Conference Realignment: Winners and Losers of Latest BCS Frenzy

The 2011 edition of musical chairs in college football is (presumably and) mercifully over for now. The Big East and the Big 12 are both a bit smaller, the Atlantic Coast Conference now extends as far west as the Allegheny River and the Pac-12 is still the only BCS conference with an accurate numerical descriptor attached to its name.

Before the college presidents and football power brokers get the chance to muck everything up again, let's have a look at the biggest winners and losers from the recent near-free-for-all.

Winner: ACC

If you like conference expansion, or at least think it's good for the conferences that are indeed expanding, then the ACC has to grade out as a big winner here.

By adding Pittsburgh and Syracuse, the ACC essentially kills two birds with one stone—taking a lead in the "Race to 16" by swelling its ranks to 14 and, in the process, bringing aboard two of the nation's premier athletics programs, each of which boasts a proud and storied (if outdated) football tradition. 

Certainly, commissioner John Swofford will be anticipating an extra large slice of the proverbial profit pie once he's worked out a fat new TV deal for his bloated burgeoning league.

Loser: Big East

Pitt and Syracuse may now be the new treasures of the ACC, but they were never the trash of the Big East. In fact, Syracuse was one of the conference's charter members when Dave Gavitt brought the league together as a basketball-centric one in 1979.

Once those two schools leave and Texas Christian jumps in, the Big East will be down to a mere seven members in football but still with 16 in just about every other sport, bringing into doubt not only its viability as a BCS conference, but also as a conglomerate for college athletics in the modern era.

The Big East's heart may be on the hardwood, but its head (and its wallet) must be on the gridiron if it is to survive in this shaky climate. In the end, commissioner John Marinatto may have to confront the nightmarish scenario of watching his conference split into two separate entities, with Catholic schools like Georgetown and St. John's forming a new basketball league and the rest of its membership holding together a tenuous football alliance. 

Winner: Larry Scott

Kudos to Larry Scott for being the only guy in college athletics willing to stand up to Texas' big-money bullying. The Pac-12 commissioner, citing a preference for "a strong conference structure and culture of equality", decided against allowing the "million dollar babies" of the Dust Bowl to blow his league to make it the first to 16 in football.

To be sure, Scott didn't turn down Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State out of reverence for the regional traditions of college football. Had Texas agreed to meld its personal tributary of revenue from the Longhorn Network into the conference-wide river of cash, you'd be hearing all about the debut of the Pac-16 in the fall of 2012.

Instead, the paint will just have to dry on the Pac-12 logo before the topic of expansion comes up again. In the meantime, Scott has once again established himself as a tactful power broker and a force to be reckoned within the often unpleasant space in "amateur" athletics and business overlap.

Loser: Dan Beebe

But don't think this is the last you'll hear of this whole mess. Dan Beebe may be out as the commissioner of the Big 12, replaced by former Big Eight boss Chuck Neinas, but the league's problems are far from over.

Beebe is the one most at fault for the Big 12's current instability. A seemingly weak-willed leader, Beebe fostered the widening of the divide between the haves and the have-nots in his conference by allowing Texas to form its own media outlet without any responsibility to the rest of league's institutions.

Out of the turmoil of the summer of 2010 came neither a Big 12 Network nor a newly-replenished league, but rather a 10-team hodgepodge sans North division powers Nebraska and Colorado, which bolted to the Big Ten and the Pac-12, respectively.

If that weren't bad enough, Beebe then found himself stuck in the middle of Texas A&M's attempted move to the SEC, with Baylor leading a desperate legal struggle to keep the Aggies from bolting the league and taking its future viability with them.

Beebe and the Big 12 now find themselves disgraced on the Great Plains, a fatal partnership, if not a pathetically deserving one, brought to a merciful end by the commissioner's ouster.   

Winner: BCS Powerhouses

The shift to four 16-team superconferences (or five of varying sizes) may not be as swift and ruthless as the media so hotly anticipated, but it figures to happen at some point, slowly but surely.

In such a scenario, the remaining big-time football leagues could very well, like Texas in the Big 12, squeeze the NCAA, the BCS and all the small-conference schools out of the equation to create a self-contained, semi-professional collegiate league with its very own (dare I say it?) playoff system.

No need to worry about silly rules regarding amateurism and eligibility. No need to share exorbitant profits with teams from Conference USA, the Mountain West, the Mid-American Conference and so on.

Just good, ol' fashioned monopoly capitalism in which all of the big boys get to divide up the ever-expanding pile of money more finely amongst themselves.  

Loser: Fans

What about the fans? What about students and alumni traveling to their neighbor states to support their teams on the road? What about regional ties that bind some schools together and not others?

Well, say the powers that be, what about 'em?

TV and the internet know no geographic boundaries, nor do the profits to be gained from those all-powerful media. Just as globalization has outsourced its costs and cons to the working poor peoples and countries of the world, so too is the "nationalization" of college football bound to throw student-athletes and fans, the very people on whom the sport depends for its survival, right under the bus.

The moneymakers in the sport care not whether its convenient or even feasible for you to follow your alma mater from stadium to stadium. In fact, they'd probably prefer that you stay home and watch the games on TV to boost their ratings and, in turn, their leverage in negotiating with content distributors and advertisers once the next big move comes along.

At least we'll finally get a playoff, right?

Right...?

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