Some college athletic conferences celebrated new additions this past weekend. Others were left anxious about what kind of landscape they are inheriting with the latest rush to merge into mega-conferences. This all started last month when Texas A&M decided it had enough of Texas’ long shadow in the Big 12 and applied for membership in the SEC instead. That left the Big 12 reeling with Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State now pondering membership in the Pac-12. But if they all leave, too, what about those left behind?
Apparently, it’s every school for itself in modern college sports. No surprise then that the Associated Press reported merger talks Monday between what would be the remnants of the Big 12 and the Big East, which itself lost founding member Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the rival ACC.
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The Big East has six member schools left that play football — Connecticut, Rutgers, West Virginia, South Florida, Cincinnati and Louisville. The Big 12 would have Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Iowa State and Baylor. Not exactly a perfect geographic fit. Ironically, Texas Christian, snubbed often by the Big 12, was set to join the Big East next year. Add the Horned Frogs to the mix and you have a 12-team league capable of hosting a football championship game and maybe keeping its automatic BCS berth.
But the cost is high. Those Big East schools themselves were thrown together in a merger with Conference USA in 2005 and have few historic ties to one another, let alone six schools halfway across the country. Eventually, that Big East partnership broke apart. Why should we think this one would hold together?
– Brian McNally
