Conference fault lines may still cause disruptions

Here, where college sports is king, queen, and the jack of hearts, last summer was a sports columnist's paradise.

The constant gossip and speculation about conference expansions, reductions, and possible dissolutions, fed the beast for quite a while.

Nebraska went to the Big Ten, Colorado and Utah moved to the Pac-10, TCU switched to the Big East, Boise State joined the Mountain West, and BYU became an independent. The Big 12 somehow held together with 10 members after seeming sure to fall apart.

This week showed the ground is far from settled. As Texas' ESPN-owned Longhorn Network (worth $300 million over 20 years to Texas) moves toward its startup date in late August, the rest of the Big 12 is again edgy.

Thursday, Texas A&M's regents discussed in executive session what the Texas-only television network could mean to A&M, and it probably wasn't anything good.

Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds has been quick to try to appease the rest of the Big 12 this week, saying the Longhorn Network won't televise Texas high school games (which particularly concerns Big 12 members) for now.

“We want to play by the rules,” Dodds said. “We want everything to be in the open with integrity. We're for the conference.”

The appeasing wasn't there last month when a Longhorn Network vice president said the network planned on airing 18 high school games this year, many involving top recruits in Texas. ESPN didn't launch this network without fully expecting to have some inventory to televise live, including various Texas home games.

A segment of A&M fans had already supported a jump to the Southeastern Conference. A&M and Oklahoma were both looking at the SEC last year when it appeared Texas might bolt to the Pac-10 on its own. Then, it was looking like Texas, OU, A&M and three other Big 12 schools would go westward, leaving the other half-dozen in the cold.

But when the Pac-10 didn't warm to the concept of Texas having its own network, the Longhorns started liking their old Big 12 home again.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive, using straight talk, said Wednesday that he will “continue to do what is in the best interest of the SEC.”

“It is my job to make sure the SEC is the premier league,” Slive said. “For me to exclude any action that would preclude that from happening would be inappropriate.”

The SEC kept its status quo last year as the Big Ten rounded up to a dozen members with football power Nebraska. But the SEC, which claims the last five BCS champions, won't stand on the sideline and watch the Big Ten make every power move from this day forward.

Next week at the Big Ten media days, league commissioner Jim Delany will surely say there are no plans to look at further expansion at this time. But what if Notre Dame finally waved a white flag under the Golden Dome and said the Big Ten's long-term financial clout is too much to resist?

What if North Carolina and Duke expressed interest in joining such a fine collection of academic institutions that happen to receive a total of $220 million per year through television, much of it from the Big Ten Network? North Carolina has 9 million people. That's a lot of potential new subscribers for the Big Ten Network.

You think other ACC members like Clemson, Florida State and Miami would want to stay in a downsized ACC when the SEC is in their backyards?

We're headed to superconferences of 16 to 20 members, and that's been plain to see for a while. Last summer's shifts in the landscape nudged that along.

For Iowa State's sake, I hope the Big 12 stays together and viable indefinitely. Whatever happens, the conference would make a good reality show. Because the bickering, power-grabbing and paranoia will flare up over and over.