I never thought I could get so excited about college football in the month of June. Big Ten expansion was a distant pipedream less than a year ago, but this week all hell is breaking lose in the conferences. Jim Delaney, commissioner for the Big Ten has been saying for months that the conference is looking to expand but it would take 12-18 months and a very deliberate and researched process. Rumors have been swirling for weeks about who we would invite, but most have been shot down as uncredible until just this week. When people really started to think that the Big Ten would try to pluck at least one Big Twelve team, the Pac-10 saw an opportunity and apparently went all spazo. Larry Scott, the commissioner of the Pac-10, started jumping up and down yelling about how they would expand to 16 teams and take SIX teams from the Big Twelve, most notably Texas.
So Texas is sitting back with both the Pac-10 and the Big Ten suddenly courting them, and the Texas legislature is trying like hell to keep the other Texas teams from being left out in the cold. Namely Texas A&M and Texas Tech, but they also tried to keep Baylor in the mix. Suddenly Texas A&M starts getting interest from the SEC and now nobody knows what’s going to happen…anyone saying otherwise is just making semi-educated guesses. Nebraska is jumping ship to the Big Ten, a perfect fit, and I couldn’t be happier. Yes, I loathed Nebraska in 1995 when they stole Penn State’s national championship, but I have a close friend who is a prof at UNL so my grudge is almost gone.
You will see from these photos that my family are huge Penn State fans, but I am also a Longhorns fan. However I am seeing the attitude at UT now that is reminiscent of Notre Dame and USC’s obnoxiousness. I’m not sure I want that for the Big Ten, but it sure would be awesome to drive over to Austin or College Station to see Penn State play. I’m willing to deal with Texas to get that opportunity.
The biggest remaining question, probably the very last domino in this mess to fall, will be what Notre Dame does. They’d be stupid to not jump on board, but they have a habit of being stupid. And they are the one team that I don’t see myself cheering for when they play out of conference. I despise them. So we shall see.
