With all the hype surrounding the possible realignment of college sports this off season, we were left deprived of a major college conference change. The projected changes that included new Pac 10 Commissioner Larry Scott trying to create the first “super conference” could have changed the face of college sports, creating a snowball effect that may have led to possibly four or five “super conferences” consisting of around 16 teams each.
Some of the Changes
The Pac 10 has been seen by many as a conference of tradition and stability and also criticized for its under aggressive style and unwillingness to change. With their current TV contract coming to an end, the Pac 10 hired the progressive Scott to make a splash and to help boost the conference’s appeal and increase revenue. Scott hit the ground running and turned heads when he announced negotiations to expand its conference by engulfing current Big 12 South teams Texas, Texas A&M (who was also be sought after by the SEC), Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and the Big 12 North’s Colorado. Just the talk of this possibility of this occurring upset Nebraska, and current AD Tom Osborne, enough to lead to their disassociation and eventual depature to the Big 12.
With only Colorado and Utah leaving for the Pac 10 and Nebraska for the Big 10, college football ended up with just a small realignment of the BCS Conference structure that has me scratching my head. Starting in 2012 with the current structure, the Big 12 will have 10 teams, the Big 10 will have 12 teams and the Pac 10 will become the Pac 12. Compared to previous negotiations, this was a small realignment. If a major realignment would have taken place that had the aforementioned teams departing for the Pac 10 and Big 10, it would have certainly led to the dissolution of the Big 12 and possibly led closer to the 16 team “super conference” structure. This notion is still not out of the question, however. Even with uneven revenue sharing in the Big 12, with Texas, A&M, and Oklahoma receiving three to six million more annually than conference counterparts, there still are opportunities to make more. Depending on how you look at it, your team may or may not benefit from this structure.
Conference Championship Games
The current rule states a conference must have a minimum of 12 teams to have a conference championship game. The new Pac 12 and 12-team Big 10 will almost certainly have a conference championship game. The new 10 team Big 12 will most likely not have a championship game if not appealed. So where does this leave the Big 12? There have been cases where a conference championship game has kept a team out of the national championship with a loss and that of the opposite, where a one loss team used a championship game to impress both voters and computers. Texas, in the past decade, has become one of the most dominant, popular, and highest revenue-grossing college football teams in the country. The questions that arise: “Does Texas already have enough influence and bias towards human voters and BCS computers?” “Will the absence of a conference championship game negatively inhibit the ability for a one loss, or even perfect regular season, to play in the National Championship game?” Only time will tell; however, do not expect this topic to go away.
With the intense media and fan scrutiny of the BCS and claims of producing controversial and split national champions, this topic of conference realignment and expansions will not go away any time soon. The need for a true national champion of college football is something that most people agree they want but don’t have with the current BCS system.
Big 12 Realignment 
