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The news today is that Utah has officially accepted the invitation by the Pac-10 to join their conference. Also added to the Pac-10 was Big 12 doormat Colorado. This bring their total up to 12 teams. Boise State left the Western Athletic Conference for the Mountain West and many thought this would make the MWC a BCS conference but with the exit of Utah it seems as though the conference, and Boise State, have both made lateral movements. The Big Ten (11) also made a move when they stole Nebraska from the Big 12. The result is the Big Ten now having 12 teams and the opportunity for a championship game.
I think that is all the moves we will see for the rest of this year. Since Texas has announced its loyalty to its conference, the Big 12 will remain. However the division that will have to be made with the Pac-10 and Big Ten have a bunch of possibilities. Let’s examine the Big Ten first.
The Big Ten will more than likely be split into an East division and a West division. What we have learned from the NCAA is that it doesn’t matter your geographic location when getting placed in a division or conference (see: Kentucky, SEC). At first glance, this is how the divisions would look.
East
Ohio State
Penn State
Michigan
Michigan State
Northwestern
Illinois
West
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
Purdue
Indiana
This seems like a logical way to split up the conference. All of the major rivalries are intact with the most obvious being OSU/Michigan. The problem, upon further inspection, is that the East division is ridiculously strong having Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. The most reasonable trade, for competition purposes, would be to give up Penn State for Iowa. The argument could be made for Indiana, but we need to keep them with Purdue for the in state rivalry to continue. So then we have the divisions look like this.
East
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Northwestern
Illinois
Iowa
West
Penn State
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Purdue
Indiana
Of course it doesn’t make sense that Penn State would be in the Western division when they are clearly east of every other team on that list but for the sake of competition they have to move west. Also, the hardest places to play will be split up nicely with the Horseshoe and the Big House on one side and Happy Valley and Camp Randall on the other. Unless they are planning on adding a couple more teams, this looks to be the smartest way to split the conference up.
The Pac-10 has also been doing some work, the most actually. They have added two new teams to their conference to bring their total to 12. Now, they had 10 before but did not have divisions and had no conference championship but I can’t see them remaining as one division with no championship game with 12 schools on their roster. For their break up it seems the way to go would be to have a North and South division. Here’s how I see it being broken down.
North
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
Cal
Washington
Washington State
South
UCLA
USC
Arizona
Arizona State
Colorado
Utah
This will more than likely be the way they go because it keeps the main rivalries intact. In case you haven’t noticed, that is one of the biggest concerns when dividing conferences. In the north, all 6 teams have their rivals in place with Cal/Stanford, UW/WSU and Oregon/OSU. In the south you still get the classic UCLA/USC match up as well as the babe fest that is Arizona/Arizona State. The two new comers will be added to the southern mix to round out the division. USC should be happy that it won’t have to see Oregon or Oregon State every year for their annual let down game.
The conference that lost the most would be the Big 12. The conference is down to 10 teams and if it weren’t for Texas standing up and announcing it’s loyalty to the conference, there is no telling how many more teams would have left. What I do know is that Baylor and Iowa State would have been F’d. This rearranging of divisions seems to be a little harder. Both Nebraska and Colorado departed from the North division and have left a gaping hole in it. Left are Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Missouri to pick up the pieces. Unfortunately the south division has Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. They might as well change the names of the divisions from the south and north to David and Goliath. The only possible way to reorganize these divisions is as follows.
North
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State
Missouri
Texas Tech
South
Texas
Texas A&M
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Baylor
I know, I know. You all think I am crazy to take Texas Tech out of the south, but it is the only way to make it fair. Which rivalries are stronger? Those between Texas and TAMU, OU and OSU or TTU and UT? Exactly. Besides, if you put Baylor in the north it would, or could, possibly be the worst division is the FBS. Although still unbelievably unbalanced, talent wise, this is probably the only way to go. Unless you took Oklahoma/OSU and swapped them with Kansas/K-State. But if you do that, you take away one of the best rivalries in college football between Texas and Oklahoma….
Obviously all we can do is wait and see what happens but it’s fun to argue about what teams and conferences will do. Most of these changes will take effect for the 2011 season and not the upcoming 2010. The exception to that is Colorado who will leave the Big 12 in 2012 for the Pac-10. This will give the conferences plenty of time to figure out the best way to split up the teams or if they should even split them up at all. Perhaps the Big 12 gets dwindled down to 10 teams and is one conference, just like the Big Ten (11) is now…
Do you have a headache yet?
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As for the Big Ten, IMO, the only way to split the divisions is...
East: Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Indiana, Purdue
West: Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois, Minnesota
Thats a perfect East/West split. The talk about the divisions being lopsided is rubbish, if you ask me. You can't split up OSU/UM/PSU/MSU and WISC/IOWA - those are the rivalries that make the conference so great. And having any of them split up, where they could possibly play eachother twice in one year is blasphamy. It takes away from the greatness of rivalries if you play them twice in one year. Michigan vs Ohio State is about playing one time every end of November, winner take all.
Furthermore, the WEST division would actually be the stronger division this year, if Nebraska was moving over for 2010. Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska are top 10 teams, IMO. Northwestern is going to be an 8 win team, at worst this year too.
As for any further expansion, thier is word that the Big East may be making a push for Memphis and UCF.