Conference realignment is happening right before our very eyes. With Cincinatti, UCF, BYU, and Houston all set to join the Big 12 later this year, media and conference officials are abuzz with potential future moves to grow the conference even further. Talks of UCLA and USC joining the Big Ten, Oklahoma and Texas leaving for the SEC to grow its foothold on football even further (marginally) and geographic regions not even mattering anymore, the one topic on everyone's mind is this: What's next? What determines where these schools that are rumored to be on the move's final destination?
In short, money. Money determines where these schools end up going. That and recruiting, but in the age of NIL and player compensation recruiting and money go hand in hand. Bigger conference, bigger notoriety, bigger funds to give. The complicated answer is schools already part of the conference vying for conference growth because they want to increase what all money and media goes into said conference. A mutual growth opportunity, if you will. You may ask yourself though why exactly UCLA and USC want to join the Big Ten out of all conferences? Aren't they in a Power 5 already with the Pac-12 (name subject to change)? Yes, but the Pac-12 has long since struggled to keep up with the fast pace that college football (the main determinant of athletic revenue and "value" for most schools) is growing in media rights and overall money flowing through. The Pac-12 hardly ever is in prime time due to late game times, only one or two teams being legitimate NY6 and CFP contenders year in and year out, and the overall attitude of their biggest schools being that of "We are in a big market, we deserve bigger and better." while allowing their current conference to be held hostage because of the financial foothold these schools have (I.e. USC and UCLA, there's others too, but that's the biggest reason for those two schools)
We have talked about realignment before on this blog, about a year ago to the day actually I presented a potential realignment that was geographically, competitively, and monetarily sound. Judging on the developments over the past year though, that realignment was simply a pipe dream, and the age of these "Super-Conferences" may be upon us sooner rather than later. One of those conferences that has potential to become a "Super-Conference" is the Big 12. With the aforementioned schools in the opening paragraph already joining, Utah, UConn, Air Force, USF, Colorado, CSU, Tulane, SMU, Boise State, Arizona, Arizona State, even North Dakota State in one mock-up that I saw, have all been rumored to be in talks to join the Big 12. With how insane the talk has been in regard to this matter, it's easy to just cast aside a lot of these as just rumors. However, I ask you this theoretical, perhaps off the wall question to you: Who do YOU think joins the Big 12? What teams would you LIKE to see? Don't like the thought of Super-Conferences? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Burn Notice: 8/10 Lots of smoke could lead to fire
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