Pac-12 Expansion Rejected: Why It's Really Just Delaying the Inevitable

Just because the Pac-12 will stay at 12 teams does not mean the conference won’t surpass that in the near future.

The holdup seems to be Texas’ Longhorn Network, and that should not influence their decision to take Oklahoma and Oklahoma State as both schools add prestige and markets for the conference.

But even if the Big 12 is once again salvaged at the final moment, the league is still wildly unstable with only nine teams, and Texas still getting all the revenue from its Longhorn Network. Oklahoma is the only school in the conference with enough clout to stand up to them, and the Sooners are still upset over the LHN and with commissioner Dan Beebe.

From the looks of it at this point, superconferences will only go up to 14 teams which should keep independence as an option for Texas and Notre Dame if no conference decides to pick them up.

The Big East is still in complete shambles despite this report claiming the opposite. In order for the conference to survive it needs to offer full membership to Houston, UCF, Temple and either Memphis or East Carolina in order to be considered viable at this point.

If Oklahoma does in fact leave the Big 12, the league is over as we know it and 16-team superconferences will likely be born.

With the ACC at 14 teams, and the SEC closing in on a 14th team after accepting Texas A&M into their conference, there is no way the other conferences will just sit idly by with 12.

There is a huge difference between 14 and 16 team leagues in terms of scheduling and conference realignment—16 team leagues would force a BCS playoff and pod scheduling which would not allow anyone to remain independent—and it does not appear anyone will go that route at the moment.

But sooner or later, the remaining BCS conferences will get on board with the 14-team model in order to keep up with each other. That may be a few years down the road considering that Pittsburgh and Syracuse will be living the Big East in 2014.

Unfortunately, for the people who just want college football to be about the game on the field, conference expansion and realignment will be a pressing issue for years to come.

There is a lot of uncertainty and speculation in all of it, but at some point, superconferences will become a reality.