities for the Big Ten.

An athletic director with knowledge of the Big Ten said, "Missouri is getting cold shoulder from Big Ten."

Joe Schad of ESPN reported Wednesday that the Big Ten list of interest for expansion goes like this: 1) Notre Dame 2) Nebraska 3) Rutgers and/or Maryland.

Associated Press
Dan Beebe and the Big 12 appear to be at the mercy of Nebraska and other outside forces.

According to a story by Lee Barfknecht of the Omaha World-Herald, a respected reporter covering the Big 12 for years, Nebraska is expected to leave for the Big Ten as early as Friday, according to information provided to Barfknecht by an executive at another Big 12 school.

That is the day Nebraska's regents have a formal meeting in Lincoln.

Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne on his monthly radio show on the Husker Sports Network said he hoped "to get things together in the next few days."

But Osborne acknowledged, "There's a lot of information we really don't have right now."

Here's his entire quote:

"I suppose there is quite a bit I can speculate on, but as you and I talked before the show came on there's a lot of information we really don't have right now," Osborne said.

"Hopefully we'll get things put together in the next few days. Anything I would say regarding Nebraska's position or other schools in the Big 12 right now would be pure speculation at this point and I don't think that's very helpful. As much as I know fans don't like it, I think we need to put certain things off limits.

"I think before too long, I don't know exactly what that time frame is, but we'll be able to put this thing to bed because I'm getting tired of it."


BIG 12's FINAL SUPPER ON JUNE 14?

Two different executives in the Big 12 confirmed to Orangebloods.com Wednesday morning the hard deadline for Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado and the entire Big 12 to pledge their allegiance to each other is Monday, June 14.

A high-level executive at a Big 12 institution said there have been informal conversations about who to add to the Big 12 if schools start to leave. Those schools have included BYU and Air Force.

But that same executive as well as others in the Big 12 South have told Orangebloods.com the conference will not survive if Nebraska leaves - no matter who else stays or goes.

If Nebraska were to stay in the Big 12 and Missouri and Colorado were to leave, for example, the sense is the Big 12 could attempt to add schools like BYU and Air Force to the Big 12 North and move ahead.


TEXAS AND TEXAS A&M MEET THURSDAY

In a related development, a legislative source with knowledge of Texas A&M said officials from A&M and Texas will meet on Thursday to discuss all the goings on and to make sure they are on the same page if the Big 12 falls apart. The source said, however, that Texas and Texas A&M remain steadfast in lobbying for the Big 12 to stay together.


NOTRE DAME'S CALL

The future of the Big 12 appeared to hinge on the Big Ten's deliberations with Notre Dame. The Big Ten has promised Notre Dame it will stop its expansion at 12 schools if Notre Dame agrees to finally forgo its independence and become part of a conference, an athletic director with knowledge of the Big Ten has told Orangebloods.com.

Notre Dame is apparently locked in a battle among its Board of Trustees about what to do. There are some who fear the Irish being left out of the formation of what could well become four, super conferences in college athletics. That could cost Notre Dame its access to a BCS bid.

The Big Ten has also given indications it will go east and possibly raid anywhere from one to three schools from the Big East, where Notre Dame plays its other sports, leaving the Irish scrambling even more.

In the ultimate irony, the only way Notre Dame may be able to avoid the super conference scenario is by doing what it least wants to do: give up its independence and lucrative NBC/Comcast contract and join a conference.

Sources have told Orangebloods.com the Big Ten would not be handing out any more invitations if Notre Dame agrees to join the league. An AD source reaffirmed to Orangebloods.com Wednesday that "there is a timeline involved" between Notre Dame and the Big Ten.

Joe Schad of ESPN reported this week Notre Dame doesn't appear to be budging.

The longer there is silence about Notre Dame's intentions, the more reason to believe Notre Dame could remain on its own.


COLORADO'S BAD TIMING

In another development, one source inside the Big 12 told Orangebloods.com Tuesday Colorado was expected to have a major announcement as early as Wednesday. But that announcement turned out to be with regard to scholarship reductions for the Colorado football and basketball programs because of substandard NCAA APR (Academic Progress Rates).

CU is the only BCS football program to be sanctioned with scholarship reductions and is one of only two BCS basketball programs to get sanctioned, OB has learned.

The Buffaloes have already served the four scholarships it was docked for football and the one it was docked for basketball.

The timing is poor considering the school's possible courtship with some of the more high-minded academic institutions in the Pac-10.

The Boulder Daily Camera reported a regents meeting at CU Tuesday night produced nothing more than legal advice about different scenarios. CU officials said they have not yet received an invitation from the Pac-10, according to the report.

Despite that claim, speculation continues to swirl that Colorado could be preparing to accept a bid from the Pac-10 Conference, which has targeted the Buffaloes for expansion.

As Orangebloods.com first reported last Thursday, Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott's preference is to expand the Pac-10 by six schools. That original list included Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado.


BAYLOR'S FIGHT FACING RESISTANCE?

Since that report legislators and lobbyists with loyalty to Baylor have launched an all-out effort in the Texas Legislature to ensure that Baylor remains with the rest of the Big 12 South if it were to move to the Pac-10.

One top source close to the possible merger between the Pac-10 and six Big 12 schools said some schools in the Pac-10, including California-Berkeley, have a real issue with adding an institution with religious ties like Baylor to the conference.


GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION?

It has been expressed to Orangebloods.com by a top collegiate executive that any movement toward four, 16-team super conferences will be met with resistance by Congress.

The executive said that could be bad news for college athletics because Congress has already taken some cursory looks at the fact athletic departments enjoy a tax-exempt status as part of their universities.

The executive said if it appears the rich are getting richer in college athletics, there will be a hard look at whether to take away the tax exempt status of athletic departments.

"And it won't just be Orin Hatch (a member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee from Utah and longtime BCS critic) looking into this," the source said.

Stay tuned.

Chip Brown
Orangebloods.com Columnist

The Pac - 10 Approves Conference Expansion Plans - Move to Expand to 16 Universities?

In a move that could herald a historic change in the makeup of the Pac-10, conference commissioner Larry Scott was given approval Sunday to pursue expansion. The approval, given by conference presidents and chancellors on the final day of Pac-10 meetings in San Francisco, means Scott can proceed with expansion plans without returning to the board for further consent.

General expansion plans focus on six Big 12 teams — Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado — to join the Pac-10. That would create two eight-team divisions: Washington and Washington State in what would essentially be the old Pac-8, along with USC, UCLA, Oregon, Oregon State, California and Stanford; and the six Big 12 teams with Arizona and Arizona State in the other division. That would set up a potentially lucrative football conference title game, the site of which potentially could alternate between the Rose Bowl and the new Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.

Bob Condotta does a nice job breaking down the news in his story. 

Other views on expansion and what it means to other colleges can be found in this set of links.

The Dallas Morning News has this take on what expansion means to the Texas teams in question.

"Baylor continues to make a major push to be part of any Pac-10 expansion plan with its fellow South members (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State). In a Twitter post, Pete Thamel of the New York Times reported that Baylor "appears to have bumped" Colorado in the expansion sweepstakes.

"We'd love to see the Big 12 stay the way it is," Texas State Sen. Kip Averitt (R-Waco) told our Austin statehouse bureau today. "But if it doesn't, we want to be where the Texas schools are."
Averitt said he couldn't confirm that an effort is under way to sway Pac 10 officials, if they adopt half of the Big 12, to invite the Bears"

Salt Lake Magazine mentions that Pac -10 expansion unlikely to include Utah

"As sure as the NCAA tournament will include 124 teams (plus three play-in divisions of 12 teams each) and the SEC is about to propose using a NASCAR points system to ensure all its top-tier make it into some gerrymandered and blustery form of a BCS playoff, it's a downright gu-ar-an-tee the Pac 10 will try to make itself over into the gigantor Heidi Montag to its rival Whitney Port of the East Coast/deep south pigskin juggernaut.

At first, talk of modest expansion to 12 teams included (and, was in fact, limited to) the Utes and Colorado with the dark horse/quickly ruled-out BYU.

Made sense.

As political winds shifted, Pac 10 commissioners all but ruled out cash cow BYU based on, well... to paraphrase: "We just don't think Berkeley would go for that."

Fair enough — Cougar boosters like it or not, true or not, BYU = the school that backed Prop. 8 and those dirty old men of the Pac 10 like their politics just like they like their coastline — on the left.

No matter how deserving, looks like the Utes might not schmooze their way in either.

Justifying not kicking out upstarts Arizona and Arizona State — grandfathered into the Pac 8 more than three decades ago during its last expansion — in the wake of its decision to make muddled the musical chair post-post-partisan political shell game of who can stay and who can go, will be tough enough for this crew o'er the weekend.

Bringing in the Beehive rife with headline-grabbing firing squads, fumbled MLK Day celebration plans, proposals to change the state's name to "GlennBeckistan" and Kevin Garn's hot tub party — in spite of the rabid fan bases (which do not ascribe to the aforementioned) — in other words, ain't gonna happen.

And the Utes, unfair as it may seem, will most likely will be the odd man out."

The Iowa Gazette Online talks about how Iowa State would likely become an orphan if expansion comes

"Iowa State University could become a 152-year-old orphan should some scenarios play out the way they could. If the Pacific-10 Conference does indeed swipe Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and either Baylor or Colorado, the Big 12 is big no more.

It isn’t BCS-big, it isn’t ESPN-big. It’s a ghost league.

Now, it would take some serious doing for the Pac-10 to pull that off. If history has taught us anything, it’s that you don’t know what to believe when it comes to conference-expansion chatter.

But let’s say the Big Ten is as serious about expansion as many think it is, and it grabs Missouri and Nebraska. Suddenly, Iowa State becomes a school without a border neighbor.

In the words of the immortal Chico Marx, thassa no good."

 ESPN Looks at the Mountain West's opportunity to take the rest of the Big 12 and Boise State

"So here’s the Mountain West, prepared to expand by one, but now presented with an opportunity to expand with the remaining Big 12 teams.

What’s a conference to do?

Reports have been all over the place:

• The Mountain West could go ahead with its scheduled plan and ignore the Pac-10 report.
• The Mountain West could hold off on expansion until the Pac-10 and Big Ten send invites, which could happen this week.
• The Mountain West could now look to expand to 16 teams.

The Mountain West has tried to stay away from massive expansion to avoid what happened to the 16-team WAC (which ultimately created the Mountain West), but Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said the conference presidents talked about the idea on Sunday.

"At the 30,000-foot level, we talked about 16 for the first time in a long time," Thompson told media camped out in Jackson, Wyo.

So, here’s this week’s question: If you’re the Mountain West, do you wait to let expansion play out or take Boise State and look to go to 16 teams? And if the conference does wait, does Boise State fear it might be left out in the cold?

We might find out this answer later today, but I thought I’d let you all play commissioner. Now, we don’t know which teams will be available, but it looks like a four-team mixture of the potential choices -- Baylor, Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas and Kansas State -- could be on the table. So what do you think? Should Boise State be sweating"

Pac - 10 Expanding to Pac - 16 Adding Texas, TT, Tex A&M, Ok, OK ST, and Colorado?

It appears the Pac-10, which has its meetings in San Francisco starting this weekend, is prepared to make a bold move and invite Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado to join its league, according to multiple sources close to the situation.

UT Photo
Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds has maintained that the Longhorns will do whatever it takes to remain the Jones' of college football.

Left out would be Iowa State, Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska and Missouri.

Messages left with Pac-10 officials by Orangebloods.com on Thursday were not immediately returned.

The six teams from the Big 12 would be in an eight-team division with Arizona and Arizona State. The other eight-team division would consist of USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State.

The thought is the Big 16 (or whatever they decide for the name) would start its own television network that could command premium subscriber dollars from cable providers on par with the Big Ten Network and pay out upwards of $20 million to each of the 16 schools in TV revenue.

Such a merger between the six Big 12 schools and the Pac-10 would build a conference with seven of the country's top 20 TV markets (Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, Houston, Phoenix, Seattle and Sacramento). And such a league would likely command attention from every cable system in the country and command a premium rate from every cable system west of the Mississippi.

Those projected TV revenues would double the current payouts of roughly $9 million to Big 12 and Pac-10 members. If the Big 16 reached its projections, the league would also surpass the SEC's projected payout of $17 million per school reached in a 15-year TV deal with ABC/ESPN and CBS signed in 2008.

Reported by Chris Brown of Orangebloods.com, a Texas sports website.

Big 12 and Pac-10 Talking Partnership for TV and Schedules

How would you feel about the Pac-10 and Big 12 working together on a TV package and scheduling alliance?

Big 12, Pac-10 talking about partnership for TV alliance, football schedules

By CHUCK CARLTON / The Dallas Morning News

Officials from the Big 12 and Pac-10 examined possible TV alliances as well as scheduling partnerships in football during preliminary talks Wednesday and Thursday in Phoenix.

Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe and Pac-10 counterpart Larry Scott attended, along with conferences athletic directors. The talks came against the backdrop of possible Big Ten expansion.

"Larry and I have talked for several months in regards to collaborating to enhance media value and working in any ways that might aid the two leagues and be a helpful alliance," Beebe said, confirming the talks.

Possibilities include working together on TV contracts or perhaps even a shared network. The two conferences feature 22 schools west of the Mississippi with strong bases in Texas and California markets.

Non-conference scheduling in football for "meaningful September games," Beebe said, could enhance future TV negotiations. The conferences already hold a men's basketball series.

Beebe said the conferences intend to keep separate identities.

"There's no desire to merge the two," he said. "We feel like 12 is the maximum number that operates well in football."

Pac-10 Hires Hollywood Media Firm in Prep for Own TV Channel

SBJ: Pac-10 hires Hollywood agency CAA with star power in mind
John Ourand, SportsBusiness Journal

Tuesday, May. 11, 2010 - 9:24 a.m. ET

The Pac-10 has hired Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to explore expansion opportunities and advise the conference on its next media rights deal.

The Hollywood-based firm also will help the conference reposition its brand to highlight its nexus to the entertainment (Los Angeles) and technology (Silicon Valley) markets of the U.S.

The three mandates are interrelated and increase the likelihood that the Pac-10 will launch its own cable channel when its current media deals expire after the 2011-12 school year.

The Pac-10 chose CAA last month after a nine-month bidding process that included the conference's previous consultant, Wasserman Media Group, and Allen & Co.

Terms of the deal were not available.

One of the reasons the Pac-10 opted for CAA is the agency's entertainment connections in Hollywood, said Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott, who said the conference plans to use CAA to assist in a full revamping of its brand.

"We want to position ourselves as cutting edge," Scott said. "We're a modern collegiate conference."

The Pac-10 has defined itself as an athletically successful conference, having won more NCAA national titles than any other conference. But Scott, who took over as commissioner last spring, wants the Pac-10 brand to be more contemporary and reflect the influential markets in which it has schools.

CAA also will help stage some of the conference's events. Scott expects some of CAA's celebrity clients to be part of events such as football media day. The agency also will bring an entertainment element to an event like the Pac-10 basketball tournament.

Part of CAA's mandate will be to identify schools and markets where the conference could expand, and any Pac-10 expansion will include bigger media markets that could help give a conference-owned cable channel a bigger base, Scott said.

CAA is developing a business plan for such a channel. The agency also is advising the conference on strategies should it decide against launching its own channel. The conference's current deal, with ESPN and Fox, expires after the 2011-12 school year.

"If I didn't believe a channel was a viable option, I wouldn't have made it part of CAA's mandate," Scott said.

CAA's Chris Bevilacqua and Alan Gold will be the conference's main points of contact through the deal.

The deal is a strategic relationship between CAA Sports and CAA and Evolution Media, which is EMC's sports media advisory practice.

This story first appeared in SportsBusiness Journal, a sister publication of Sporting News

Pac 10 Expansion To Include the Texas Schools? What is a Super Conference?

Woodward also talked about expansion and said the Pac-10 and the Big Ten have reached out to officials at Texas and Texas A&M. "I'd be surprised if our office is not in contact with them," he said. "I'm sure those conversations have happened and are taking place."

When asked if the league might expand beyond two teams, Woodward said that's a possibility. "It could be two, four or a merger of Big 12. ... There's a theory that at the end of the day there's only going to be four super conferences. Now that it's going to look like, God only knows."

Courtesy of Percy Allen