Moving around the pieces…
The Big 12 can’t be certain of its expansion plans until Missouri decides what to do, and teams the Big 12 is interested in won’t do anything until the conference is stable, except maybe TCU. The ACC won’t go to 16 until it knows what’s happening to the Big East, because it’s holding out for the “Notre Dame panics” scenario, while the Big East is worried about being picked for parts and losing West Virginia to the SEC, who would have to weigh WV’s academics … if Missouri doesn’t move. Everyone’s waiting for someone else to do something, but Missouri most of all.
None of these would be issues if Missouri had committed to the Big 12. (Except possibly the SEC/WV issue, but Texas A&M put the SEC into this situation.)
One school the ACC won’t be looking at, despite that school’s intense interest, is UConn, because Boston College is against it. This quote from BC AD Gene DeFilippo is…interesting: “You don’t get extra money for basketball. It’s 85 percent football money. TV – ESPN – is the one who told us what to do. This was football; it had nothing to do with basketball.” Told us??? What, precisely, does that mean?
DeFilippo also says BC’s keeping UConn out because “We wanted to be the New England team.” That would be news to New England. A least one UConn fans thinks those are fighting words.
Oklahoma and Missouri’s furthering of the Big 12’s instability may well have cost the conference a chance to add Pitt and West Virginia, which would have been a geographic match and kept the Backyard Brawl going. West Virginia/Louisville may still be an option to go to 12, except that’s only 11 if Missouri jumps ship.
Now, the Denver Post says that Air Force is going to the Big East. Air Force AD Hans
Mueh condemns the Big 12 with faint praise: “We were approached by the Big 12, and I told them we’re not a good fit for that conference. In the Big 12, geography makes sense, the economics make sense, but recruiting makes no sense for us. I can’t recruit against Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State.”
As a service academy, Air Force has special circumstances, so you can’t really argue. Air Force makes zero geographic sense for the Big East, but going after them along with
Army and Navy may have political overtones. If you’re a BCS committee member, do you want to be hauled in front of Congress to explain that the conference the service academies play in is no longer good enough to get an automatic BCS bid? It would be kindling for those who want Congress involved in investigating the BCS/mandating a playoff.
Meanwhile, Dan Beebe says about what you’d expect, and confirms that “Nebraska was one of the biggest objectors of equal revenue rights.”
The Post-Dispatch looks at the pros and cons of Missouri’s potential move to the SEC. This could also exacerbate the divide in the state between St. Louis and Kansas City. If there are Missouri fans/alumni/donors who want to stay in the Big 12, whether they’re a silent majority or silent minority, they need to speak up. Now.
(Some team logos from Dallas Morning News do-it-yourself realignment; others and conference logos elsewhere)