Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

Wow.

I'll try to be the first to talk about playoff implications after the potential collapse of the Big 12, this time around.

Four power conferences remain. Four conference champs after the CCG are the playoff teams.

Screw the committee, screw the eye test, screw Notre Dame if they're not in a conference. This would be a real 8-team playoff of the division winners.

 

I say we do like Bama does and schedule their out of conference teams so we can be unbeaten too. We could use the 2nd,3rd, and scout team to play them.
The Big 12 can still exist after we give them Rutgers, Maryland and a player to be named later.

 

It also undercuts the division inequality whining. 3 blue bloods, and even if the West champ is trash, that means you have the easiest "first round" of the playoffs.

 

Adding Texas and Oklahoma to our conference would effectively destroy the essence of who we are. I would hate that, but so much has happened already (the biggest of which in the lessening of the importance of the Rose Bowl, IMHO) that it wouldn't really matter anymore.

 

Sweet, I look forward to Ohio State being the first team in the B1G East to get Texas and Oklahoma both as their crossover games the first two years because who cares how stupid the conference makes OSU's schedule, it's all about the benjamins.

 

Right now, Michigan still remains the pinnacle of most seasons. That would cease to be true unless OU/UT decline and UM ascends.

Also, the instant OU joins the B1G, their very similar to OSU struggles will suddenly be a deal breaker (like they never were in the 00s).

 

If we go 16, the other conferences will go 16, and if we make a push for TX and OK, you can bet the SEC will too because they have A&M already.

If we were to get TX and OU, I could see the SEC taking Kansas (for basketball and the border war) and maybe either Kansas State or Oklahoma State. Texas Tech is fucked because they’re in the middle of nowhere, no one wants Iowa State or Baylor (for different reasons), West Virginia would make more sense for the ACC, TCU isn’t really a big time player...which leaves Oklahoma State without bedlam (not much of a target), Kansas State which is meh, and Kansas for basketball.

 

I could actually envision a scenario with 3 16 team leagues, where we got OU and Oklahoma State, the SEC gets Texas and Kansas, the ACC adds West Virginia and Notre Dame, and then the PAC 12 is left to figure out what leftovers they want to add to Colorado and Utah...could be BYU, Boise State, Texas Tech, Baylor, who knows. But the rest are AAC or MW fodder.