Extreme Makeover: College Football Edition by Spencer Thomas

The landscape of major college football is changing, and changing fast. With TV negotiations pending, conferences hope to boost their standing in order to grab their share of the massive revenues available from the major TV networks. So let the shuffles begin. Already Nebraska and Colorado have jumped ship from the Big 12 to the Big Ten and the Pac-10 respectively. The official mergers will take place in 2011 for Nebraska and 2012 for Colorado. The Big Ten has created huge revenues for its schools by creating its own television network to broadcast games and other programming. By adding Nebraska to their collection of schools, the conference hopes to further those revenues by adding a 12th team (the Big Ten previously had 11 teams, not 10 like the name suggests). Additionally, adding a 12th team to the conference will enable the Big Ten to hold a championship game after the regular season is complete. Out west, Colorado made a splash by being the first team to join the Pac-10 since the 70s. While it was previously rumored that Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were also going to join the Pac-10, these schools have since renewed their commitment to the Big 12. It is possible that the Pac-10 expands more in the near future, but at this moment, the conference is situated with 11 teams.

So here’s my take on all this. As currently constructed the Pac-10 has 11 teams, the Big 12 has 10 teams and the Big Ten has 12 teams. It seems like these places of higher education need to work on their counting skills. I would compare the shuffle to a Chinese fire drill. All the schools jumped out of the car and had to get back in before the light turned green; or in this case before the new TV contracts are negotiated. As a student at The University of Colorado, this bodes big things for the future. The Pac-10 is a renowned baseball conference, yet CU has no baseball team. Perhaps the additional money generated from the new pacific power conference will enable CU to add a baseball team to the athletic department (the addition of a baseball team would also yield a necessity for a softball team for the university to remain compliant with Title IX). The ramifications of conference realignment will not be realized for a number of years, but it is certainly worth talking about.