*****The Super, Mega, Huge Big 12 Expansion Thread*****

[kilroy]

Kudos to the ACC for their stealth move. Whether it works out for ISU or not I like the way they work. It's as if they hired Pollard to make the move.

Maybe they did, I mean by the end of this the Jordan will be wearing Fruit of the Loom!confused:

 

[scyclonekid]

This is all ********, this conference crap. Money is the driving force and that is where ISU is going to get screwed, I really hope not, but does not look good for us right now. I will hate the Big Ten if they expand and do not add us because we fit academically and geographically. Plus we would have really great instate and conference rivals fans love to watch rivalry games hands down!! I guess to me I just cannot believe what is going down and how academics does not matter and they do not care about the student athlete anymore if they want students to travel long distances and the cost of my god will be terribly expensive. Big Ten save money and add ISU put aside the greed and have a freakin heart!!!

 

[ISUAgronomist]

ACC Extends Formal Invitations for Membership to Pittsburgh and Syracuse

NOTE: Check back for audio/transcript of media teleconference later this morning.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – The Atlantic Coast Conference Council of Presidents has unanimously voted to accept the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University as new members. The invitation followed the submission of letters of application from both universities.

“The ACC is a strong united conference that is only going to get better with the addition of the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University,” said Duke University President Richard Broadhead, chair of the ACC Council of Presidents. “Both schools are committed to competing at the highest level of academics and athletics. We welcome them as full partners in the ACC.”

“The ACC has enjoyed a rich tradition by balancing academics and athletics and the addition of Pitt and Syracuse further strengthens the ACC culture in this regard,” said Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford. “Pittsburgh and Syracuse also serve to enhance the ACC’s reach into the states of New York and Pennsylvania and geographically bridges our footprint between Maryland and Massachusetts. With the addition of Pitt and Syracuse, the ACC will cover virtually the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States.”

“This is an exciting day for the University of Pittsburgh. We have a long history of competing and collaborating with the distinguished universities that already are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and have enormous respect for both their academic strengths and their athletic accomplishments,” said University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg. “In looking to our own future, we could not envision a better conference home for Pitt and are grateful to the Council of Presidents for extending an invitation to join the ACC community.”

"We are very excited to be joining the ACC. This is a tremendous opportunity for Syracuse, and with its outstanding academic quality and athletic excellence, the ACC is a perfect fit for us," said Nancy Cantor, Chancellor and President of Syracuse University. "The ACC is home to excellent national research universities with very strong academic quality, and is a group that Syracuse will contribute to significantly and benefit from considerably. As a comprehensive, all-sports conference, the ACC provides Syracuse tremendous opportunities for quality competition and growth in all sports, while also renewing some of our historic rivalries. This move will also bolster our continued efforts to look outward, engage, and extend Syracuse’s reach to key areas of the country, including the southeast, as we grow and expand our national connections to alumni, partners and the students of the future. We are pleased that Syracuse adds a New York City dimension to the ACC, a region in which we have built strong identity and affinity, and we look forward to bringing ACC games to the Big Apple. Overall, for Syracuse, this opportunity provides long-term conference stability in what is an uncertain, evolving, and rapidly shifting national landscape."

“This is a very significant day for all of our student-athletes, coaches and staff at the University of Pittsburgh,” said Steve Pederson, University of Pittsburgh Director of Athletics. “The strength and quality of the ACC is highly regarded by everyone at Pitt. When we set high expectations for our student-athletes in their academic, athletic and personal goals, it is important to provide every opportunity and resource to enable that success. Joining the ACC and the outstanding institutions in this conference will give every Pitt student-athlete the chance to achieve their highest aspirations.”

Daryl Gross, Syracuse University Director of Athletics said, "Today is a day that we will remember for years to come. We are truly excited that academically and athletically we will be a member of the ACC, one of the nation's premier collegiate athletic conferences. As New York's College Team, we plan to compete at the highest level across all of our sports and help to enhance this great conference."

 

[im4cyclones]

Get ready for a wild two days of speculation by national writers. Unnamed sources will be coming out of the woodwork. Everyone is going to throw **** out there just in case they may be right.

 

[scyclonekid]

If and I mean big If the big twelve stays together then all teams better be on the same page and get along or this **** will happen every freakin year.

 

[Let's Go State]

Wasn't Pitt the driving force to pull tcu into the big east. They may bail on it now.

 

[helechopper]

“Congress has the nexus to engage,†he said. â€These are tax exempt organizations now making billions of s off of unpaid athletes. When it’s a regional league it seems to make sense. When you’re taking schools practically from coast to coast and putting them in big profit revenue leagues, we may be at a point where the N.C.A.A. has lost its ability to create a fair system for all u to play in.â€
A lawyer who has higher education clients and has been involved in discussions with Congress about the legal ramifications of conference realignment said the threat of Congressional involvement is real.
“The sudden consolidation of the BCS conferences may raise any number of issues that Congress will want to explore, especially because these conference affiliation decisions have been made quickly and out of view of all concerned constituencies — student athletes, alumni, fans, and the governments who control the public universities that overwhelmingly populate the BCS,†said the lawyer, who was not authorized by his clients to speak publically on the subject.â€
The extent of Congressional interest could come down to how many schools get squeezed monetarily from the shift in landscape.
“If my school is somehow left out, my constituents are going to demand I do everything in my power to stop that,†the Congressman said.

Full article here.

 

[kilroy]

This is all ********, this conference crap. Money is the driving force and that is where ISU is going to get screwed, I really hope not, but does not look good for us right now. I will hate the Big Ten if they expand and do not add us because we fit academically and geographically. Plus we would have really great instate and conference rivals fans love to watch rivalry games hands down!! I guess to me I just cannot believe what is going down and how academics does not matter and they do not care about the student athlete anymore if they want students to travel long distances and the cost of my god will be terribly expensive. Big Ten save money and add ISU put aside the greed and have a freakin heart!!!

I really agree with this. EIU, NE, IL, WI, MI, Purdue even IN. THAT IS GREAT RIVALRYS, all within driving distance!!!!

BUT none of this crap makes since so why the hell would this.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

Wasn't Pitt the driving force to pull tcu into the big east. They may bail on it now.

They were also the big voice to reject the new, big TV contract recently.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

“If my school is somehow left out, my constituents are going to demand I do everything in my power to stop that,” the Congressman said.

$5 says that representative has a Baylor degree.

 

[im4cyclones]

$5 says that representative has a Baylor degree.

I was hoping he was from Iowa! I have no problem getting an invite somewhere only to shut up congress! We are past the point up pride. Now it is simply, "pick me, please!"

 

[JRE1975]

Everyone on here is freaking out about the BE collapse, but this is exactly what I thought when I heard about the BE plight. I think they've saved the B12. The question is, who all is leaving and who are we picking up.

Either the Big 12 or the Big East was going to implode, it now looks like the Big East. Let's just figure out who wants in the Big 12 and who wants out and fill it back up.

If OU and OSU leave I am fine with adding TCU, UL, and Cin and whoever else makes since from the Big East.

Who the heck knows! This is getting stupid! I would like to know how many OU fans stayed up to watch the Arizona Stanford game last night? They better get used to staying up late!

 

[TykeClone]

Texas won't go independent. They don't want to, and frankly after this fiasco I don't think any other conference would want to take them on as a non-football partner. I'm beginning to think no other conference really wants them as a full member either.

The Big IIXII-1 might want to reconsider their involvement with UT as well.

 

[WISCY1895]

I think our best option is to take Louisville and TCU from the Big East and bring in BYU. BYU still brings way more to the table than Cinci does.

New North:
Iowa State
Mizzou
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.

New South:
Texas
Texas Tech
Baylor
TCU
BYU
Louisville

 

[im4cyclones]

Either the Big 12 or the Big East was going to implode, it now looks like the Big East. Let's just figure out who wants in the Big 12 and who wants out and fill it back up.

If OU and OSU leave I am fine with adding TCU, UL, and Cin and whoever else makes since from the Big East.

Who the heck knows! This is getting stupid! I would like to know how many OU fans stayed up to watch the Arizona Stanford game last night? They better get used to staying up late!

I know Iowa fans who were complaining about 8pm tips in bball because of the btn. Imagine OU and OSU in the PAC.

 

[scyclonekid]

College football is just about done in my opinion if this blows up the way it is shaping up to do. You will have less fans at games due to travel expense and time to travel will be irrelevant anymore, especially in hard economic times like we have now. Fans are tightening up the strings even more so. If ISU sits in the middle of the Big Ten and does not get an invite I hope congress steps in and does something major to stop all this from happening for all schools so nobody gets left in the cold. The NCAA should also shut its doors and close for good they are the biggest joke ever what a bunch of ******* they are.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

I think our best option is to take Louisville and TCU from the Big East and bring in BYU. BYU still brings way more to the table than Cinci does.

New North:
Iowa State
Mizzou
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.

New South:
Texas
Texas Tech
Baylor
TCU
BYU
Louisville

Did you take geography lessons from Justin Hamilton?

IMO, if the Big12 lives on with OU and Texas, we probably won't have a N/S split anymore.

 

[MNclone]

Looks like I may be a fan of college sports for one more season. I have no interest in super conferences that are paying players. Might as well set up schools as farm systems for NFL teams.

 

[cygrads]

Pitt & Cuse to ACC really changes things for the Big 10. Seems like most of what I have read about Big 10 expansion (other than ND) was that they wanted to get into the DC area (Maryland) and North Carolina (UNC & Duke). With the ACC getting stronger this throws a wrench into their expansion plans. I know the Big 10 was probably not planning on expanding for a few years but this takes anyone from the ACC off the table. This more than likely takes VaTech off the SECs wish list so if Miz is strong and stays in the Big 12 the SEC may end up taking WVA and further destroy the Big East. I hope OU & UT decide to stay because there could be a few schools from the Big East to pick off - USF, UL and dare I say the UCONN bastards.

 

[Doctor]

If ISU sits in the middle of the Big Ten and does not get an invite I hope congress steps in and does something major to stop all this from happening for all schools so nobody gets left in the cold. The NCAA should also shut its doors and close for good they are the biggest joke ever what a bunch of ******* they are.

I would prefer that Congress not get involved in athletics in any way, shape or form. If you want to see something get screwed up even more than it is, involve the government.

I wonder how many of you who want Congress to get involved are active politically in other ways, shapes and forms. I'm guessing that your outrage is saved for us potentially having to go to a lesser conference.

How many who plan to write their Congressman have ever done so prior? My guess is, very few. But now, sports is involved and you're in a tizzy. Meanwhile the country has been going down the crapper and you've sat by and not even noticed.