By Brandon Eastman Posted October 12, 2011
With the new school year, which is code for college football season, came many changes in many different conferences. Strictly for monetary reasons, some of these universities felt it was necessary to take a different route and change things up a bit.
Starting in the Pac-10, or maybe Pac-12 would be more appropriate, or maybe Pac-16. Nobody seems to know at this point how many schools will be accepted into the new look Pac-12 Conference. Perhaps the conference name is no longer applicable, seeing as schools that are not on the pacific coast are now joining, and even more, high profile/high dollar universities are seeking entrance. As recently as this season Colorado and Utah joined the “Pac-12” joining the University of Washington, Washington State University, the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, University of California-Berkeley, Stanford University, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Southern California, Arizona State University, and the University of Arizona. As of late, it has been brought up that Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Texas Tech may seek entrance into the conference.
And speaking of the Big 12, or Big whatever they are now, Nebraska has already left, Texas has its own Longhorn Network (big, big controversy over that), aforementioned Colorado has joined the Pac-12, and Texas A&M has been accepted entrance into the SEC. It seems almost as though the Big 12 isn’t going to make it into next year as almost every school has searched for an entrance into another conference.
The Big 10/11 has expanded to include Nebraska, which was a phenomenal move for the Big 10 because Nebraska is such a powerhouse and well-attended university when it comes to pretty much every sporting event. On the part of Nebraska, it maybe wasn’t the best move, football-wise, because the Big 12 is much more competitive and well respected in that area.
The Big East and the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) have been the least affected, until just recently at least. Syracuse and Pittsburgh have already been accepted into the ACC and there are rumors of Connecticut and Notre Dame leaving the Big East to seek entrance into the ACC as well in order to preserve those great basketball rivalries.
Soon, we may have just had conferences with 16 teams apiece, known as the “power conferences” as we sit and watch the presumed demise of one of the longest-running, most historic conferences in the sporting world, the Big 12. However angry, or happy, we may be, we must realize that the schools are doing this with their own universities’ best interests at heart. Simply put, schools want to make more money and in order to accomplish this they must look for options in other conferences with their universities’ own personal agendas.
As the great inventor, Charles Kettering once said, “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”
By these words, we should assume that the changing of conferences is not a bad thing and, in time, will prove to be the best thing that could happen to the college sporting world. Progress for the sake of progress is, and always will be, a good thing.
