The Pac-16, the vanishing Big XII, and why I want to vomit in my BLT

By now, you have undoubtedly heard about the Orangebloods.com report stating that the Pac-10 is set to offer six Big XII teams -- Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado -- membership. You also should know what the effects of a move like this may have in store for the face of collegiate athletics.

Six Big XII teams would be left, with Missouri and possibly Nebraska headed to the Big Ten. So Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, and Iowa State go to ... where exactly? The SEC? Does the Big Ten raid some of the Big East's football programs? Does the Big East scoop up the remainder of the the Big XII?

Who knows, but what you can be sure of is a defection from the Big XII would only be the first domino.

(Ed. Note: Here are way too many links to get you caught up on all the latest: RTC goes off; The Dagger says it all hinges on Texas; Missouri is listening to offers; Hopefully, conference realignment won't be breaking up some great rivalries; Dennis Dodd weighs in; the Big XII cancelled a presser yesterday ... yikes; the KC Star has an interesting anecdote; Larry Scott, the Pac-10 commissioner, issued a statement (somewhat) denying the Rivals report; but wait, the Big Ten wants Texas?)

The issue no one seems to be commenting on here is how little anyone regards basketball in this decision.

Everyone knows football is the money maker. Football is the sport that draws the television revenues, that puts 100,000 people into a stadium. Its the ability to televise a conference title game that has the Big Ten looking to expand. Its the possibility of airing football games on their own network that has the Pac-10 poised to become the Pac-16. (One thing I ask is that if realignment does happen, can we adjust conference names to fit? The Big Ten and the Pac-10 cannot be the Big Ten and the Pac-10 with 16 teams. The Big T-leven is bad enough, so is the Atlantic 14 and the Big East-ern-half-of-the-United-States.)

Go back to the second sentence of this post.

Look at the four teams that would be left without a conference affiliation should expansion go down as expected: Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, and Iowa State.

Kansas is a blueblood basketball program, one of the six most storied teams in the history of the sport. Jayhawk fans aren't as crazy or as vocal as Kentucky fans, but it would be tough to argue they are an less loyal. This is a team that is just 27 months removed from winning a national title, spent much of the '09-'10 season ranked No. 1, and returns a team good enough to compete for another Big XII title, and they not only have no where to go, but no where that would make much sense at all.

Kansas State, historically, isn't much of an athletics school. Neither is Baylor. But those two teams were the Big XII's representatives in the Elite 8 last season. Both are going to be top 10-15 teams this season. Frank Martin of Kansas State and Scott Drew of Baylor are two of the better up and coming coaches in the country, and both seem primed to build their respective schools into powerhouse programs for the coming decade. Where do they end up?

(As far as Iowa State is concerned, well, the Cyclones haven't been much in basketball since Tim Floyd, Marcus Fizer, and Jamaal Tinsley left. Can we convince ISU and Iowa to join the MVC, and let Kansas and Kansas State become Big Ten members?)

And what about the great rivalries?

Kansas and Missouri is one of the most entertaining basketball games each and every season. Kansas and Texas have both built up enough of a tradition that they are annually a must watch, even ifthey aren't "rivals" in the traditional sense. Baylor and Texas A&M have developed a pretty healthy dislike for each other over the past couple of seasons.

Instead, we'll get Texas and Oregon? Arizona and Oklahoma State? Stanford and Colorado? These sound entertaining? (Hint: NO!)

I'm not mad about it. I get it. Basketball is always going to play second fiddle to football, no matter the level of the game. That's just how it is. Forget baseball, these days football is america's past time. I love it too.

Its just depressing to realize that something that I -- and countless others around the country -- care about so passionately is actually nothing more than an afterthought to the people that make decisions.