Bledred

Or did ESPN facilitate ($$$) the building up of the SEC via an army of bag men to top recruits, planting saboteurs in competing conferences, pressuring conferences to move in certain directions (confirmed), and giving nation wide broadcasting praise/exposure to the SEC while bashing everyone else. ESPN is more of a shady syndicate than a media company.

They are neither. They are the physical embodiment of the Fallen Angels. Man is not alone in 'the fall'. Believe and proclaim with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and become Born Again today. Time is short.

How does one sue the very company that you have an ongoing TV contract with? Would not the act of suing said company null and void their contract with the conference? I think it does. It is a win-win situation for ESPN and they know it. Which minor conferences did ESPN contact? And will they go after the Big 12 left-overs? I am sure ESPN has an under the table deal for them if they do.

Yep. A lot of the former big 12 orphans will find new success in the minor conferences. They will all get to 'rule the roost' so to speak and feel like Nebraska was in the Big 8. Why continue to dwindle under the shadow of OU when you can be at the top of the hill and get births into the 12 team playoff? Anything goes in a playoff!

Merge the Big Ten and Pac12 and finally grab ND to boot.....genius. Could easily have two channels. Would just need a sweet new name. How about the Coast to Coast Conference? The folks chanting "S.E.C" "S.E.C" would sound small and pathetic to those chanting "COAST." "TO". "COAST".

Thats Counciltucky. Councilbama is also accepted. Here comes the big 12 drama train, right on schedule.

People in OR and WA do not consider themselves to be the "West", but the "Northwest". I should know, I used to live there. The Union states went as far West as Minnesota and Iowa. No way will I ever consider Ohio, Indiana and Michigan as the "middle" of the USA. Illinois and Wisconsin COULD qualify, but that pesky landmark/boarder called the Great Mississippi is still to their West. Back in the day that river was seen as a divider between the East and West, crossing it meant you were now in the Wild Wild West. Why people want to abandon it, makes no sense to me.

If all of the surviving power conferences are eventually going to 20+ teams, then why be stingy with KU and ISU? Both are AAU. KU brings a ton of eyeballs and money to the table with BB. ISU is a rising star in football. Our conference the Big TEN has become the biggest snob on the college athletic block and it is going to come back to bite us in the rear when all of the realignment dust settles. Maybe this rejection gives a hint that the Big ten has their sights on bigger fish..namely PAC12 schools and wants to be the first FBS conference to go Coast to Coast.

The Midwest begins at the Mississippi and ends at the Rockies. Here is my take on it:

Half of Colorado is in the West (Rockies) and the other half is in the Midwest (Great Plains) IMO. The boarder between the two begins and ends with the Rockies.

ACC will probably add WV and ND. SEC already has OU and TX looking to add more. PAC will probably go after OSU and KU. B1G will be:

Adding USC (gag), Washington, Stanford (double gag), UCLA, Oregon and Colorado would make our conference 20 teams. Could have a 5 team pod of USC, UW, Stan, UCLA, and Oregon with Colorado joining a midwestern pod of Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. New conference name: MEGA Conference.

The Big 12 is the equivalent of the former Soviet Union. They are so poorly ran, that all you have to do is sit back and wait for the inevitable collapse.

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=31889155 Greeny thinks it will end up being the B1G, ACC, and SEC (PAC12 technically being one as well but still irrelevant) left as the power conferences when the dust settles. Gives me hope that the OSU and Mich rumor is not true. He makes a good point though, all three need to change their names for 16-20 teams in the Big TEN makes no sense. OU is in the midwest, not the Southeast etc.

Once OU and TX bolt, can the terms of the Big 12 TV contract be re-negotiated with the remaining teams? Wonder if there is a clause in the contract that if teams leave or teams are added to the conference, that the contract can be redrawn to reflect the value of the market. If this is a yes, then there would be a dramatic decline in payout for the remaining teams unless they quickly added the teams you mentioned. All the more incentive to run toward more stable ground. Really bad timing for OU who was one of the favorites to win it all this year....good luck getting past the Big 12 refs. A big part of the game here is not just the money, it is the exposure and ESPN is the national leader in sports media exposure hands down. If you get into the SEC, you can bet bottom dollar you will get endless positive media coverage from ESPN to all of those future 5 star recruits in the nation. ESPN coverage of college football is horribly biased toward the SEC. OU and TX are well aware of this.

Your telling me that NU and OSU (and maybe MU) were the sole dissenters to starting a late football season in the B1G last year? As Stalin correctly said: it is not important who votes, but who counts the votes.

"mutually beneficial to OU and UT, as well as the other member institutions". When the teams left in the dust are considered "other" by the Big 12 HQ. I bet every single one of them is absolutely done with the people running (ruining) the conference in Irving, TX. OU and UT are upgrading from their Honda Accord to a Land Rover. The deal is done and the ink is dried. Just awaiting an official announcement at this point. With WV set to announce it is leaving for the ACC, they have to know in Irving that it is over with only 7 teams left. Everybody will be looking to bolt to ANY conference that is willing to take them.

Everybody just goes independent lol. Could make our own schedules and do the late November cupcake game like all of the SEC does. Everything is built upon your relationships with other programs (goodbye Akron). No longer do we have to pay anyone a single cent to come play us for a home and away.

Starting to believe that Warren is a SEC plant. The guy had his son playing SEC football while simultaneously halting the play of football in the conference he is in charge of which happens to be the SEC's biggest conference rival in money and exposure. Therefore pushing the marque teams in the Big 10 out of the playoff and getting them to question why they are in the conference. Then the SEC swoops in with their sweet heart deal and tons of money. At what point do people realize they are being conned? We could be watching an evil genius plan (that is 10 years in the making) of the SEC/ESPN unfolding right before our very eyes. If OSU and Michigan bolt to the SEC, the Warren plant will have served his purpose beautifully. This all has the stench of ESPN all over it. ESPN practically owns college football with having the rights to every bowl game and every playoff game. Now they want the rights to ALL of the marque teams and top dollar teams. If OSU and Michigan go to the SEC, they would have the entire top 10 most valued teams (according to the Wall Street Journal) in all of college football in the SEC after the OU and Texas additions. We are witnessing a coup of the sport, and ESPN/Disney and SEC are to blame.

If the rumors of the SEC going after OSU and Michigan are true and they opt to leave the Big 10 for the SEC (unlikely but you never know these days). WV goes to the ACC as rumored. Penn State can go to the ACC. Maryland and Rutgers can also bounce to a more appropriate East coast conference, we should then band together the remnants of the Big 12 and the remnants of the Big 10 to form The Midwestern Conference: Indiana Purdue Minnesota Wisconsin Iowa Iowa St. Kansas Kansas St. Oklahoma St. Texas Tech Baylor Nebraska Michigan St. Illinois Northwestern TCU Could add Memphis, Houston, Wyoming and Air Force to make it 20 teams. Bonus: don't have to play OSU every year. Double Bonus: get to play our old Big 12 rivals. There is no way this conference champion could be ignored in a 12 team playoff.

West Virginia to the ACC per this guy and his "source". The move does make a ton of sense for WV. ACC is in full-on expansion mode along with the SEC. THE RACE IS ON! Where is Warren?? Says an announcement within the next two weeks is expected per his inside source. Big 12 is going to fully dissolve before the season starts at this rate.

This says it all. Has been a done deal for some time now. Voting result already known with A&M being the only 'no'. As pointed out earlier, does A&M now bolt for the Big 10? I think there might be something to this. They would be a big addition football wise and if we somehow get ND, that would be almost tit for tat money/branding/exposure/quality vs. Texas and OU. I would argue that A&M is a far better football program (right now) than Texas.

Greg Sankey right now: Big 12 HQ right now: Texas A&M right now: Husker fans right now:

Something tells me he is in the basement. The guy just wants to be King and make decrees, but does not want to do any actual work. As a conference, we picked the absolute worst time to change our leadership.