Apparently, reports of the death of the Big 12 have been greatly exaggerated. The conference will continue– and keep its current name–after locking down its ten remaining teams, thanks in large part to a large bag of TV money, of which a mighty share will fall toward Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma.

According to sources, Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M will be guaranteed $20 million per year, while the seven remaining schools will collect between $14 million and $17 million in TV revenue in combined deals with ABC/ESPN and Fox.

Both networks stepped forward and averted what could have been complete chaos in college realignment by putting forth a combined package that will push the Big 12 from a $78 million take in annual TV revenue to just less than $200 million, sources say. –Chip Brown/Orangebloods, who have owned this story from Day One.

The other seven schools will see their TV revenues double after the deal goes into effect. Unfortunately for Colorado, they’ll have to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 million to buy their way out of the Big 12. The Pac-10 conference, with their invasion of Texas thwarted, will look to add Utah as a 12th school.

Some people are now saying that Colorado and Nebraska scurried out of the conference in panic, which might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Think about it; this deal–this ransom that Dan Beebe paid out to save his conference and his job–was made in the face of an apocalypse that was created by the departure of those teams. It’s quite stupid to say that Nebraska panicked because Nebraska panicked. But one has to wonder why this deal couldn’t have been put together sooner.

Oh, and this is just a courtesy message to everyone out there: we know that the Big 12 now has ten teams and that the Big Ten has 12 teams. You are not being clever in pointing this out, and if I hear it again, I will slap the white off your teeth. There’s nothing clever about that observation. At all. Thank you. I feel a lot better now.

We might see some NCAA conference shuffling before the week is out; one report cites “[a]n executive at a Big 12 school” claiming that Nebraska could join the Big Ten Conference by the end of the week.

Direct confirmation from Nebraska of a conference change for the Huskers wasn’t immediately available. Sources at two other Big 12 schools told The World-Herald that their athletic directors have instructed them to be ready by week’s end for a briefing on probable Big 12 changes.

Nebraska A.D. Tom Osborne offered implicit confirmation Tuesday night that the timetable on national conference realignment has been accelerated. –Omaha World-Herald.

Apparently, they’re not the only ones. The Big Ten told everyone to wait 12 to 18 months before the conference announced any real plans regarding expansion. That earlier timetable, combined with this report makes this all the fishier.

If Nebraska joins the Big Ten, they’ll become the western-most school in the conference. The Lincoln campus is a five-hour drive to the nearest Big Ten school, Iowa. Lincoln is not a Top 100 TV market; this report has the area ranked 105th. And even though Nebraska is a Tier 1 national university, their score in the US News and World Report rankings would make them the worst-ranked school in the conference academically. There’s nothing attractive about Nebraska as a Big Ten candidate, and don’t even get me started on the corn-fed coeds.

But who cares about all of that; everyone’s worked up about whether or not the Big Ten, either with eleven teams or twelve, will rename itself. My old friend J.D. suggested the “Great Big Conference.” I personally am a fan of the “Big-Assed Conference.” Probably because it has the word “ass” in it. I’m so mature.

Amidst all of the conference consolidation chatter–specifically with the Big Ten’s alleged plans to take over the entire east coast, the head football coach at Notre Dame has weighed in on the matter.

“From my standpoint, being the head football coach at Notre Dame, there’s nothing better than being an independent football school,” he said, eliciting a roar from the gathering of roughly 300 people. “I know you’re hearing all these rumors about the Big Ten and all these other things, but let me tell you one thing, the history … the tradition of Notre Dame football is steeped in that independence.” –SB Trib, via FanNation.

A lot of people have been on Notre Dame’s case to join a conference, and maybe that’s just the fascist tendencies of fans that like to see teams neatly organized in the conference standings page or something. But I’ve never seen a case for them to join the Big Ten. They get their own TV money (for now), they can play anybody they want, they get an annual payout from the BCS…what the hell do they gain in joining the crowd? Besides the joy of watching the league try and cram a “2″ under that “T” in their logo. That would almost make it worthwhile.

Ben Maller, citing an unnamed source, is reporting that the University of Pittsburgh is joining the Big Ten conference, that it’s a done deal and that some announcement will be coming down the pike on Thursday. Whether or not the report is actually true, it’s worth looking at how Pitt would fit into the Big Ten, and what that school’s departure would mean for the Big East, which would be left with only six teams. Well, seven…if you count Louisville.

Pittsburgh is a near-ideal fit for the Big Ten, geographically speaking. The University of Pittsburgh campus is almost exactly between Ohio State and Penn State, giving Penn State a natural rival and Minnesota another boring (but not terribly long) plane ride, a situation that should be alleviated once the conference breaks into divisions. It’s the ideal spot for a 12th school not named Notre Dame.

Academically, Pitt will hold its own. Pittsburgh received a score of 52.0 in the latest US News and World Report university rankings, which put it 56th among all national universities so ranked. The average Big Ten score was 57.1, and the average rank was 50th. Their strong academic reputation will ease the school’s entry into the conference, which must be ratified by the faculty of the current member institutions.

Pitt is pretty good at football. Pitt finished 15th in the AP rankings after a 10-win season; the Panthers also finished 2nd in the Big East, trailing only undefeated Cincinnati in their conference. The rest of the Panthers’ sports programs are not quite as strong; Pitt finished 93rd in last year’s Directors’ Cup, which is based on schools’ performance in all varsity sports. The average Big Ten school finished 29th in that same span.

The Big East is all but finished as a BCS conference. Pitt’s departure would leave the Big East with seven teams, two of which were acquired from Conference USA less than five years ago. And the options to bolster the conference’s membership are rather slim. Geographically, the best prospective members would be Temple (MAC), Marshall (C-USA), Buffalo (MAC), and Navy (FBS Independent). Yeah, I’m not impressed, either.

ASYLUM POLL: Which team would YOU like to see in the Big Te11n?

But the biggest question might deal with the Big Ten’s name. The conference kept the “Big Ten” moniker even after adding Penn State as its 11th school in 1990, though they’ve now committed to always spelling out the “Ten.” Honestly, I don’t really care. If they can squeeze a two into that logo of theirs, that works for me. And put a pirate ship on their, too. Pirates are pretty sweet.

After Kirk Ferentz’s golder shower in the wake of Iowa’s win over Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl last night, the Big Ten’s bowl season has (finally) ended. Final tally? The seven Big Ten teams in bowls amassed a 4-3 postseason record, including a 2-0 record in the BCS. So the Big Ten’s back, right? Uh…

I don’t think you can make blanket generalizations about one conference or another. Except for the ACC, which is horrible. But if Indiana had beaten Vanderbilt in the Yo Mama Bowl, would we be trumpeting the Big Ten’s whipping over the SEC? Probably not. Does the game lose even more significance (and reliability as any sort of barometer) when it’s played over a month after the end of the regular season? I’d say so. But that won’t stop some people from knee-jerking their way into another column about how great one conference is. Whatever.

People love to slam the Big Ten, but that’s really like slamming Catholics or blondes or that fruity-looking guy that does the travel shows for PBS. It has become socially acceptable, even if it the logic isn’t always compatible with the claim. To say one conference is weaker or stronger than another in the limited-sample world of college football will always be conjecture. Except when talking about the ACC, which, as we’ve already established, sucks balls.

And if you missed Ricky Stanzi’s little tribute to America yesterday, the video’s after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The Big Ten Conference is talking about expansion again. Wisconsin AD and former football coach Barry Alvarez is planning to amp up the 11-team conference’s charge to find a 12th member, which would allow the league to split into two divisions and host a championship game.

“We’re irrelevant for the last three weeks of the football season because we’re not playing,” Alvarez said Friday. –ESPN.

Alavarez and proponents of expansion face an uphill battle in bringing another mouth to feed. Notre Dame, with their lucrative football TV deal running through 2015, seems to be out. I’ve heard arguments for Missouri and Pittsburgh being natural fits, but only in a football context. That’s great, but the faculties of the conference’s current member schools won’t care. Fortunately, there’s a better, more mind-blowing option for a 12th school that has a much better chance of making everyone happy.

Vanderbilt. Read the rest of this entry »