Alright all the college football conference expansion, and lack thereof, has come and past. So here are who I think came out as winners and losers of all the conference expansion mess.
Winners
Texas- Bevo and Texas without a doubt came out the biggest winners of this whole conference expansion mess. Before this it seemed Notre Dame was still the biggest college power around. Now they are still a power, don't get me wrong. If all your home games are on NBC then you are a power. But the second Texas flirted with leaving the Big XII every conference was on their knees willing to give Texas what they wanted. Including the Big XII itself. While every other conference divides money equally among its members, Texas now gets by far the biggest piece of the pie. They also don't have to worry about a Big 12 Championship starting next year. They beat Oklahoma and they can have a great shot to make it to the BCS Championship. And Texas can develop their own television network now! Texas established itself as the power school in the BCS.
Bevo and Texas will be living real easy now.
Nebraska- Nebraska is much better suited for the Big Ten than the Big XII. They no longer have to worry about recruiting in Texas against Texas. Now they can recruit in the New Jersey to Midwest area. And trust me they will get recruits in this area. Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Iowa better move over, because Nebraksa will make their case in the Big Ten.
With the move to the Big Ten Nebraska can return to the Glory Days, like they had with Tommie Frazier, sooner rather than later.
Colorado- I really think Colorado will be better off in the Pac 10. As Colin Cowherd said Boulder, Colorado really has more of a Pac 10 feel to it. A much more liberal place than the other areas of the Pac 10. And they get equal money in the Pac 10 to every other school, which they would not have gotten in the Big 12. Good move by Texas.
Utah- Urban Meyer while he was coach at Utah thought Utah should be a Pac 10 school. Now they finally get their chance. Now it will be much harder to go undefeated in the Pac 10, but at least they have a chance to be an automatic qualifier for the BCS. And they get to rub it in BYU fans that they are in the Pac 10 and
BYU is not!
Dan Beebe- The Big XII Commissioner went from GOAT to hero in the final hour. He gave in to Texas and let them have everything. And it seems for now that all the schools in the Big 12 are happy. But it's a short term solution. I can't imagine Kansas, Iowa State, and Baylor will be happy with this forever. But the Big 12 is still alive. And a few weeks ago it seemed certain to be dead.
Orangeblood.com- This Texas Longhorns' recruiting and blog website got every story right about the conference expansion news. They were the first ones to report that it looked like Texas was going to stay in the Big XII instead of move to the Pac 10. They certainly got more stories right than ESPN did.
USC- USC is going to have an uphill climb coming out of these NCAA sanctions, especially the lack of recruits. But they have a far better chance of coming back when their toughest competition in the Pac 10 is Oregon and Utah, rather than Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech.
Big East- When the conference expansion chaos looked like it was going to happen not only did the Big XII look like it was going to die but so did the Big East. It seemed if the SEC started taking teams out of the ACC, than the ACC would go after schools like Georgetown, Louisville, UCONN, and possibly Syracuse to createt a super mega basketball conference. And that West Virginia and Pitt could join the Big 10 in a super Big 10 turned Big 16. But Texas stayed in the Big 12 so the snowball effect never happened. And for now the Big East is still alive.
The lack of gigantic movement in conference expansion kept the Big East alive and great Big East basketball rivalries alive like Syracuse vs Georgetown.
Big Ten- Big Ten adds a great school in Nebraska. They get a Conference Championship game which I think will be a lot like the SEC Championship. A must see event each year. They have put more pressure on Notre Dame now. And they have room to add more schools from the Big East, and ACC if they wish to down the road. The Big Ten are big winners!
Losers
College Basketball- College basketball took a huge punch to its ego. It was shown to the whole world that college football is a much bigger player than college basketball. Say what you want about the lack of a playoff in college football, but college football has games that matter from September to January. College basketball, with a 65 team tourney, really only matters in March. And for all the love March Madness gets the college football bowl games have far more people watch them, and get much bigger ratings than March Madness games.
College Football Playoffs- If college football went to four major super conferences it pretty much meant that it would only be a matter of time before a college football playoff would have to form. But with the lack of college conference expansion the BCS has a much better chance of surviving for a few more years.
Kansas- Bill Self and Kansas lost some swagger. They found out no one cares (unless you are in the ACC) if you are a powerful college basketball school, if you don't have football to back it up. Even with Kansas' 2008 BCS Orange Bowl win over Virginia Tech. And now they look up at Oklahoma and Texas who will be making more money than them. They were oh so close to ending up in the Mountain West where their best rival would have probably been UNLV. Yikes! For now they stay in the Big XII, but if I were Kansas I would constantly keep one eye open if better opitions are out there for the future.
Kansas found out being a basketball power meant nothing.
Pac 10- New Pac 10 Commissioner Larry Scott sold the 10 Pac 10 schools of a bigger, better, and richer Pac 10. But instead of Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and Colorado he gets Utah and Colorado. Certainly great for Utah and Colorado. But I don't think it dramtically improves the conferences. And I have a feeling the Pac 10 Championship will be more like the ACC Championship than the SEC Championship. A conference championship with half empty seats and little interest.
ESPN- If Orangebloods.com got every story right, then ESPN seemed to get every story wrong. And it seemed ESPN had two completely opposite sides of the story for every news that came out on conference expansion. ESPN was not the best source to turn to during all this conference expansion talk. And when you are THE sports channel, and now THE home of the BCS again that is a big dissapointment.
Joe Schad- Schad reported that he had multiple sources tell him that their was a 0% chance Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M would listen to Dan Beebe's pleas and stay in the Big 12. Well that is exactly what happened. Nice job reporting Schad!
Boise State- When Boise State joined the Mountain West they dreamed they were moving to a conference that was about to become a BCS conference. Instead they left a much easier WAC conference to a much harder Mountain West conference, in which both are not BCS conferences. So now they will make it much harder for themselves to consistently go undefeated and get BCS births.
Mountain West- When Boise State joined the Mountain West it looked like with 10 teams, including TCU, BYU, Utah, and Boise State that the conference finally had enough power to become a BCS conference. Then Texas declined to join the Pac 10 which lead to Utah getting to the Pac 10. Now the Mountain West is right where they are. They could have added Kansas, and had one of the 5 best college basketball schools in the country and started a legitmate basketball rivalry with UNLV and Utah. Instead Kansas never came, and they lost Utah. I think the conference is making a big mistake by not adding a 10th team now. If they were smart they would add Fresno State.
Notre Dame- As I said earlier Texas came out over Notre Dame as the top college BCS power. Now in my mind it's Texas #1 and Notre Dame #2. And they may have missed a golden opportunity to join the Big 10. The fact is they might be an Independent for the next 10 years, but someday I think they will have to commit to a conference.
Texas A&M- Texas A&M chose tradition over taking a chance. They chose to stay in the Big XII and keep their rivalries with Oklahoma and mainly Texas. But the fact is Texas A&M is still a "little brother" in Texas compared to the Longhorns and Texas Tech. If they had taken the chance and gone to the SEC they could have made a big stake in recruiting in that state, and would have stood out as the only SEC school in Texas. I think A&M really blew it!
Florida State, Clemson, and Virginia Tech- Fans of these three schools were hoping the SEC would call coming. I know I was certainly begging for it for FSU. But when Texas said no to the Pac 10, and Texas A&M passed on the SEC these three schools were left out of the SEC. Look I love FSU vs Clemson, and Miami but those are the only rivalries worth watching in the ACC for FSU. I would have loved to have rivalries with Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and LSU rather than Maryland, NC State, UNC, and Duke. It's just sexier.
Instead of a new great SEC rival like Alabama as a FSU fan I have to stick with crappy rivals like N.C. State.
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