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Big XII Now Officially On Death Watch

This morning's papers were full of the stories that broke yesterday announcing Nebraska's imminent move to the Big Ten, a move which  no doubt filled the DeLoss Dodds and the other folks in Austin Texas with a mixture of glee and sadness.  Glee that at long last they were rid of the Huskers continual whining about the bad deal they were getting from the Big XII anad sadness that Texas' sweet deal is about to end.  Of course, Dodds and the Longhorn faithful can console themselves with the thought of all the money that a new, expanded Pac-16 TV Network will bring them.

The first entrant in the new and improved Pac-10 will be Colorado, which is taking no chances and leaping now before the Pac-10 folks get a chance to reconsider expansion and change their mind.  Actually, even if the Pac-10 stops here, it's not a bad move.  They will have added the Denver market which should help get the network off the ground plus help pay all the additional travel costs.  However, with Nebraska and Colorado both gone, the Big XII is toast and I expect it to be formally laid to rest this weekend when the three Texas public schools and the two Oklahoma schools join up with Colorado.  Where Baylor, the Kansas schools and Iowa State go is a really good question.  Who would have thought a basketball program like Kansas would be left twisting in a great plains cyclone.  Oh well, there is always the Mountain West.

One thought to ponder is what happens to the BCS contracts when the Big XII and possibly the Big East implode.  Those contracts run through 2015 although I'm sure there are clauses calling for renegotiation in the event of a substantial change in circumstances, which the disappearance of two out of six conferences surely is. The BCS Commissioners may just try and substitute a reconstituted Mountain West for one of the two and call the other spot an at-large spot and see if they can convince ESPN to go along.   I don't see them giving the spot to any of C-USA, WAC, MAC or the Sunbelt.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on June 10, 2010 (boomark / email).