If you think the expansion of the major college sports conferences is over, you obviously haven’t peen paying attention for the last few years.
The Big Ten’s addition of UCLA and USC to its conference was as much a love letter to the Southeastern Conference letting the big boys down South know they weren’t going to set idly by as the rich got richer.
When all of this expansion began, I quickly saw the writing on the wall that four “super conferences” were on the horizon. My original thought was there would be four 24 team conferences, but over time that opinion has changed.
It’s quite obvious that neither the SEC nor the Big 10 are going to add any more schools that aren’t going to expand their television footprint and add money to their coffers.
So, the next move is going to be for one of the top two conferences to move to 20 teams, with the other to follow, That will then put the ACC into a feeding frenzy trying to keep up, but alas it will find itself a step behind the other two. The rest of the schools remaining will then try to put themself into a fourth conference, hoping to get their piece of the pie.
So, just for fun, I’m going to take you along for a ride on my imaginary expansion feeding frenzy one step at a time.
Step one will be a big one. The Big Ten lands the first blow by reaching out West once again and taking Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State. That will solidify a 20-team conference featuring the six teams from the former Pac-12, joining the 14 current Big Ten members which are Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Northwestern, Wisconsins, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rutgers, Maryland and Penn State.
Obviously the Big Ten would have preferred Notre Dame, but when the Fighting Irish say no, then the league decides to go out West once again.
The next move will belong to the SEC. Having already gone West, the conference will look to expand East and pick a few plums off the Atlantic Coast Conference tree. There will have to be a few legal maneuvers made in order to get schools out of that conference but money has a way of curing many ills, especially in the world of college athletics.
The SEC will max out at 20 teams by nabbing Florida State, Clemson, and the duo of North Carolina State and North Carolina to go along with Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Arkansas, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, South Carolina, Florida and Vanderbilt.
Now the ACC is in full scramble mode. The first thing the league does is financially sell its soul to Notre Dame to get the Irish in the league on a permeant basis. After having lost four teams, the league now will be back up to 11, but needs nine more teams to get to what now has become the magic number of 20.
With Wake Forest, Louisville, Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Miami, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Georgia Tech, and Duke already in the fold, the league begins to move up and down the states along the Atlantic Coast searching for good fits.
The first move is to quickly add South Florida and Central Florida to the mix to soothe some of the pain of the Florida State loss.
After picking up West Virginia in a natural fit comes a unique move that will add an interesting flavor to the conference as the ACC adds Army and Navy to the league.
Now sitting at 16 the league seeks to recoup some of the loss of the North Carolina schools by adding East Carolina and in a bit of a stretch — Appalachian State. With two spots left the ACC goes for a couple television markets in Memphis and Cincinnati.
The leaves the PAC 12 and Big 12 in a bit of a spot. The obvious decision is to merge, but they will also need to add some teams.
The new league will take a bold move and go past the boundary of 20 and form a 24 team conference that we will call the Big 24.
There will be four six-team conferences that will — believe it or not — actually make some geographic sense.
The Far West Division will consist of the University of California, Stanford, Arizona, and Arizona State out of the PAC 12, as well as the addition of two California schools in the form of San Diego State and Fresno State.
Next comes the West Division which will be made up of teams from the states of Colorado and Utah. Joining PAC 12 refugees Utah and Colorado will be BYU, Utah State, Colorado State and Air Force.
The Midwest Division will feature Big 12 teams Iowa Sate, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, and Texas Tech along with Tulsa.
The final six-team division, aptly named the Southwest Division, will be made up of four Texas teams — TCU, Baylor, Houston, and SMU — as well as Tulane and the University of Louisiana (Lafayette).
While the Big 24 is obviously the lesser of the four conferences, this new league will made another ground-breaking move by having four six-team divisions and then promoting a four-team playoff to decide its champion. The Far West Division and West Division winners will face off in one semifinal, while the Southwest and Midwest divisions will match up in the other.
Will all of this happen? Probably not. But you can be certain something will.
Stay tuned, it should be a crazy next couple years.
Austin Bishop, AKA The Old Sports Dude, has been covering high school, college, amateur, and professional sports since 1975. He is currently pastor of Great Commission Assembly of God in Philadelphia, Miss. He may be contacted by email at starsportsboss@yahoo.com or by phone at 601-938-2471.
