Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[Germanshepherd]

 

First Power 5 team to return to its conference of origin. Nice. 
 

Now over half the Big 8 still gets to be in the same family again. 

 

[SeaTac]

These mega conferences are frankly, boring. Money wins and humanity dies a little more. 

[Germanshepherd]

Confirmed

[Red Wolf]

They were so close to having the Big XII name making sense again.

[PrimalCookie]

31 minutes ago, Germanshepherd said:

Confirmed

Also in this article:

Quote

The Ducks and Huskies already have been “vetted and approved” by the Big Ten to join the conference, sources said. However, the Big Ten does not want “the Pac-12’s blood on its hands,” by taking Oregon and Washington before any other schools leave the Pac-12, sources said.

This circus might just be getting started.

[Red Wolf]

3 minutes ago, PrimalCookie said:

This circus might just be getting started.

 

The circus never stops. Oklahoma and Texas haven't even officially left the Big XII yet but that announcement alone had the domino effect of giving around 20 schools new conference homes.

[Guest]

It'll never happen for a dozen reasons, but I'd love to see a merger between the remaining 9 PAC members & the Mountain West. You cover the entire western United States to keep a lot of the geographic matchups grounded in reality, beat everyone to a super conference, and then add SMU, UTSA, and Tulsa for 24. Never happening but fun to think about.

 

Realistically, with CU leaving, it looks like the PAC ultimately dissolves and sets off a massive shakeup until the ACC explodes:

 

OU, UW - B1G

CU, ASU, AZ, Utah - BIG XII

OSU, WSU - MWC

Stanford - Independent

Cal - ??

 

I just don't see many other scenarios now. The remaining members are too stuck up to work with the MWC to round out the conference with the likes of Boise, Fresno, CSU, and UNLV. And if they add those, they might as well just merge. I also don't see an outcome where the PAC works out some deal with the ACC for a bi-coastal setup when you have multiple ACC members exploring ways to leave before 2036.

 

If OSU/WSU join the MWC, I see them also brining up NAU, EWU, Montana, Montana State and maybe poaching Tulsa, North Texas, UTSA, SMU to form their own little G5 Super Conference.

 

[SeaTac]

Stanford & Cal will be left behind because of their arrogance. 

 

 

[McCall]

13 minutes ago, solvetica said:

It'll never happen for a dozen reasons, but I'd love to see a merger between the remaining 9 PAC members & the Mountain West. You cover the entire western United States to keep a lot of the geographic matchups grounded in reality, beat everyone to a super conference, and then add SMU, UTSA, and Tulsa for 24. Never happening but fun to think about.

 

Realistically, with CU leaving, it looks like the PAC ultimately dissolves and sets off a massive shakeup until the ACC explodes:

 

OU, UW - B1G

CU, ASU, AZ, Utah - BIG XII

OSU, WSU - MWC

Stanford - Independent

Cal - ??

 

I just don't see many other scenarios now. The remaining members are too stuck up to work with the MWC to round out the conference with the likes of Boise, Fresno, CSU, and UNLV. And if they add those, they might as well just merge. I also don't see an outcome where the PAC works out some deal with the ACC for a bi-coastal setup when you have multiple ACC members exploring ways to leave before 2036.

 

If OSU/WSU join the MWC, I see them also brining up NAU, EWU, Montana, Montana State and maybe poaching Tulsa, North Texas, UTSA, SMU to form their own little G5 Super Conference.

 

Stanford and/or Cal could either one end up in the Big Ten if they decide to add more west schools. Big XII or Independent would most likely be their back-up options in a Pac-12 dissolution. That would only leave Oregon State and Washington State, who seemed destined for the Mountain West. Honestly, they're probably Mountain West teams playing in the Pac-12 now. Kinda like Vanderbilt in the SEC.

[SeaTac]

A perfect Big 12:

 

Arizona 

Arizona State

Baylor

BYU

Colorado 

Iowa State 

Kansas 

Kansas State 

Oklahoma State 

TCU

Texas Tech 

Utah

 

No need for Cincinnati, Houston, UCF & West Virginia 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, SeaTac said:

A perfect Big 12:

 

Arizona 

Arizona State

Baylor

BYU

Colorado 

Iowa State 

Kansas 

Kansas State 

Oklahoma State 

TCU

Texas Tech 

Utah

 

No need for Cincinnati, Houston, UCF & West Virginia 

 

Nah, Houston is a natural fit and has deserved to be in the conference forever now.

 

The WVU pick years ago was weird, but less so now that they added Cincy with the likes of Memphis, Pitt, UConn, Louisville, and maybe NC State or VT on the horizon.

 

UCF is an anomaly. They'd never be accepted in the B1G or the SEC, but given their enrollment, success, and market the BIG XII got a steal imo and would argue they have USF Bulls on the radar next if not Miami if the ACC blows up. I'd also guess some sleeper like Georgia Tech is on their list to give them a SE hub.

 

If were sticking with regionality under your scenario though and if we lived in a more just world, Mizzou, A&M, UT, OU, CU, and Nebraska never left and the conference expanded to something like this:

 

Arizona

Arizona State

Baylor

Boise State

BYU
Colorado

Colorado State

Houston

Iowa State

Kansas

Kansas State

Missouri

Nebraska

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

SMU

TCU

Texas
Texas A&M

Texas Tech

Utah

....then some combo of SDSU, UNLV, Tulane, New Mexico, Arkansas, Wyo

[Red Comet]

As a Mizzou fan, I completely agree that they shouldn’t have left. But the Longhorn Network was the final straw in a long line of Texas acting like it owned the whole conference and that just wasn’t going to do it anymore. And money, of course money. Really, the first mistake was letting in the refugees from the Southwest Conference or at the very least, not treating the University of Texas-Austin like post WWI Germany. 

 

Still, the Longhorns and the University of Texas Athletic Department. 

Edited July 27, 2023 by Red Comet

[TrueYankee26]

Big 12 to Colorado 

[GDAWG]

5 hours ago, Germanshepherd said:

Confirmed

 

I will be surprised if Colorado doesn't play a regular season game in Arlington, Texas.  

[DustDevil61]

3 hours ago, Red Comet said:

As a Mizzou fan, I completely agree that they shouldn’t have left. But the Longhorn Network was the final straw in a long line of Texas acting like it owned the whole conference and that just wasn’t going to do it anymore. And money, of course money. Really, the first mistake was letting in the refugees from the Southwest Conference or at the very least, not treating the University of Texas-Austin like post WWI Germany. 

 

Still, the Longhorns and the University of Texas Athletic Department. 

As someone who’s appreciated Utah’s rise in the Pac At Least We Can Count,  I’m feeling this way towards USC and UCLA for jumping to the B1G the way they did—and yet, I can’t entirely blame them, given what Larry Scott did in mismanaging the Pac-12 brand.

 

Here’s what the U of U needs to do if these Colorado reports are indeed true (and it’s looking very much like they are):

 

 

I love the idea of getting back in the same conference as BYU—and they can join some of their old Pac-12 (sounds weird hearing that) rivals in the Big 12 to boot.

Edited July 27, 2023 by DustDevil61

[TrueYankee26]

Done deal. Unanimous.

And here is the official announcement from the Buffaloes Twitter/X (whatever you want to call it) account:

 

[Red Wolf]

19 hours ago, Red Comet said:

As a Mizzou fan, I completely agree that they shouldn’t have left. But the Longhorn Network was the final straw in a long line of Texas acting like it owned the whole conference and that just wasn’t going to do it anymore. And money, of course money. Really, the first mistake was letting in the refugees from the Southwest Conference or at the very least, not treating the University of Texas-Austin like post WWI Germany.

 

This did famously work out for everybody involved.

 

One of the aspects that I find interesting for the future of the Pac-12 is that they play nine conference games. Without Colorado they're currently set to have only nine teams, meaning they can only play eight conference games, which makes scheduling difficult.

It's funny that the Big XII had proposed a merger of sorts with the Pac-12, with the Pac-12 turning their noses up to the idea only to get poached by the Big XII. Reminds me of CUSA mocking the Sun Belt's proposal of more geographically compact conferences only to get raided a few years later.

[Dynasty]

It felt like roughly a decade ago, the Big 12 was the power conference with the murky future. How that has changed.

[Red Wolf]

9 minutes ago, Dynasty said:

It felt like roughly a decade ago, the Big 12 was the power conference with the murky future. How that has changed.

 

Yeah, that time when A&M, Mizzou, Colorado, and Nebraska were all leaving felt like the whole thing was going to collapse. Even recently when Texas and Oklahoma announced they were going to the SEC it felt like the Big XII was doomed. The Pac-12 not capitalizing on those moments along with USC and UCLA leaving, and general mismanagement really handicapped them.

[LMU]

Amazing how Colorado bolts right after SDSU opted back into the MWC.  Nice timing, Kliavkoff.