Obvious Big 12 Play

[ShopTalk]

Q: With A&M gone and more dominoes rumored to fall, what do the other leagues do to keep from being destroyed?

A: The Big 12 and Big East merge. They each may lose 1-2 teams, but now you have an East and Central region with each playing round robin schedules and a championship game Central vs. East.

Give ND the "opportunity" to join the East division in FB; the BB only schools will likely spin off so gives ND something to really think about and likely join.

Same goes for BYU in the Central division.

Now you have 9 - 10 team divisions that can play round robins and if you really want to keep all money in house, make all 12 games in conference. Not likely, but a possible way to add threat of being left behind to independents.

This would be a step towards the media demanded playoff scenario and still maintain the NCAA desires of not having. Kind of a compromise that also stabilizes and improves the value of the remaining B12 and Big East Teams.

Now ACC needs to circle the wagons...after SEC raids, maybe they'll also be an option to do this with. Either way looks like a good way to survive this.

[nhclone]

What other dominoes are rumored to fall for the Big 12? I don't like the thought of a 20-team league at all. Basically what you're doing is leaving things the way they are right now and throwing in one more roadblock to a team in the conference getting to the national championship.

[00clone]

Is this from another source (Q: and A: could be a mailbag or something)? Reason I ask is that Ubbs on the Big 12 blog at ESPN has 2 links in the Lunch Links about ACC/Big East/Big 12 commish'es being all BFF'y

Lunch links: UT-A&M lives? Horns unsure - Big 12 Blog - ESPN

The ND article and "commisioners meeting soon" links

Wondering if there's smoke building on multiple outlets.

[CyBer]

I kind of like the fact that Bebe is meeting with the other commisioners.

[ShopTalk]

No, no source, just seems obvious to me.

How do you restore stability and increase revenues to a point where you become the desired destination instead of the first thought to raid? Go big.

The media wants and will create through advertising money giant conferences and a de-facto playoff system, so how can you maintain any influence or control over that?

Add you influence and design what the conferences can before that choice is gone forever.

What led me to this obvious play is reading all the signs over the last year and then the link above about ACC/Big East/B12 coming together.

The thing is, B12 and Big East are already familiar from last go round and Big East has already committed to Central states with addition of TCU.

The Big East opens the bank vault for BB recruiting and a potential huge fanbase addition of the East Coast in BB and vice-versa for FB. That's the best fit imo, but ACC has some great teams too, so maybe it's a leftovers of the B12/ACC/Big East that form this conference - but only if they wait until the picking over is done or it's simply too far gone to be the ones choosing first.

[ShopTalk]

What other dominoes are rumored to fall for the Big 12? I don't like the thought of a 20-team league at all. Basically what you're doing is leaving things the way they are right now and throwing in one more roadblock to a team in the conference getting to the national championship.

For FB, it's really two conferences scheduling a playoff game as each division plays everyone in their division. Yes, it's an extra hurdle but it looks like that's unavoidable in the final end game regardless. So would you rather choose who you're going to play or let others choose for you?

This still maintains regional rivalries and keeps costs down. For BB and other small team sports you now can have a very rich and very competitive league and keep most or all games in conference if so desired. Big appeal to recruits and probably fans over the long haul.

I like you would have preferred things to stay as they were but that's not going to happen now is it?

[ShopTalk]

You want to talk about reviving the ISU Baseball program? Join the Big East. Baseball - at least professional - is THE sport on the East Coast...gives the best chance to revive the sport at ISU.