The Big 10 has 12 teams; the Big 12 has ten teams (for today at least); the SEC has 13 teams; and who knows how many are in the Big East and ACC. New expansion rumors pop up daily as the college sports landscape is currently going through a complete overhaul.
What is the reason for all of this? Money. The university presidents and league commissioners will discuss many other motives, but it all comes back to dollars and cents. The big question remains – What will happen when all the dust settles?
First let’s recap what has happened so far.
The Big-10 currently prints its own money with the Big 10 Network and is in as strong of a position as ever with the addition of football powerhouse Nebraska. The conference has four programs in the top seven in all-time football wins. They may not have much in the way of basketball, but college football is what drives business.
The SEC is the undisputed king of college football right now, and there is a very good chance one of LSU or Alabama will hoist a 7th consecutive crystal football for the conference in early January. The conference recently decided to add Texas A&M, not quite the home run the Big 10 made with Nebraska, but another solid program nonetheless. With demographics shifting south and west, the SEC’s reign of dominance could just be getting started.
The ACC, the premiere basketball conference (sorry Big East), got richer with the additions of Pitt and Syracuse. Both of these schools have nice football traditions, but they will not be confused for USC or Oklahoma anytime soon. You cannot deny their basketball prowess though. Yes Pitt always chokes in March, but they typically field a 
competitive squad while Jim Boeheim always puts Syracuse in position to win.
The Pac 12 (that conference out west that plays games that finish at two in the morning) has added Utah and Colorado. With the move to 12 teams, they have added a championship game and dominate the expanding west coast market.
Now here is where the fun begins.
The Big 12 has gone through the biggest overhaul already. They have lost three schools from their 2010 lineup and have recently added TCU. Their situation is highly volatile right now considering the dynamic of the conference. Texas is king, and with the addition of the Longhorn Network, their TV contracts will be through the roof. That being said, the other 11 schools are getting considerably less money. Texas’s contract is like Ryan Howard’s – unfathomably large, making it tricky for everyone else to work around.
Lastly, there is the Big East. If football is king, this conference is the court jester – a laughing stock at this point. Without Pitt, Syracuse and TCU, there are six football teams left – West Virginia and the rest. What the conference lacks (which is a whole lot) in football, it does make up for in basketball. Even with the losses of Pitt and Syracuse, troubling as though they are, the conference still is the second best basketball conference all around.
Now let’s shift to what might happen.
First, the Big East and Big 12 could implode at any time. Every Big East team has been linked to a rumor with some other conference, with West Virginia at the forefront. The Big 12 seems to have multiple teams upset with Texas and looking to get out ASAP.
The Mountaineers have applied to both the ACC and SEC, but it does not appear an offer is imminent. The ACC’s academic standards will probably keep West Virginia out of the running there. That leaves the SEC, a conference that must add one school, as a 13-team conference makes no sense.
But whom does the SEC want to add? There seems to be a gentleman’s agreement among the universities that they will not add a team currently in their footprint (think Florida State or Clemson), which leaves Missouri and West Virginia as the most common names popping up. The SEC could be the next of the stable four conferences to make a move.
Back to the Big 12 where programs like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech have all been exploring options. There was a hot rumor of a Pac 16 with some of those teams, but that has fallen through for now. Missouri vocally tried to move to the Big 10 last year and now to the SEC. They seem to want out.
If Missouri gets the nod from another conference, what will the Big 12 do? There are two options: Sit around idly as the conference falls apart or add a team from a lesser conference (West Virginia, Houston, Boise State and BYU might all jump at the idea). The decision likely rests with Texas, a university that would be highly coveted in the realignment roulette. While their contract would be very tricky to work around, the money they could bring to the Big 10, Pac 12 or SEC would be too much to turn down. They have been linked to each of the three conferences and would be gobbled up quickly.
There is one last piece of the puzzle that has yet to be mentioned – Notre Dame. The Irish want to remain independent, but if there is a move to 16 team “superconferences,” their hand may be forced. If the only way to qualify for the national championship is through these superconferences, Notre Dame will have to move somewhere, and like Texas, they will be highly coveted. The Big 10 seems like the most natural fit as the Irish already play three of the teams annually and Indiana is in the heart of Big 10 country. Their brand still, surprisingly, carries national appeal and megabucks. The ACC seems to be pushing hard for the Irish, hoping for a potential move to 16 teams.
When all of the dust settles, there will probably be either five major conferences (the Big East will be a football afterthought sometime soon) ranging from 10-16 teams or four 16-team superconferences. What will actually happen, nobody knows, except maybe Jim Delaney, the Big 10 commissioner, who seems to always be thinking 25 steps ahead.
