Pac-10-Big 12 Merger Now Certain: What Will the New Conference Be Named?

I can honestly say that I am as excited as anyone about the now seemingly destined merger between the Pac-10 and the Big 12 South.

Actually, I may be more excited than most.

I grew up watching Big 8/Big 12 football, as an Oklahoma native, but am a graduate of the Pac-10's football honor guard: USC.

My football passions have always been in the majesty of the Red River Rivalry, but my loyalties lie in the cardinal and gold section of Los Angeles' Crosstown Showdown.

The only thing I dislike about the looming merger is that Nebraska won't be tagging along; they are a team with a wonderful history. Not much of a market, but a great history.

Despite my dislike for that minor facet of the plan, the merger is coming on like a train at full speed bound for the new capital of Western football: Los Angeles will be positioned at the dogleg of the new conference, making it the pivotal location.

Heck, as the home of the Rose Bowl, Los Angeles is on the verge of becoming the capital of everything relevant in college football; the Big Ten should expand shortly after the Pac-10, making the "Granddaddy of 'em all" even bigger than it already is.

This city is the place where the NFL supposedly can't survive?

By the middle of July, the college football landscape will look so far removed from what anyone could have possibly expected that the average fan who hasn't watched these rapid developments will think they're the victim of an elaborate, practical joke.

These are simply the facts of the situation, and they raise some fundamental questions.

One of the biggest is what the heck do you name a conference that covers three time zones, the entire Rocky Mountains, and the whole, populated Western half of the United States?

Obviously, the conference is no longer going to be "Pacific," nor will it be "10."

The conference certainly will be "Big," but the "Big 16" sounds like such a bland name for it (and that might be stealing the Big Ten's next idea).

It almost seems like the best name for it is already taken: If anything ever deserved to be called the Western Athletic Conference, this would certainly be it. Washington State to South Texas definitely covers the entire American West.

Changing it to the Western Conference seems too similar, and the Western 16 doesn't have a traditional, college football sound.

Is this 16-team superconference beyond naming?

The divisions themselves are easy to name: Obviously the old Pac-8 becomes the Pacific division, and the new six plus the Arizona schools become the Southwest division.

This is a great opportunity for college football fans to make suggestions for something that will have a profound impact on college football history. A conference name doesn't change often, and when it does, it is remembered for a very long time.

Use the comments section below to offer your ideas, but hopefully in the long run we could get the new conference to send the naming process to some sort of fan-based vote.

I'm not sure how to make it happen, but even from the standpoint of discussing college football's first superconference in the media, a universal name needs to be selected.

We can't keep on calling it "college football's first superconference."