Texas A&M's announcement Wednesday that it plans to leave the Big 12 comes on the heels of Nebraska bolting to the Big Ten and Colorado joining the Pacific-12, both effective this season.
That leaves the Big 12, a league formed in 1996 by the merger of many of the schools in the Southwest and Big Eight conferences, with nine remaining members. Most major conferences currently have at least 12 schools.
Iowa State athletic director Jaime Pollard said the league is more solid than last summer when Nebraska and Colorado announced plans to leave and the Pac-10 had tried to lure four more schools, including Oklahoma and Texas.
"The other nine schools are going to approach this like it's a coaching search," Pollard said. "It's kind of like a coaching search in the way you go about things and evaluate things."
Speculated options of Arkansas and Notre Dame appear unlikely. TCU is about to join the Big East in 2012.
Another option could be Brigham Young, which is starting its first season as an independent. The school issued this statement Wednesday.
"There is much speculation right now regarding conference affiliation that seems to change by the hour. Commenting on such conjecture is not productive and creates a distraction for our program. As we enter the 2011-12 athletic season, BYU is focused on the opportunities ahead. We are excited about our relationship with ESPN as a football independent and our affiliation with the West Coast Conference."
SMU, formerly in the Southwest Conference and now in Conference USA, has expressed its interest. Houston and Boise State are other possibilities.
The Big 12 could take further hits. Missouri has been mentioned as a possible new member of the Southeastern Conference, which would need to add another team if it accepts Texas A&M, making it a 13-school league. This could lead to what some college football analysts will be four super conferences of 16 teams each.
However, Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton, who also serves as the Big 12 board of directors chairman, said the remaining nine schools are solid.
"The chancellors and presidents of the Big 12 are committed to keeping our conference competitively and academically strong," Deaton said in a statement. "We have a process in place that enables us to move aggressively regarding the possible expansion of the conference and to assure our members and student-athletes that we will take advantage of the most productive opportunities in the best interests of all."
It might sound odd coming from the athletic director and former football coach of a school that just bolted league, but count Nebraska's Tom Osborne among those who hopes the league has a long future.
"I certainly hope the Big 12 does stay together in some fashion," said Osborne, a former U.S. Congressman who coached the Cornhuskers for 25 seasons. "The reason we left wasn't out of any animosity toward anyone, we just felt the culture of the Big Ten fit us better."
"I still have many close friends in the Big 12 and I would very much hate to see anyone left out on a limb. It's important for the sake of all those schools that there is a league and it remains viable."
Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomCollegeMensBasketball-TopStories/~3/KNs8Yxj0-SI/1
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