OK, now that I've talked some NFL and Detroit Lions football, let's double back and talk some college football for a minute and in particular, college football conference realignment. Note that I'll be talking Food Network from time to time on this blog as I'm a huge food fan as well.
As a Nebraska alumnus and fan, it would be pretty easy for me to say that it's fun sitting in the warm shelter of the Big Ten (or the B1G if you want as some internet nerds have played off the Big 10's new logo).
But the truth is, if Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott pulls off what it sounds like he's about to do in bringing four schools from Texas and Oklahoma to his conference, think about how significant a development in college athletics this would be.
In the world of college athletics, considering where college sports have always been with the limit being 12 team conferences, this would be something which changes the college sports landscape forevermore. This is college football's version of Armageddon.
Gone forever would be the old, archaic way of 10 to 12 team conferences. It would be a new day in college athletics, of 16 team superconferences with an even greater possibility of college football playoffs in the future.
Thing is, as someone who watches the Big 10, I think Big 10 commissioner Jim Delany is a shrewd, sly commissioner and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone much better at his job than he is.
But if Larry Scott pulls this off, he becomes a sports legend bottom line. He'd immediately be in the conversation with the greatest sports visionaries of their time, names such as NBA commissioner David Stern and former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. If he pulls this off and draws Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech into the fold, the Pac-16 immediately becomes the most dominant conference in college football west of the Mississippi.
And I've already seen some of my fellow Husker fans call Scott a pansie for allowing Texas to head west with their Longhorn Network, call him basically a puppet a la Dan Beebe in the Big 12 and that the Pac conference is in trouble for bringing in the four Texas and Oklahoma schools. I beg to differ.
I don't doubt that the south schools and in particular Texas have never been privy to being one of the fellas. They're Texas, they do what they want when they want, that's been their history. I don't think that's going to happen out West though.
See, one of the differences is that I get the sense Larry Scott knows what he's doing. I think he thinks he can control the egos that are going to show up in that room for the first meeting. And oh, will there be a lot of egos in that room. Texas, Oklahoma, the Californias, etc. Larry Scott is not a mindless figurehead like Dan Beebe was and is actually visionary and forward thinking. In his four years on the job as Big 12 commissioner, I don't think Dan Beebe has even formed a visionary, forward thinking thought. Kevin Weiberg, who came before him, was probably the best commissioner the Big 12 ever had and guess where he now is - the Pac conference.
Also, let's face it, the Pac-10 is and always has been a California and west coast based conference. I think if any Nebraska fans who stumble upon this blog think that the California based schools won't have a big stick in this conference you are sadly mistaken. Texas has money and Texas has power wherever they go, there's no denying that and I can respect that - and they have geographical allies coming with them assuming this move goes down. But the four Californias carry a big stick too. Though I am a Big 10 fan, I will be interested to see how this conference develops.
Now I just wonder who the Big 10 will go after if all of this does indeed go down. As someone who followed this closely last year as well, I was hoping Mizzou and Nebraska would go to the Big 10 together assuming Notre Dame is brought into the fold as well.
Welcome to the end of college football's old days, and the death of truly regional conferences.
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