Louisville to wed soon

RU would be a real possibility. They have had limited success in sports, but that has been due to a lack of focus on them. They had a faculty and administration that were basically opposed to athletics. That has been changing over the last several years.

RU is a very large school, 50k students, in the largest two media markets in the country. They also sit in one of the best recruiting grounds out there.

They compete in almost all sports, they just don't have a lot of championship teams. They would bring wrestling.

I know they're pleased, but they were pleased at 10 making less than any other league and with little to no TV exposure outside the west coast or late night. Scott had done a lot of work to get them to consider 12 and getting a real TV contract. He was still trying to get them to the next level, but they stopped it short. So the PAC will probably sit at 12 in it's own little world, let Scott go, and simply sit out there making the same money 20 years from now when the rest of the college football world has moved on.

Well to put it in perspective for years the only highly paid coach they had was the women's bb coach. The administration at that time took great pride in proving their hostility to athletics by touting that fact.

Those people are gone, and have been replaced by people who see things in a more rational manner. So you bring in poor coaches that's one strike against you.

Second you foster a bizarre environment where you limit your recruiting to kids from one third of your home state, Florida, and California. Schiano broke this limitation, and has hit the state hard (his successor seems to be following in his footsteps). So this is changing.

Finally they had an administration that was dead set against letting any athletes in if they could help it. I had a friend that worked in admissions there. Coaches used to have to send their players applications over secretly or they would be rejected. This has been eliminated.

RU is not there yet, but has as much potential as anyone in the country. They would be a good add to the conference if we are going east in expansion.

The sad thing is a Pac-16 could have become THE football league for everyone west of the Mississippi.

Hell, even minor league it with an alliance of the C-USA, MWC, and FBS schools for co-branding. You could probably talk Boise State into an arrangement like that, along with the other Tier 2 schools.

So much was possible. But now, thanks to Colorado, who I suspect instigated everything, their future prospects are pretty horrible.

Who knows this could have all been a fiendish plot of Dodds to get CU and MU out of the conference.

True. How could I forget?

I BLAME TEXAS.

RA just said that OSU will wait a while before revealing any changes to the 2013 schedule. Apparently, more big 12 conference members could be added between now and the 2013 season, which could affect who OSU adds/drops from the schedule, non-conference wise.

Interesting. Man I hope our conference is being proactive and is out getting teams like GT, FSU, etc. Let's not sit on our hands!

Relatively certain these are the chairs used at the Big 12 office:

Unfortunately....I think you're right. Or at least our track record backs this up.

judging by what he said, it sounds like it may be Louisville. it might be an additional team, but at least Louisville because RA talked about the possibility of playing only 2 non conference games next year so we may have to buy out one non-con game. if the conference had 11 teams, we would have 10 conference games.

If Louisville becomes number 11, who would be most likely to be number 12? Cincy or Rutgers?

I'd say BYU before either of those.

IMO we won't add either of those two. I think that we are getting WVU and U of L in order to establish ourselves in the east. And then we will patiently but persistently work on FSU, Clemson, and Georgia Tech. Once we have those three we will be at 14 and content to stay there for a long while.

Having said that, I then think we start patiently but persistently whispering in the ear of Pitt (or Boston College) and ND. Once we get those two (mind you if it happens it could be as much as a decade from now) we will sit at 16 and look like this.

EASTERN DIVISION
Clemson
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Iowa St.
Louisville
Notre Dame
Pittsburg (or Boston College)
West Virginia

WESTERN DIVISION
Baylor
Kansas
Kansas St.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
Texas
Texas Tech
Texas Christian

ND might be okay with this because it would be playing in a Division with two of it's traditional rivals (Georgia Tech and Pitt or BC) and would play cross divisional games with OU and Texas which it has somewhat of a history with.

I will remain leary of ND (and BYU), and so would be all about adding BC or some other eastern team in their place.

But other than that, I'd be happy as can be with that set up.

I think Rutgers and Louisville could be two good schools to push us back to 12 teams. Don't forget that Rutgers is also fairly located next to New Jersey, which is very populated as well. I could see them as a potential target. They also have a great lacrosse program. Not that any other Big 12 teams plays Lacrosse, but that is also another sport they are excellent at. I don't think Notre Dame will ever come around until they finally realize they need a conference to get in a major bowl game again. Plus with the NBC contract, they may cause issues with other schools over money again. The same goes for BYU, plus they are enjoying their success in the WCC in the other sports, so I doubt the will switch anytime soon. The ACC schools that thought about switching, not saying its not a realistic situation, but I just can't see FSU, Clemson, GT, etc. leaving that conference to join the Big XII when all the success is with the ACC.

Would rather have Rutgers than BC!

Rutgers has a decent football, basketball, and womens basketball program. If ND does come to the Big 12 (highly doubtful) then adding BC would be Catholic overkill!

Clemson, FSU, and GT are very interested in looking at other options. The ACC is a basketball run conference much like the Big East was. But at least the ACC has some interest in football....but not a lot.

That said, I would not be at all surprised if the ACC loses some "football" schools to conferences like the SEC and Big 12 in the not so distant future.

If some kind of 16 team super big 12...6 happens, would OU (and us) have enough clout to keep a two division setup to insure we keep our Texas state pipeline open?

If this ACC thing happened, it opens ups Florida, the south, and with WVU having that East Penn/West Ohio thing, I don't think people will be as up and arms about it. In such a set up the conference would have more than one main recruiting ground.

Also, the ACC programs have not lived off of Texas recruiting so there is not an expectation or ties being broken.