Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The murkiness is beginning to clear on conference realignment

The Big 12.

Texas A&M is gone.  That puts the conference down to 9.  BYU and Louisville have "according to sources" been invited.  But there is no official confirmation.  That puts the conference to 11.  Where they go next?  Add a travel partner for Louisville and pair BYU with Texas Tech.  The partner for Louisville could be West Virginia or Cincinnati.  They could also go to 14 an add 3 more.  Boise State as a partner for BYU.  Houston as the seems to be the only acceptable Texas School as the Big 12 has lost a presence in the Houston area.  The Louisville and West Virginia.  But the other two may not be realistic if the Big East can remain stable.  They could also add TCU.

About BYU, if they do accept the Big 12 invite, expect it to be official no later than next Thursday.  This is the last time the board of directors will meet before many leave to various parts of the world for LDS church leadership assignments. I am not certain if they meet weekly or monthly.

The Big East.

The Big East will need to spin off the Catholic schools into a new conference.  Twitter rumors also have invites out to all three service academies, including Air Force.  That invite is reportedly at the same stage as Louisville/BYU to the Big 12.

All of this may leave Conference USA relatively untouched and leave the WAC on life support.

Maybe the murkiness is not really clearing up yet, bu the direction appears to be.

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