Conference Realignment: Radical Alignments for the Future of College Football

Unfortunately, conference realignment talk has taken over college football again.

It would be much more fun to discuss the games being played on the field more in depth, but the media seems to be only interested in the restructuring of the major conferences.

Here's a look at some possible outcomes that could hopefully put an end to all this talk.

The Pac-12 and Big Ten Won't Expand

To everyone's surprise, the Pac-12 came out and recently said that they won't expand.  This is a surprise because you could debate that they are the ones who started this whole thing.

The Big Ten seems in no hurry to expand either.  They are either going to take a big time program or nobody.  The tops names that usually come up are Notre Dame and Texas, but it is unlikely that either of those teams join.

The Big Ten feels that they are set now that Nebraska is on board.

If neither of these conferences pursue anyone else, hopefully the talks will die down.

They seemingly would, seeing as how these are two of the biggest and most influential conferences out there.

The Big East Will Disentegrate

Having both Syracuse and Pittsburgh leave the Big East really hurt the conference.  With TCU supposedly coming on board soon though, who knows what will happen?

If things go as planned, the Big East will have seven teams in the near future, seeing as how TCU will join, but Syracuse and Pittsburgh will be gone.

Seven teams isn't enough to field a BCS caliber conference, and the conference will fall apart.

West Virginia has already been turned down by the SEC, but that won't stop them from looking elsewhere.  Rutgers' name has come up repeatedly with the Big Ten, but that is unlikely to happen.

What conferences would even want some of the cellar dwellers such as Connecticut and Louisville?  Perhaps Conference USA.

There is a good chance that some of the top teams could go to reasonable conferences, such as the Big 12, while some of the lower ones join Conference USA.

Realistically, Conference USA would probably love to have teams like Louisville and Connecticut.  In fact, the Big East recently talked about adding Conference USA power Central Florida.

It never happened, though, and Conference USA could maybe help out the Big East by adding some of their teams.

The Big 12 Won't Fall Apart...Yet

Yes, Texas A&M is off to the SEC, but there is still hope for the Big 12.  It just doesn't seem like Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State can stand being in the same conference together, but if they don't go to the Pac-12, then where would they go?

A lot of people are saying Texas may become independent, and maybe that would be their best move.

Could the Big 12 survive without them though?  Oklahoma would be the only real big name in the conference if that happened.

Or maybe the schools that are present now will remain.  Perhaps Texas and the other schools will work out their differences and remain together.

As long as the Longhorn Network is around though, the other schools probably aren't going to very happy.

They might have to remain unhappy though, as there just doesn't seem to be any logical conference for them to go, now that the Pac-12 has announced they won't be expanding.