Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott Still Smells Blood, Won't Stop at Utah

A couple of days ago Larry Scott was beginning to look like the genius who was going to take the biggest cut of pie in a massive conference shift game.

After Texas shunned him, Utah is nothing more than a consolation prize.

Despite the Utes extremely impressive recent football accomplishments, most fans of current Pac-10 schools are going to find the additions of Colorado and Utah to be out of line with the expected 16 school jump; while they aren't schools to be disappointed with, a lot of people are wondering if Larry Scott played his cards correctly, or if, more likely, he simply got played.

The trained nose can still catch a whiff of blood coming out of the Big 12. The prey might have run for cover, but it isn't anywhere near as stable as Dan Beebe would like the vultures to think.

For starters, the Beebe plan, which supposedly saved the conference by giving Texas the world (and everything in it) is resting on a three-legged table. Recent reports have come out indicating that Nebraska and Colorado don't actually owe the Big 12 any severance money, so the figures shown to Texas were a lie.

That is how the bylaws were written for that particular conference; schools who leave only owe a portion of their revenue from the next season to the conference.

But even if one can get over that little hurdle, there are a lot of schools in the conference who would likely still want out.

Missouri, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State would stand to make a lot more money if they had gone to the conferences they were initially projected to. Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M were the only ones who got rich.

When one of those schools has a great season, are they going to switch the unequal revenue sharing around?

This new conference, that isn't particularly "Big" and certainly isn't "12," is based on a lie and built on an Indian burial ground. Things are going to turn South with it sooner rather than later.

Some people aren't giving it a decade. Those who can see the cracks emerging again aren't giving it more than a couple of years, if that.

If the Big Ten knocked at Missouri's door, they would jump as quickly as they committed to Beebe. More money does not equal more problems in their formula.

Oklahoma State would have relished the opportunity to get $20M a year in the Pac-10, and so would Texas Tech.

If Larry Scott is sitting back and watching this landscape calm down following the earthquake, it is likely because he is planning the aftershock.

Why wouldn't the Pac-10 grab teams like BYU or TCU? They fit into the southwest region and both are quickly becoming all star performers in the college football world.

If Larry Scott took just one of them, and then showed Texas Tech what kind of profits they could be making from a 14-team Pac-10, he could simultaneously pick off another member of that conference, sneak into Texas territory, and push away replacement options for the Big 12.

And, with the ultimate goal of moving toward 16 teams, that would still leave spots in the conference for Oklahoma and Texas. It would also pretty much force the MWC to merge with the Big 12 leftovers.

Unlikely? Perhaps.

But Texas Tech was not too quick in sounding off a ringing endorsement for the new Big 12.

And Texas is going to become pretty disappointed when the realize they just Pac-10ed themselves out of the national championship discussion; in case anyone out there forgot, now that the Big 12 is going to be perceived as a far weaker football conference, Texas will be passed over for teams that play harder schedules in the BCS title-deciding system.

They're the new USC.

Round one of this fight might be over, but the intermission isn't going to be as long as some experts seem to think.

And just like Darrell Hammond's Sean Connery character in the old Saturday Night Live Celebrity Jeopardy spoofs, I'll be happy to bet $Texas (Texas with a dollar sign) on that.