Hlas column: As Big 12 crumbles, can Iowa State find some sort of sturdy home?

I spent Thursday trying to come up with a great solution for Iowa State athletics, and went home with nothing but a headache.

Salvaging the Big 12 seems highly unlikely at best. With Colorado bolting to the Pac-10 on Thursday and Nebraska headed to the Big Ten this afternoon, there seems no way Texas and most of its Southwest partners don't saddle up and ride elsewhere themselves.

Suddenly - and who would have ever believed such a thing - the Mountain West Conference may be in a position of power. The league is probably on the cusp of a BCS slot with the Big 12's impending demise.

Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor and perhaps Missouri could be homeless shortly, and Boise State wants in the MWC.

The 9-school league could grow to 12, even 14 or 16, with no problem. It could give a “No, thanks” to some schools that might have seemed great catches a year ago.

Iowa State, 11th in Big 12 football attendance in 2009 with 46,242 fans per game, would have been second in attendance behind BYU in the Mountain West. Yet, football have-nots Wyoming, San Diego State and UNLV have a more secure home for the future than the Cyclones.

The Mountain West may be the best-case scenario for most of the Big 12 leftovers unless they put their heads together and create something new and plausible. That would necessitate stealing from other leagues, rather than joining them.

Right now, everyone's in a tizzy to simply protect themselves. You would certainly think Kansas, with one of the top five men's basketball programs in the nation, would seem to be a desirable member for more than one league.

Still, would Kansas basketball be the same without a major conference to help get it showcased on national television? Nope.

Missouri, meanwhile, has openly coveted a Big Ten invitation whether it admits it or not. Now it sweats as it watches Nebraska take a seat in that conference.

The University of Missouri's Board of Curators went into closed-door session Thursday to discuss conference affiliation. Similar discussions will fill the air at Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State.

If Iowa State does wind up in a lesser league, how does it begin to replace the $7.4 million (2007 figure) in Big 12 television

revenue that came its way. Then there's the ticket-money the considerable cash the athletics program because it hosts major-conference opponents.

Does the football program lose fans when it's harder to get nationally ranked and harder to get to a significant bowl game? Do the basketball programs lose fans if marquee opponents are fewer? Would donations to the athletic department drop?

You know the answers to those questions, and they aren't happy ones to Cyclone ears.

All over America, especially in the last year or two, people who have done no wrong at their jobs have been demoted or fired for purely economic reasons. If it no longer is part of a truly major conference, Iowa State is sure to do some serious athletic cutting.

Here's the kicker: If Iowa State had a football program with a decades-long history of championships and national recognition, it would probably be going into the Big Ten today instead of Nebraska.

Because this isn't about the quality of the University of Nebraska, this isn't about a population base or the number of television sets in that state, this isn't about an overall athletic program.

This is about Nebraska being a national-brand when it comes to football, a team people around the country find interesting to watch on TV. Which means this is about money, and only money.

The rich get richer. Everyone else, step aside.