The Big 12 isn't dead yet, but is that a funeral march I hear in the background?

Oh, the dispatches are flying around tonight (Wednesday), and nothing sounds too reassuring for those hoping the Big 12 will still exist a few years from now.

Start with what Big12 Commissioner Dan Beebe said in this New York Times story.

“It's certainly been the most challenging time of my career. Whatever occurs and hopefully it will be a good result, I will have wanted to have left it all on the field. There's no stone left unturned or bullet in the chamber. I'm doing everything that I can.”

Does that brighten your mood, Iowa State people? I didn't think so.

The Times story said officials from Texas and Texas A&M will meet Thursday morning in an effort to save the conference. Ummm, I wonder if they'll be looking out for someone else. Namely, themselves.

Will the Longhorns and Aggies lead a mass exodus to the Pacific-10 Conference? A lot of folks sure think so. Like ESPN.com's Ted Miller. An excerpt:

Colorado already has received an invitation to join the conference, while five other invitations will be extended to Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.

A Big 12 football coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach on Wednesday night that if Nebraska left the Big 12 the conference would dissolve, according to his athletics director and university president. The coach said Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado would join the Pac-10, leaving Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Iowa State behind.

"Nebraska is the key," the coach said.

The coach said the Pac-10 favored Colorado over Baylor because of the Buffaloes' presence in the Denver TV market.

Oh, joy! Baylor supposedly has lots of friends in high places, namely the Texas State House. But how, how, how does Texas try to strong-arm the Pac-10 into taking Baylor? For the Waco market? Denver is the nation's No. 16 TV market. Waco may be No. 1,600.

OK, it's actually in the top 100. But it's still irrelevant.

Baylor got rammed down the throats of the Big 8 members when that league merged with four Texas schools in the mid-1990s to form the Big 12. Now, Baylor and its new president, Kenneth "Starr Report" Starr could end up begging the Mountain West Conference to throw it a life line.

Good luck with that, Ken.

But I digress.

Oh yeah, here's another rumor that somehow got legs on the Internet Wednesday night. Texas and Texas A&M will follow Nebraska to the Big Ten, and so will Missouri if Notre Dame accepts a Big Ten slot.

That's a doozy. It would cut the Pac-10's grandiose expansion plan off at the kneecap and merely make the Big Ten the most super superpower in college sports history.

Iowa fans who think that would be really neat-o may want to consider how often their men would play in BCS bowls once they share a league with Ohio State, Penn State, Nebraska, Texas, Michigan (if it ever gets its act together again) and assorted other competitive squads.

But back to the Pac-10. Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times, wrote Wednesday night that the question isn't if the Pac-10 will expand, but if it will be to 12 or 16 teams. You know the plan for 16. If that falls through, the league will still target Colorado. The other isn't as clear, but Utah is a possibility.

So, Iowa State. You've got a friend in Sen. Chuck Grassley. Or so he says.

"My goal would be to make sure Iowa State would not get hurt by however this might turn out," Grassley said in an interview with the Des Moines Register.

OK, I'm an equal-opportunity cynic when it comes to politics. But Grassley's opponent in the November Senate election, Roxanne Conlin, will have to work hard to top this:

"You hear so many people say that major college athletics is just about money. I don't know if that's true, but that should be a question we get answered," Grassley said.

Senator, the Hlog has the answer for you:

Duh, yeah.