Conference Realignment: Pac-12 Is Head of Class When It Comes to Expansion

Every conference now has its hand in conference expansion and realignment in one way or another.

The Big Ten got the team they wanted in Nebraska.

The Big East just lost two of their top schools, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, and Connecticut is threatening to leave as well.

The ACC is the conference those schools are heading to or potentially heading to.

The SEC recently jumped in the fray, as they poached Texas A&M.

Speaking of the Big 12, they have been losing members left and right and they just parted ways with their commissioner, Dan Beebe.

Even the smaller conferences got into it. The Mountain West pillaged the WAC and strengthened themselves.

Even in all of this movement, one conference stood out above the rest as the real leader in conference expansion and realignment. That's the Pac-12.

They are the ones that really got the movement started. They did all they could to get Texas and others from the Big 12 to join up last year. Those plans fell through, but they ended up with Colorado and Utah, two solid schools.

Now, they are at it again. The rumors that Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech are headed to the Pac-12 are back at the forefront. The conference was so aggressive in their attempt to bring these schools in that it cost Beebe his job.

At the head of it all is Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott. The former head of the WTA women's tennis tour has made huge strides in improving the conference's standing in the grand scheme of things.

Rival conference commissioners should take a page out of Scott's book. If they don't, they will be looking up at the Pac-12 Conference sooner rather than later.