Big 12 could potentially become a really big 12

If I'm Florida State, I let the Big 12 Conference help me pay a $20 million buyout to the Atlantic Coast Conference and jump leagues.

The rocks have already started to melt and the sea has begun to burn. College football's inevitable evolution toward four superconferences took off when the Pacific-12 added two schools from other conferences, the Big Ten annexed Nebraska, and the SEC expanded into Texas and Missouri.

Then the Big 12, previously declared dead by so many, resurrected itself by pilfering TCU and West Virginia from the Big East.

The SEC gave the Big 12 extra legitimacy from a national perception with last week's announcement of an upcoming New Year's, prime-time bowl between the champions of those two leagues, or the best non-champions.

“It shows stability,” Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds told CBSsports.com Tuesday. “I like the statement it makes. It puts us in the role of being in the top four.”

If the 10-member Big 12 can bulk up with two or more additions of marquee football programs, it will leave the ACC in the dust and be one of those four superconferences.

Dodds said he thinks 10 is a “perfect” number of members for his conference “because you play everybody in football and there is a double-round-robin in basketball.”

But while those things are convenient and pleasant, they certainly aren't essential.

Florida State folks have sent a lot of mixed signals about whether they would entertain a conference-switch. But the possibility of being in a league with better television deals than the ACC and much-better football cachet has to be pretty enticing.

Despite adding Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech within the last eight years, ACC football hasn't taken off. No ACC team has played in the BCS title game since Florida State in 2000.

The ACC's record in BCS games is a woeful 2-13. Iowa was dominant (403 yards to 155) in its 24-14 win over Georgia Tech in the 2010 Orange Bowl, and that was competitive compared to the two Orange Bowls that followed it.

Stanford walloped Virginia Tech, 40-12, then West Virginia battered Clemson, 70-33.

The highest-ranked ACC team in last season's final Associated Press poll was No. 21 Virginia Tech. The highest-ranked team at the end of any of the last six seasons was No. 9 Virginia Tech in 2007.

Those are numbers that don't compute in the Big 12. And Florida State, which was one of college football's King Kongs from 1987 through 2000, could use an injection of football-fueled adrenaline.

Staying in the ACC won't provide that. The ACC's recent additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse won't provide that.

Hopping in the Big 12 with Texas and Oklahoma and Oklahoma State would be a rush. Maybe the Seminoles could find a prominent pal like Miami or Clemson or even Notre Dame to come along.

Of course, maybe incoming commissioner Bob Bowlsby will urge stability. Maybe he doesn't want his legacy to be that of someone who promoted a further separation of the haves and have-nots. I wonder if he'll have a choice.

At any rate, Iowa State was in danger of being an orphan that would go begging to the Big East or Mountain West for a new home.

But the Cyclones are still in their old conference house, and it's been renovated. It could turn out to be a palace before all is done.