The end of a not so impressive era: the Big XII/Pac-10 series is no more

Well, the Big XII/Pac-10 Series is officially dead after this season.

The press release claims that a "desire to continue a series and will continue pursuing options to schedule strong non-conference opponents, which could include alliances or agreements with other major conferences" was the main cause.

I don't think anyone believes that.

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say that the fact that the Pac-10 poached Colorado before trying to eliminate the Big XII as a conference was the major reason these two leagues decided to end this series.

And if we are being honest, this series was a joke anyway. The games were spread out over the course of a month, which makes it nearly impossible to drive any kind of fan interest. These conference battles hold even less significance than a preseason tournament, and the majority of the games involves programs without much national merit.

Its a shame, because the NCAA could have made this something cool. Take one week in early Decemeber before finals start and have the top eight conferences -- the Big Six plus the A-10 and the MWC -- play in this kind of series. Have two or three games a night from each conference, culminating with a Friday or Saturday with all the marquee games.

You don't think the NCAA could drive up some ratings by having BYU play Villanova, Xavier take on Florida, Kansas State go up against Washington, and Michigan State tangle with Duke in a quadruple-header where each games determines the outcome of a conference head-to-head?

You know what? Forget I even wrote this post.

This is my idea. I'm running with it. Someone get me Mark Emmert's number.