What a week, huh? Nebraska and Northwestern are in the same conference and so are Colorado and USC, or what's left of USC at least. And they'll be joined soon by The Texas & Oklahoma Conglomerate. And Texas A&M will apparently share a conference with South Carolina.
The Big East remains unscathed for now, but that's just because the Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC are just beginning to devour the Big 12's carcass. Once they've picked it clean, they'll set their sites East and then the carnage should ensue.
Even with all of this new of expansion-madness, I'm going to downgrade the Ro*Tel O'Meter for Syracuse.
Call me crazy but I think the more insane things get, the less it bodes well for SU.
The Big Ten already has an ace in the hole with the Huskers. Assuming they poach Missou along with them, that makes 13 teams. I think we can assume Rutgers is in the mix to make it 14.
At this point I think Notre Dame would have to look long and hard in the mirror and decide once and for all how it wants to spend the next 25 years. The sport is officially changing and the time of the superconferences is rapidly approaching. It was easy to make it as an independent when conferences were 8-10 regional teams spread out across the country. Now? With 14-16 team conferences controlling the sport, the TV contracts and the revenue therein, the days of running the show by yourself are coming to a close. If I were ND, I'd really think about whether or not I want to go it alone from here on out, especially when you keep putting up 6-7-8-win seasons.
So if Notre Dame were to wise up and join, I just don't know if Syracuse fills that final spot. Maybe...you could certainly make the case for them over Pitt, UConn or anyone else. Then again you could make the case for those schools as well.
Ultimately, I keep leaning back towards the ACC. Especially if the SEC now decides to poach the ACC's best teams in an attempt to jump to 14 or 16. Certainly Virginia Tech, Miami and Florida State will listen if the SEC comes calling. If that's the case, it would be a no-brainer for the Atlantic Coast to look the Orange's way.
I heard a solid idea today that, if they were smart, SU, UConn, Rutgers and Pitt would team up and demand the ACC take them on as a package deal. Of course, the problem is that everyone is in this for themselves, so each school is more likely to throw the other three off a cliff in order to join a better conference. But who know. If the Big Ten said tomorrow that they were adding Missouri and stopping, the panic on the faces of all those Big East powers would be impossible to ignore.
As for the Big East itself, I've seen a lot of people jump to the defense of the conference lately, saying that their lack of move-making is not a sign of weakness but an inevitable part of the process. And to that I say BULLSHIT. Maybe this move is about football but you're still the No. 1 basketball conference in the nation and one of the strongest overall conferences around. You could have acted like it. Not anymore, of course.
We remain cautious and concerned.