Conference Realignment: Missouri's Decision to Stay Ends Superconference Talk

For the second consecutive year it looks like the media jumped the gun.

The University of Missouri is expected to announce late Thursday that they will be staying in the Big 12…effectively ending the idea of “super conferences” for the time being.

After Texas A&M decided to jump ship to the SEC (not quite official just yet) there was a spot open to make the league a 14-team one. The Tigers were an extremely attractive option because of the potential to get a team in the St. Louis market.

Because let’s remember folks, that’s all that really matters in these decisions.

How much money can your school make for me?

Yet with Mizzou deciding to stay put, the SEC will have to look elsewhere. This comes just two days after the Pac-12 announced they are happy with the way things are and don’t plan on adding Texas or Oklahoma anytime soon.

That means teams like Kansas, Kansas State, Texas Tech and Baylor can all take a big sigh of relief.

Only one of the dominoes has fallen and it looks like the Big 12 isn’t going anywhere…for now.

All the talk of conference realignment sprouted up again about 14 months after the first false start we had on the subject.

Last summer, Colorado and Utah moved to the Pac-12 and Nebraska went to the Big Ten in anticipation of a monumental shakeup among conferences. This time around it was Syracuse and Pittsburgh (Big East to ACC) and Texas A&M that decided to make the switch.

Does that mean conference realignment is going to take baby steps to happen? Will this topic continue to pop up once every year or so with only a handful of teams actually pulling the trigger?

The subject certainly won't be going away, but at least the Big 12 has the peace of mind that their conference—that’s been around in some form or another since 1929—will still be intact for at least the next two years. Plus Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe has been fired, which is great news for fans of the conference.

So after a week or two of really sweating things out, things are looking up for the Big 12—at least for the next few years.