Today, the Big Ten and Pac 12 announced that they are going to start collaborating more on athletic schedules.

With a history of Rose Bowl competition dating back more than a century, the Big Ten Conference and Pac-12 Conference announced today a collaborative effort to enhance long-term scheduling commitments between the two conferences across all sports amongst the 24 institutions.

The new Big Ten-Pac-12 collaboration will feature more games between the two conferences in an effort to enhance the experiences for all student-athletes, fans and alumni while broadening the national scope of both conferences. Details of the new effort will continue to unfold as administrators and conference staff members meet in the coming year.

What does all this mean? Well for the Olympic Sports, you will start to see scheduling changes starting next year. Both conference have (or are starting up) television networks and this will provide a lot of exposure for both conferences on both networks. This is a really fantastic way to "combine" two conferences without actually combining them.

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With the PAC-12 releasing a statement saying that they have decided not to expand at this time, what happens next? Does the Big XII just move on, live with it and hope things get better? Oklahoma started making demands yesterday about changes they would like to see if they are to stay in the Big XII. With the Sooners losing their opportunity for the PAC-12, has Oklahoma lost all of it's leverage against Texas? Do they just have to bend over and take it from the Longhorns now?

Things can change in the Texas Conference. They can get better. Stability can be achieved. It's very simple really. Remake the the Texas Conference and call it the "Big XII Conference."

Vote Texas out.

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Earlier tonight the Pac -12 chancellors and presidents voted to reaffirm to stay at 12 members, meaning that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State won't be invited to the conference. There's some indication that the reason was because of Texas (GASP!) and the realization that with Texas add to the conference that the idea of equality would be thrown out the window.

This comes just a few hours after Oklahoma president David Boren made public reforms that would needed to take place for them to stay in the Big 12, amongst them the removal of Dan Beebe as commissioner and establishment of firmer rules for the Longhorn Network, which remains the main reason for the de-stabilization of the conference.

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The next 24 to 48 hours could be the most volatile period in the history of college football off the field.  Yesterday, reports emerged that Pitt and Syracuse were ready to join the ACC.  At first, it sounded like the ACC was ready to invite Texas and Notre Dame to join as non-football members. The rumors were that the Longhorns would go independent in football, and like Notre Dame, play baseball, basketball, and other sports in the ACC.  That was yesterday.

Now, all that seems to be changing once again. UConn and Rutgers seem now likely to be the 15th and 16th members of the engorged 16-team ACC.

Let's not forget that tomorrow, the Oklahoma Regents are meeting to discuss realignment, almost assuredly to the Pac-12 along with Oklahoma State.  Now comes word that Texas is now headed to the Pac-12 as well, as a compromise that retains their beloved Longhorn Network within the Pac-12's media structure.  The 16th team?  Texas Tech.

If your eyes aren't swimming already at all this, Matt Hayes now reports the inevitable, now that there are 16 team ACC and Pac-16 conferences.  The Big Ten and SEC will make the next moves.  The SEC already is uneven with 13 teams, and probably are looking to add Maryland and Virginia Tech.

And with the Big East dissolving like the Big XII, Jim Delany will finally claim the big prize.  Notre Dame will finally accept an invitation to the Big Ten.  That creates an imbalance, and likely brings three more teams to the Big Ten.  Rutgers? UConn?  Personally, if the B1G goes to 16, I'd love to see Kansas and Missouri come along for the ride.

And from the forgotten leftovers, the remnants of the dissolved Bigs (East and XII) will coddle together a new conference with Iowa State, Kansas State, Baylor, Cincinnati, and whatever else is leftover.

Rumors, rumors, rumors. Always take em with a grain of salt. This entire story is based upon rumors so keep that in mind. Piecing together rumors and comments of what people say usually leads to a false conclusion, but it's fun to do. With that in mind, let's have a little fun with the Notre Dame and Texas to the Big Ten rumors.

Also, I don't really like the idea of the Big Ten expanding again. People say that the Big Ten will have to keep up with everyone else if other conferences go to 14 or 16. Why? Why do they have to expand just because everyone else is doing it? It took 20 years to go from 11 schools to 12. I trust the Big Ten leaders on expansion for the right reasons.

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Apparently everyone in the Big XII now hates everyone else and everyone is going to sue everyone else. It's like reading Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" only the capitalists are going at each other throats instead of the socialists. Part of me feels really bad but I can't help but laugh. It really sounds like an awful break up. All the crap that has come out on twitter and the national media yesterday/today paints a picture of everyone taking shots at everyone else.

How can they possibly mend the fences this time around? Even yesterday morning, with all the super conference rumors that have been floating lately, I still believed that the only move that would happen this time around would be A&M leaving and the Big XII holding together.  Maybe they pick up another school, but that would be about it. I just can't see that happening this time around.

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This just in. I have learned from multiple sources that Texas A&M University will leave the Big XII and move to the SEC at some point within the next 50 years. I got the scoop from inside sources from officials in both College Station and the Big XII commissioners office in Austin, TX. The target date for the move is June 30, 2061.

When asked about the move, my inside source at A&M responded, "We still have some political hoops to jump though. You know how government is. We expect extended filibusterers on this topic and entire legislative sessions spent on this to determine the right course of action. And since the legislature only meets every other year, well, it could take time. College football is the most important issue in our society and we need to make sure we do the right thing.

Things could speed up though. If Rick Perry is elected President, we expect a law to be pushed through congress forcing every American to pray day and night for the safety of A&M and for a speedy move to the SEC. We are Texas A&M after all. It would be un-american not to pray for us."

When the Big XII commissioner was asked about the move the the SEC, DeLoss Dodds responded, "It looks to me like they're leaving," but he thinks they would be ok with 9 teams.  And he added, "The UT staff is working on 20 names for possible replacements." He responded to a question about the PAC-12 by saying, "I'd put that down as an option. I don't know if it's a viable option." The final question for him centered around who the Big XII would pick up to replace the Aggies. Notre Dame, BYU and Air Force were said to be high on the list.

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Wow. Crazy things can happen in a day. I clipped a whole bunch of articles from this morning about the A&M to SEC rumors and was going to put a piece together about it, but most of those links are already out-dated. Hell, this article might be out of date by the time I finish it. Notre Dame, Texas, and Oklahoma may have applied to the B1G by then. Anyway, this morning, I was pretty skeptical of things until it seemed like the "giggem' hit the fan" this afternoon.

In what is apparently a big "EFF YOU" to Texas, A&M appears headed out the door to the SEC next week. There is a board of regents meeting scheduled for next Tuesday to discuss conference affiliation of the A&M athletic teams. The SEC is holding a special expansion meeting this weekend.

There is also a meeting with the Texas "Higher Education Committee" next week that will go over the pros and cons of realignment and how it would affect the Texas schools. Lot's of important people are going to be there.

The committee says Commissioners Dan Beebe of the Big 12 and Mike Slive of the SEC are to testify, as are Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin and A&M system board of regents chairman Richard A.Box.

People have long thought that A&M and UT will always be joined at the hip because their strength helps out the other schools in the state. However, A&M may be able to leave Texas behind for another conference using the reasoning, "Texas schools will be better because A&M and UT will both still be in BCS conferences. As long as UT stays in the Big XII, Baylor and TT will be ok AND they can replace A&M with a school like SMU or Houston. Thus, there will be ANOTHER Texas school in a BCS conference and, thus, more $$$ for the Texas school system.

The Texas State Legislature probably won't be able to get involved in this issue because they are out of session until 2013 (go unicameral go) and the only person that can request a special session is the governor who is an aggie. He is too busy preaching his way to a second-to-last place finish in the presidential race (Even he can beat Sarah Palin right?). This doesn't mean that there won't be serious stuff for A&M to have to deal with come 2013, but by then cooler heads may have prevailed.

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