Big Ten--Smartest of the conferences?

[Mexmustang]

If the Pac 16 occurs, I don't beleive it will remain a stable league. Won't happen overnight, but I wouldn't be surprised if the shelf-life is shorter than the Big 12.

Sixteen is just too many teams--there will be too many loosers and too few winners. Nine or ten conference games won't leave room for tough non-conference play--would USC drop ND? The WAC-16 may have been a better example of failure than we thought.

The Pac 10 already is having problems with USC, even before the NCAA came down.

Texas is not a good partner, it always wants to dominate.

Culturally this thing is a disaster in the making--what until these long plane trips occur.

The sports programs of the two leagues are not aligned, Texas doesn't even play soccer, it plays only 16 sports, the Pac schools over 30.

Tech and OSU, stick out like remedial students in a Latin AP class. Wait until academic standards are tighened.

By selecting one team at a time, and going slow the Big Ten is patiently measuring its success and failures in terms of expansion. It also allows a new member "to get with the program", a new school has no rights or ability to alter what is already the conference's process and values. Penn State is now culturally part of the conference, it didn't join with 4-5 other partners that began to suggest and demand changes.

[Hoop Fan]

in many ways i think youre right, but the divisions actually set up pretty well in the Pac east and west. its a marriage of convenience and will really be two conferences under one banner for the sake of tv money.

[Stallion]

WAC died because of the 4 team pods. This is basically business as usual for all except the Arizona schools.

[Mexmustang]

"Four Team Pods" could have been corrected if the league was culturally aligned--just saying this thing won't be as smooth as the initial scheduling would suggest.

Megers are rarely successful, until one group becomes clearly in charge and begins trimming the fat (an culture) of the loser.

[Stallion]

everybody is playing the same teams as they have been playing-its NO BIG DEAL-except maybe for the Arizona schools. Exagerate much?

[huskerpony]

Mike Stoops isn't too excited about playing his brother. He needs to get out quick before he gets fired and has Bob partially to blame for it.

[Mexmustang]

You obviously have little experience in managing mergers or people--nothing is that simple. Why the wisecrack everytime someone offers an opinion?

[ponyte]

I mention realignment as a malignant tumor because any tumor, benign or malignant at some point gets too big and cause trouble. We seem to focus on 16 team football conferences but what about basketball? Will conferences get so big that there is no out of conference play or the out of conference play is minimal and against far inferior opponents? How would a SOS be determined if out of conference play didn’t involve enough of the super good teams to play other super good teams in different conferences? How would seeding for the NCAA tournament be somewhat accurate? One wonders if these super conferences will devolve into regional interest groups that don't draw well to other regions. It is almost like one big inbreed family.

[EastStang]

The BE has 16 or 17 teams for basketball. Up until this feeding frenzy occurred, they all seemed happy.