Good news?

[GRGB]

In the greater scheme of things, this is actually good news for SMU - it means that the Big12 is stabilized.

When in turn means that there won't be just 4 super conferences - ACC, SEC, B10, PAC10 - anytime soon, bc Big12 is alive.

So, instead of 4 x 16 superconferences, there is more likely to be 5 x 12(14)(16) conferences [p12, bigT1E2N, big12-2, ACC14, Sec14), plus the BigEast for the near term.

Obviously, the SEC could go to 16, the Big10 to 16, and ACC to 16 which would eventually impact the Big East (Rutgers to B10, ACC to backfill when 2 leave for SEC, but where does B12 get to 16? need 2 more after UL and BYU...).

But those conferences are going to get to 16 without poaching the b12 now...or they are not going to 16 anytime soon. I feel 14 is better than 16, otherwise there isn't enough cross divisional games to mean anything...and under Karl Benson theory, 20 is better than 16 and you just have 2 divisions that never play each other except the champ game.

Big 12 Expansion: Louisville, BYU Considered Possible Targets, According To Report

By Steven Godfrey - Newsdesk contributor

The Big 12's expansion committee is set to file a report that could possibly recommend adding outside schools.

Jan 25, 2012 - The Big 12's membership structure is set for now, but that could still change in the future. The conference is set to examine adding more members, according to a report by The Chronicle of Higher Education's Brad Wolverton, with BYU and the University of Louisville considered to be the next likely targets.

In terms of popular rumors, no conference has experienced such dramatic realignment chatter in the last two years as the Big 12, so we'll clarify a fresh batch of speculation with Wolverton's reporting. For the record, the Big 12 is set to enter to enter the 2012-'13 academic year with its "core" of eight teams - Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor and Iowa State - and two new members - TCU and West Virginia - replacing Missouri and Texas A&M, who are both departing for the Southeastern Conference. This past season the conference lost former members Colorado and Nebraska to the Pac 12 and Big 10, respectively. And now, the newsy bits:

The conference does not consider expansion as a must. Some school presidents are comfortable with the current ten-team structure
The candidates for expansion are BYU and Louisville, but they wouldn't necessarily come as a package. According to Wolverton, some Big 12 officials feel comfortable with the 11-team format the Big Ten used for years.
If both the Cougars and Cardinals joined the conference, the Big 12 would be again eligible for a conference championship game in football, but Wolverton reports there's little interest in reestablishing that event.
The expansion committee is in the midst of preparing a report to conference officials as to where it feels the conference should go - if anywhere - in the coming years.

For more news on college football, be sure to visit SB Nation's college football page.

[ojaipony]

The Big East leaders MIGHT be visionaries after all. I haven't really thought about it this way before, but here are some thoughts I've had ...

I understand the popularity of regional rivalries and all that. But even these "superconferences" are only VERY interesting to those people in those areas and those areas only UNLESS they happen to be games with both opponents in top 5/10, THEN a national audience gets interested. For example, personally I don't really care anything at all about Ohio State-Michigan or Auburn-Alabama or Florida-Tennesse or even Texas-Texas aTm or Texas-OK UNLESS both teams are top teams battling it out. Because I live in SoCal, I enjoy some of the Pac12 rivalries and like watching USC play especially since they are so good but if I didn't live out here I couldn't probably really care less. A truly NATIONAL conference could ultimately be way more valuable from a television standpoint (revenue and brand building) in the LONG run as it could attract a NATIONAL audience (the guys in the southeast, for example, that know about USF and UCF and watch some of their games could really get into a SD State - SMU game because they are in the same conference and watched UCF or USF play one - or both - of those teams).

Some thoughts ... crazy, I know, but there you go ...

[StallionsModelT]

The good news is that should the Big East lose a few schools there are still a few quality programs in CUSA/MWC that could replace them.

Southern Miss, ECU, Tulsa, Nevada, and Fresno State have all been highly competitive in recent years. From a TV standpoint none of them are very good, however.

[SMUer]

If BE continues to have defections does that somehow increase the pressure from remaining members to have ND join? Do you think SO is whispering sweet-nothings in their ear?