What the Conferences Should Do

There is a lot of talk about college conference expansion. The Big Ten wants to add a 12th team. The Pac 10 wants to get to 12 also. But if both succeed, how will the conferences look? Will it be like 2005 when the ACC took Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College? Which forced the Big East to recruit 5 Conference USA schools and basically made Conference USA give up 8 schools and recruit from the WAC and MAC. Rumors are the Big Ten is targeting Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Missouri, Syracuse and for some reason Texas. The Pac 10 could look to either the WAC or Mountain West for new teams. That being the case, i've decided to blog about who I think the conference should add and why and how the conferences will look after all this movement.

The Big Ten

Notre Dame makes sense. They are based in Indiana, which is the heart of Big Ten country. They already play Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue in football and being an independent, it wouldn't force a conference reshuffeling like we saw 5 years ago. But Notre Dame wants to remain independent because they believe they can make more money. Not seeeing the big picture, Notre Dame can't recruit 5 star kids anymore and joining the Big Ten would certainly get them back to relevancy again. I doubt Pitt or Syracuse would leave the Big East. Missouri is interesting because its a new market. Texas will not leave the Big 12. The team I think should go to the Big Ten, Iowa State. They already have a rival in Iowa and geographicaly it makes sense. Here is how the Big Ten would look

Big Ten West
Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern

Big Ten East
Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue

The Pac 10

They feel like their conference has become irrelevant in football because they don't have the money making conference championship game like the ACC and SEC. By adding two more schools, they can get to twelve and have the game. Seeing as how they have two rival schools close to each other, there are 3 possible combinations for the Pac 10 to go after. Utah and BYU, Idaho and Boise State and Nevada and UNLV. I guess a fourth possibility would be New Mexico and New Mexico State. Boise State would be perfect for football because of how good they have been the last 10 years. Idaho won a bowl game this year and being close to Washington and Oregon makes them an interesting thought. BYU and Utah are another possibility, but being so far from the other Pac 10 schools and that they fit in better in the Mountain West would make them tough to get. The New Mexico schools would be interesting additions being near Arizona, but I doubt it. The schools the make the most sense would be Nevada and UNLV. Both are decent in both sports, and geographically are close to the Arizona schools and the LA schools. Here is how the Pac 10 would look

Pac 10 North
Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, Stanford, California

Pac 10 South
UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Nevada, UNLV

Let's say this happened. The Big 12 would need one more team. I see them going after Colorado State from the Mountain West or maybe Utah State from the WAC. Let's say they get Colorado State. The Mountain West would be down to 7 teams. I say Utah State jumps to the Mountain West to replace Colorado State to put them back at 8. Now the WAC lost two teams and they are down to 7. I see them getting North Texas from the Sun Belt to make 8. So here is how the new conferences would look

Big 12 North
Colorado, Colorado State, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri

Big 12 South
Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State

Mountain West
BYU, Utah, Utah State, New Mexico, San Diego State, Wyoming, Air Force, TCU

WAC
Hawaii, Boise State, Idaho, Fresno State, San Jose State, New Mexico State, Louisiana Tech, North Texas