Lights Out

USF's already in an AQ conference... for now, anyway.

The only non-AQ's that have even a prayer of moving up right now are TCU (because they've already been invited), and if the Big 12 gets desperate enough, Boise State and BYU. End of story. UCF, and yes, even mighty FIU will have to wait a good long while and, you know, win high-profile games, win BCS bowls, and gain national recognition.

HEY GUYS HEY GUYS HEY GUYS LAST NIGHT I THREW A WILD PARTY AND WENT THROUGH TEN 8-BALLS AND WHEN I FINALLY STOPPED TRIPPING AND WOKE UP I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED BUT NOW MY DEALER SCRATCH SAYS I'M S'POSED TO BE SEC!

Actually Miami doesn't have that much money behind it. It's a small private school with a middling-to-poor fanbase. Their one advantage was their immediate access to South Florida talent and a willingness to turn a blind eye to any NCAA violations/criminal escapades on the part of the players. The boosters' money more than made up for it, though.

Just because you have a lot of money doesn't mean you're any good. See: Cubs, Mets, the U, etc.

Hey now... let me enjoy that accomplishment. It's all us Chargers fans have.

I wonder what Phil Knight thinks about the possibility of T. Boone Pickens muscling in on his heretofore-exclusive Official PAC Sugardaddy territory.

Oklahoma State is hardly AAU material either. Let's be honest, they're only going to the PAC-12 because Oklahoma is being forced to let them tag along.

But OU isn't an AAU school, and neither is OK State. Oklahoma just became a Tier 1 institution this past January. What happened to those precious, unwavering academic standards that the PAC-12 claims to be obsessed with?

Well... that, and this: ...and these guys:

Ahem.....

And who's to say Boise State would accept an invitation to a 5 team conference with Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Baylor, and Missouri. If Texas, TT, Oklahoma and Ok State leave the conference, there won't be any Big XII left to save. An AQ bid is an AQ bid.

I think we can all agree that academically, Boise State isn't the greatest school in the world. But with the stadium expansion on the way, a growing fanbase, the fact that Idaho is one of the top 5 fastest-growing states in the US and the fact that the Boise metro area is one of the top 10 fastest-growing metro areas in the country, who's to say the Big 12 won't decide to look past the academics for now and reach out to BSU if the Oklahoma schools, Texas, and Texas Tech leave? If it works, there's a lot of profit potential, and it could save the Big 12. As it is, the Big 12 is worse academically overall than the PAC-12 - only five AAU schools to the PAC's eight. Granted, unless the Big 12 gets really desperate, an AQ conference invite is a pipe dream at best.

I guess I don't see that ending all that different from the current system. Let's say that the Big 12 is dissolved and 16-team superconferences form in its wake. I don't see how the BCS becomes more biased against mid-majors like Boise State or TCU than what it is already. If the super conferences form, the system is rigged against them and the glut of oversized conferences filled with blue-blood programs ensures that they'll never get a seat at the major-conference table. At least in the current alignment, Utah and TCU got to move up.

I assume you're being hyperbolic, but how would the collapse of the Big 12 ruin college football? Perhaps I'm not seeing something obvious, but I see the college football landscape essentially the same after this potential massive realignment. This doesn't just affect the Big 12. Texas A&M is just firing the first salvo in the new chaos of super conferences. If they leave, it looks like it's only a matter of time before Oklahoma and Texas go to the PAC. Then, look for every other major conference to start trying to steal from each other. Of course, prominent mid-majors get left out in the cold just as they start finally getting acceptance as good football schools. We'll be left with a shell of college football's former self, with no parity whatsoever and a :censored:ty postseason to boot.

Both Texas and A&M should share the blame for potentially ruining college football.

That begs the question - how the hell can Notre Dame get that kind of treatment but not Michigan?

Pretty sure they've done that already.

THIS. Everyone hates on the Clippers' logo for good reason, but the Lakers' logo looks like a bad photocopy of it that an 8-year-old colored in. Both teams could do so much better. Another unpopular opinion... the pre-1999 Lakers uniforms were horrendous. Everything from the wonky script to the huge drop shadows on the numbers looks awful and beyond amateurish. In contrast, the Lakers of today actually look like a professional basketball team.

The Mountain West is holding a board meeting on Tuesday to discuss luring some teams from the Big 12. Unfortunately, those schools would likely be Baylor, Iowa State, and Kansas State.

No need to imagine.

To be fair, the PAC-16 would have a better distribution of quality teams in it than the basketball Big East. The Big East is weighed down by a glut of schools like DePaul and PC that frankly have no business being in a major conference. For bad schools, the PAC-16 would have Wazzu, UCLA, and Colorado... that's about it.

Boise State is a jumped up community college. Jumped up community colleges do not do heavy academic and scientific research. This is not happening for decades, if ever. Something tells me that when the super-conferences start forming, the PAC will drop the Lofty Academic Standards act and go after programs that win and get high media exposure. It's either that or keep turning up their noses at every school and watch the Bigs and the SEC balloon up to massive sizes.

Wrestling already competes in the PAC, and the basketball program is on the rise. However, if Boise gets invited to the PAC, my guess is that it would be for football only.

While on the Randy Moss theme, here's him with the "wrong" NOB: