The times...they are a-changin....

It's August and that means one thing...well two things if your in Texas...brutal-ass heat and football.

College football is right around the corner and it's going to look a little different. The round of college football conference re-alignment that happened two years ago takes effect this season. Here's what is different:

The Pac-10 added Colorado and Utah to form the Pac-12.
The Big 10, which had 11 teams, added Nebraska to have 12 and the Big 12, losing Ralphie and Herbie drops to 10 teams.

Pac 10 had 10, adds 2, now has 12. 12 teams, Pac-12...nice.

Big 10 had 11, adds 1, now has 12...still called Big 10
Big 12 had 12, lost 2, now has 10...still called Big 12

Higher education?

Personally I think the Big 12, should go back to being called the Southwest Conference. Then again, the Big 12 is about to go bye-bye so no big deal.

I live in Big 10 country and I love the people here but some of them just don't quite get it. For decades, if you were a fan of a Big 10 team, your goal was to see your team in the Rose Bowl. That's great but times have changed. This is no longer Bo and Woody's Big 10. So I am going to give you an assist...there is this other game, perhaps you've heard of it, called the National Championship. This game is...and I will type this slowly..

M-O-R-E I-M-P-O-R-T-A-N-T

than the Rose Bowl. A trip to Pasadena is nice but its, at best, a consolation prize. I respect the tradition of the Big 10 and love the huge role tradition in all of College Football but campers, come join us in the 21st Century. If the National Championship is not the ultimate goal for your team..then you're doing it wrong. Go follow a T-Ball league where the only thing that is important is kids having fun and little Johnny not peeing himself when the ball comes to him.

The latest round of talks centers around a rumor that was circulating two years ago when all this movement was going on. Your Fightin' Texas Aggies are reported to be headed to the Southeastern Conference. They thought they were going last time but they ended up staying in the Big 12.

Loyalty, right? Tradition, right? They wouldn't go anywhere without Texas, right?

Wrong....wrong....and...wrong.

What was it? Money. Pure and simple.

The A&M-Texas rivalry is one of the best ones in the country but big time College Football has become such a business that as nice as the whole "both schools want to stay together to keep the rivalry" thing is, the fact is that both schools are after the coin. Hence the Longhorn Network. Aggie fans are bent but, and they won't admit this, if A&M could have a viable network and ESPN threw the money at it that they gave Bevo-TV..they would do it. And you know it. And if you don't..you're fooling yourselves. A&M in the SEC could make it happen. Hell, Oklahoma is in the middle of looking at one right now.

Ok so right now...the Ags are reportedly going to the SEC along with Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech. Missouri had been mentioned but it looks more like the Yellow Jackets. This set up would strengthen current rivalries between FSU and Florida, Clemson and South Carolina and Georgia-Georgia Tech. It would also re-kindle the A&M-LSU rivalry which kind of died when the Big 12 formed.

What does this mean to the rest of the college football landscape? It means all hell is going to break loose. The SEC has long been the best league in the nation and they just added the #5 and #9 teams currently ranked in the first Coaches Poll of 2011.

With the SEC adding four teams, the Pac-12 reacts quickly and grabs Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. The fourth team could be interesting. It will probably be Texas Tech or Baylor. The Bears tried to sue their way in two years ago when the Pac-10 came knocking but not asking for Baylor. Then there is the urban legend that when the Big 12 was being formed, Ann Richards, Governor of Texas at the time and a Baylor alum, worked some legislative shenanigans to keep the folks in Waco at the big folks table. What I would do...ignore them both. I would go for BYU. I would love to see TCU instead but with adding UT, the Pac-16 would get the Dallas-Fort Worth TV market which is still dominated by the Horns despite the presence of TCU and SMU. BYU has its own network as well and while currently independent, they will realize that the title hopes that are slim going solo right now, would be dead in the superconference era.

Seeing the seismic shift happening to the south and west of them...the Big 10+2 is gripping. However not as much as the good fathers at Notre Dame. For decades, they have been flirting and teasing the Big 10 like that cute girl in high school who knows she can smile and you will hang on her every word. You don't care that you have no chance of her going out with you..you live on the hope. Well, that all ends now because ND finally gives in. Unlike when the first BCS agreements came out, Notre Dame's name is not what it once was and again, its all about cash. Touchdown Jesus' friends at NBC would love a crack at an expanded Big 10 that includes the Irish. Plus ND feels what BYU did about being an Indie in the new world order. So ND makes it the Big 10+3. Missouri and Pitt, who both were mentioned a few years ago when the Big 10 added Nebraska, come on board. Finally, Iowa State is added. No real reason really except geography, a built in rivalry for Iowa and hope for Indiana that they might win one more game. The feeling is mutual in Ames.

The name of the new league? The Big 10 of course. Oy. At least come up with some better divisional setups. This "Legends and Leaders" crap with Wisconsin in the same division with Penn State and Ohio State is riduculous.

Finally with the world as they know it crashing down all around them, the Atlantic Coast Conference does what it did last time it wanted new teams..it raids the Big East (also known as the ACC's slumpbuster). The ACC, now down to nine with the defections of FSU, Georgia Tech and Clemson, finishes the job it started in 2003 and merges with the Big East. Well, merge is a strong word...more like swallows up. With that, you have four 16-team superconferences.

What of the leftovers you say? I suspect they will wander about for a bit, much like survivors after a nuclear bomb attack. Then they will band together and try to rebuild.

The Mountain West and WAC merge. They both have 8 teams each and were going to be swapping out schools and bringing on new ones anyway so keep it as it. That means TCU doesn't go through with the proposed move to the Big East in 2012 (another geographic brainstorm) since the Big East is disappearing, although not completely. There will still be a Big East Conference but it will go back to being a basketball-only conference. UTSA and Texas State were scheduled to join the WAC in 2012 also but that will also not happen. Unless they want an 18-team conference which is possible but not probable. The Bobcats and Roadrunners stay in 1-AA but that is not a bad thing, in fact I think it will be good for both.

That leaves Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State and Texas Tech. Where do they go? They go to that conference that loves to pick up unloved and unwanted teams along with the occasional stray animal. Conference USA! Also known as the "Conference of Misfit Toys" C-USA's 12 team memebership grows to 16 with the addition of these Big 12 refugees.

These two conference will beg and of course sue (with Baylor leading the way) to get in the coalition but to no avail. The MAC and Sun Belt want in on it but no one will return their calls.

Where do we go from here? Easy....the four superconferences form a coalition and tell the NCAA a collective "go to hell" and create an 8 team playoff with the top two teams from each conferences going. What about the bowls you say? Oh we might lose a few but a culling of the bowl herd would not be a bad idea and the ones who do stay will do whatever the new coalition says otherwise, you will have heaping bowls o'leftovers.

Are these guarantees? No. It could totally end up way different than anything posted here but, my alignments make sense. Of course, when does the NCAA make sense?
One thing I can guarantee...its going to be chaos and when its all over, the landscape of college football will look very, very different.

Enjoy the ride.

Peace.

Here's what they would look like:
ACC
Boston College Duke
Cincinnati Louisville
Maryland Miami
Rutgers North Carolina
Virginia NC State
Virginia Tech South Florida
Syracuse Wake Forest
UConn West Virginia

Big 10
Iowa Illinois
Iowa State Indiana
Michigan Northwestern
Michigan State Notre Dame
Minnesota Ohio State
Missouri Penn State
Nebraska Pitt
Wisconsin Purdue

Pac-16
Cal Arizona
Oregon Arizona State
Oregon State BYU
Stanford Colorado
UCLA Oklahoma
USC Oklahoma State
Washington Texas
Washington St. Utah

SEC
Alabama Clemson
Arkansas Florida
Auburn Florida State
LSU Georgia
Mississippi Georgia Tech
Miss. State Kentucky
Texas A&M South Carolina
Vanderbilt Tennessee