Huskers 411

Meghan Youker

OMAHA (KPTM) — The Big 12 is calling the Big Red's bluff.

Reports surfaced Sunday that the league has given the University of Nebraska as well as the University of Missouri until Friday to decide if they want to remain a part of the conference.

The Austin American Statesman reports that the deadline could be extended until June 15th. Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany says the timetable for expansion could be moved up with this week's developments. 

Should they stay or should they go?  Husker Nation is abuzz about a possible move to the Big Ten Conference.

Anticipation is building and the talk just keeps getting louder and louder.  With the landscape of college athletics at a crossroads, fans are anxiously awaiting word on Nebraska's future.

For 14 years, the University of Nebraska's student–athletes have suited up for play in the Big 12 Conference.  But should those days be a thing of the past?

For the most part, people KPTM talked to say yes. "Things change and I think we should go forward with change," said Augie Roper.

That could mean a spot in the Big Ten.  "It's a 120 year old conference.  Stable, been there forever.  Nebraska will be solid there.  I say go," said Ken Malm.

Added Linda Mann:  "I think it would be good for the school and if you're really a true Nebraska fan, you want what's best for the school."

Still not everyone is thrilled about the idea.  George Davenport wants to stick with tradition, yet says, "I know the economics of it and we don't want to drop rowing or bowling or any of the women's sports, so better to switch allegiances than to drop sports."

A conference move would spell the end for some of Husker fans' favorite match–ups. "There's a lot of passion with the rivalries we have with Oklahoma and Texas and that's hard to give up. You want to beat those teams every year and you want to go head to head," Roper said.

But it would also pave the way for new ones.  "As old as I am and watching so many games, it's going to be sad to not be playing the same teams and stuff but you know, they'll make it exciting enough, we'll have more rivalries that are probably going to be even better," Mann said.

Added Malm: "We'll have Iowa.  They're a neighbor.  Border to border.  I'm sure that will be a rivalry real quick."

Competition even those opposed to a Big Ten jump could get used to.  "Maybe more good teams.  Maybe.  A few more and something new, it would be exciting," Davenport said.

If Nebraska does not make a commitment and moves to the Big Ten, that could trigger the Pac-10 Conference to become the Pac-16.

Big Ten and Pac-10 expansion could leave four Big 12 teams, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Baylor, left on the sidelines.  Fans KPTM talked to say they feel bad that could be the case, but say Nebraska needs to put its interests first.

Husker Fans Wait for Word: Stay or Go?

NeuLion Helps Universities of Nebraska & Colorado Streaming Live Coverage

By Raja Singh Chaudhary, TMCnet Contributor

Raja Singh Chaudhary is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Raja's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Juliana Kenny

NeuLion Helps Universities of Nebraska & Colorado Streaming Live Coverage

LINCOLN — Nebraska quarterback recruit Jamal Turner didn’t spend much time worrying about how he should prepare for a three-day instructional workout led by the same coaches he plans to play for in 2011.

Actually, Turner’s not quite sure what he’s getting himself into this weekend.

Nonetheless, the senior-to-be from Arlington, Texas — who pledged in January to join the Huskers — is thrilled about making a trip north, mostly because it’s a chance to familiarize himself with his future home.

“To be honest, I really don’t know what all we’re going to do. Probably a lot of drills,” he said. “But I’m hoping they teach me a few plays, so I can get a head start.”

Turner, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound dual threat, will be among the more than 100 participants in this year’s Elite Quarterback Academy. The annual camp for high school signal-callers at Nebraska’s football complex runs Sunday and through Tuesday.

The quarterbacks will get on-field instruction from Husker offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and other NU staff members.

It’s one of several Nebraska-led camps this month. More than 700 high-schoolers enrolled in the Big Red Football School, a three-day, all-position training camp that continues into Saturday. Offensive linemen Ryne Reeves and Dylan Admire, two more 2011 NU pledges, were on campus for the first session, which ended Wednesday.

Zach Sterup, a 6-9, 265-pound lineman from Hastings St. Cecilia, arrived in Lincoln Thursday to take part in the second session. He received a scholarship offer from Nebraska last month and recently added Notre Dame to his list of potential college choices. The Irish offered Sterup a scholarship after he took an unofficial visit to the South Bend, Ind., campus a few weeks ago.

Sterup’s high school coach, Carl Tesmer, said his talented lineman has taken a very deliberate approach to the recruiting process.

“He just seems at ease with everything,” Tesmer said. “I think he’s working through it all, taking his time. I know he probably would like to get most of the heavy stuff out of the way before our season starts (this fall).”

Visiting Nebraska this week certainly won’t hurt the Huskers’ chances.

“He was very, very excited (when NU offered),” Tesmer said.

The Huskers already have four offensive linemen committed to their 2011 recruiting class. Nine players overall have pledged to sign with the Huskers in February.

Until then, Turner said he’ll keep taking advantage of as many chances that he can to visit Lincoln. He’s already making the necessary steps to graduate from Sam Houston High School in December to enroll at Nebraska next spring.

“I’m going to be in college,” he said. “Who doesn’t want to enjoy that lifestyle? I can’t wait.”

Contact the writer:

402-473-9585, jon.nyatawa@owh.com

Copyright ©2010 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.

Recruit's trip will be a learning experience

Soccer's Growing Popularity: World Cup Fever in Nebraska

21 comments so far June 21, 2010 by Steve Hanway

Bubba Starling isn't just a big-time baseball and football prospect. The Kansas native is big period. He's 6'5". But he's not one of those plodding pocket passers. Rather, he's a speedy player to boot. And he's got a cannon for an arm. Which is probably why defending national champion Alabama had him on their radar, along with Notre Dame, Nebraska, and a number of other BCS schools. But didn't Nebraska land a big recruit for the class of 2011 not that long ago? So why offer both players? The answer is simple. Each player was too good a prospect to walk away from.

Those who scan depth charts, both present and future, might describe Nebraska as having a glut of young quarterbacks. Cody Green will be a sophomore next year. Taylor Martinez will be a redshirt freshman. Brion Carnes will be a true freshman. Now Starling and Jamal Turner will be arriving with the class of 2011. That's a lot of competition for the next few years. Sure a redshirted player this year wouldn't start burning eligibility until Green's senior year. But it sounds easily like the most competitive battle to be the starting quarterback at Nebraska since Tom Osborne was the head coach.

That's got to be a good thing. Not only will it make the position better, but it says something about how far the program has come that so many high quality recruits are prepared to come in and truly compete for the job. Not only has Bo Pelini successfully changed the culture, but he's elevated the appeal to recruits. Not bad for having been in town for just a little over two seasons.

Starling is a big enough baseball prospect that he may reconsider his decision to particpate in college athletics. He also may focus more on baseball than football once in school. But if he decides he wants to be a quarterback, he could be a pretty special one.

Did you enjoy this article?

Get Husker news by email
Follow us on Twitter

21 comments so far nu-isu-fan Jun 21 10

Two commits last week. We've got a good class in the works. I hope the momentum continues.

My only fear with Starling committing is that it might make Turner rethink his choice. If that happens and then Starling jumps to the Majors, we could go from two great QB prospects to zero.

I read someplace that Turner had given his blessing for NU to pursue another. Not sure if that's true though.

Phillip Jun 21 10

Jamal Turner isn't afraid of competition at QB. Bubba Starling is a fantastic get, as long as Major League Baseball doesn't steal him with a first round cash offer.

Look at the depth NU has competing, and the quality of talent at every position! Bo Pelini is bringing in the best from around the nation. There isn't a name on that roster that doesn't inspire confidence. In three short years Pelini has completely turned this program around. Can't wait to see the results on the field!

Go Big Ten and Go Big Ted!

Spoof Jun 21 10

NU was up front with Turner the whole time about their desire to take a second QB in the class. I applaud Turner's competitive nature and his desire to play at the top levels of college football. Now that we have taken a second 4* QB turner knows two things.

1) He was going to have top level competition no matter what BCS caliber school he went to.

2) He is a dynamic athlete like T-Mart and could possibly play in the slot or on defense. No matter the situation bo & Co. will (should) find a place for him on the field.

Phillip Jun 21 10

And that's what happens when you fail to proofread....

Go Big Ten and GO BIG RED!

floridafrenchie Jun 21 10

Still getting big commits from players in the leftover Big 12 Conference area. Last week many Husker fans were worried that Bo would not be able to recruit in Kansas, Missouri and Texas anymore because of going to the Big 10. This proves once again great High School recruits will still come to the Huskers simply because we are NEBRASKA!!!!! Go Big Red!!

floridafrenchie Jun 21 10

Another great player from the remains of the Big 12 Conference. Many Husker fans last week were extremely worried that Bo would not be able to recruit players out of Kansas, Missouri and Texas because of NU going to the Big 10. Bubba Starling is another example that great players will still come to the Huskers simply because we are NEBRASKA!!! Good choice Bubba and Good Job Bo & Company. Keep em coming! The Huskers will win the Big 12 Championship this coming season and will be in position to immediately win the Big 10 next season!! GO BIG RED!!

darren Jun 21 10

Bubba is a great "get" for NU. And he has to be on the all-name team, right? Who can't cheer for a guy named BUBBA??

Yes, it creates a lot of depth and competition. But, teams really need to be that deep at QB. They are essential. Teams almost need 3 servicable ones at any time during the year. People transfer, get hurt or don't pan out all the time. And, with NU clearly going to a more QB-run type of offense, they will take more hits than they have in the past.

And, I have heard reports that Turner - like Martinez before him - would be willing to take a crack at other positions, if it means getting on the field. That's a good team attitude, and gets the ball to the hands of playmakers.

rfhusker Jun 21 10

I saw Starling play in the KS 5A basketball tournament last year. He can stand flat footed and jump straight up for a monster dunk. Pretty amazing athlete. Gardner is about 30 minutes from Lawrence, and his coach Marvin Diener once coached Jake Sharp and Terrance Newman, among others.

nu-isu-fan Jun 21 10

Good points, fellas. I shouldn't worry. One has to expect strong competition at strong teams.

Dotbo Jun 21 10

Depth, depth, depth, and more depth. NU's strongest teams had 2nd stringers and 3rd stringers capable of competing with almost no drop-off. Their hardest game was the Spring Game. Moving in that direction.

2011's class, so far, is filled with big names and 4-star recruits. Not to say that matters to Bo, as it gets you no wins. But it's nice to see NU get the guys everybody else wants.

Beat Texas 10/16/2010.

NOLA_SKER Jun 21 10

Where's Trojan at to come and claim that this kid wouldn't even get his name mentioned at USC? I'm just saying.....

A great get though all kidding aside. We need these kids and being from Kansas he is a steal. Those are areas we need to get just as much as Texas. Lots of quality players came from our border states that have a better idea of what it means to play for Nebraska than most (not all) kids from states like Cali and Florida. Not downing those kids by any means so don't read anything negative into that. Just my observation and uninformed opinion.

Snotnosekid Jun 21 10

I heard he removed a tumor from the Pope's lung with a Sharpie. I saw him win American Idol too. His mom is Megan Fox. ESPN is reporting he just won the world cup. But, most impressive: he single handedly removed all the nose hairs from Bo's beak. He's the worlds most interesting man...he's Time Tebow.

bill Jun 21 10

{shivering thinking about what might have been with Carl Crawford}

Trey Francis Jun 21 10

6-21-10 Bubba Starling will not be around for Football at Nebraska due to his pitching arm in Major League Baseball. Trey Francis

Bubba Starfish Jun 21 10

It wasn't a Sharpie, it was a ball point pen. I did not win American Idol, it was So You Think You Can Dance. My mom IS Megan Fox and my dad is Johnny Rodgers. I did not win the world cup. It's not over yet you idiots. I have to play Germany tomorrow. And I did remove Bo's beak beard, but I did it with the help of Barack Obama. I can't believe how the internet gets things messed up. And I will be around for football at Nebraska, but I will have to miss some time for practice with the Lakers. Tim Tebow rinses my delicates.

Mark Jun 21 10

I think we start stealing more kids that traditionally went to schools from the University of Texas @ Lawerence, University of Texas @ Ames, University of Texas @ manhattan areas.

Husker4Life Jun 21 10

Means nothing until they sign on the dotted line, we have lost many top recruits over the past years before signing day....Dont get me wrong, we are bringing in alot of great talent over the last couple of years, but, i dont take these stories for more than they are, until signing day is here, and that fax comes through the machine.

Matt Jun 22 10

From all accounts, he sounds like a great kid with a bright future in both baseball at the collegiate or professional levels. If it's the latter, then that's completely understandable.

Regardless, this will show as the Big teXII devolves into its inferior (well, inferior to all but the MAC, CUSA, and maybe the Big East) iteration, we'll start seeing more and more of the 5* kids from Missouri, Kansas, and possibly Colorado jumping on board with Nebraska (like it was for most of the 70s through late 90s).

This will help make up for any defect, perceived or otherwise, in Texas recruiting we may face. At least until conferences expand to 16 teams, at any rate.

Austin Jun 22 10

I think he's going the baseball route.

JBLING22 Jun 22 10

According to Rivals with the commitment of Sterup NU now has 5 of top 26 Offensive Lineman in the Country... With Starling and Turner we also have two of the top 6 Qbs according to Rivals ( although Starling will more than likely be playing baseball this time next year)... I would hope that increases the chances of us getting a few more quality recievers..and I can't imagine too many teams beig able to pull in the offensive line/ qb class that we currently have committed.. Way to go Bo!!

Natty champ Jun 25 10

I think Huskers could be Natty Champs! Look at our schedule and with Crick at the defensive helm, this could seriously be our year, seriously take a look at that schedule.

Post a comment

NextPrevious

Huskers Land Big Quarterback Commit

Good bye, Nebraska, don't let the door hit you on the way out. Will the Big 12 Conference survive without you? It seems doubtful at this point but who knows.

One thing I do know is the Cornhuskers are symbolic of everything that's wrong with college athletics. It's about making money, and if the NCAA and university presidents would admit it's all about making a pretty penny, it would be for the best.

Don't feed us nonsense that it's about the student athletes, because it clearly isn't. That's complete garbage. If it was, why would Texas even consider moving to the Pac-10? It's 2,055 miles from Austin to Pullman, Wash., (home of Washington State) and 1,771 miles to Seattle, where Washington University is located. The athletes would get home at terrible times and miss classes, particularly during basketball season, when weeknight games are prevalent.

That's why there's no playoff system in college football, right? I thought that was one of the reasons we heard from the BCS and university presidents — that it would cause students to miss classes. Never mind that the playoff would occur during Christmas break when students are gone. Cut the excuses — admit that you're about dollar signs. We all know it. We're just waiting on you to come out and say it.

But let's return to Nebraska, the real issue at the present moment.

When I think of Tom Osborne, I picture a traditionalist — a man who recognizes and cherishes history. I see a football coach who had a relentless knack for winning games, a coach who dominated the Big Eight Conference. I envision him as being one of the greatest coaches in college football history.

After the last few weeks, I realize he's just another greed-driven, jealous figure. Don't let what he said earlier this week on his radio show fool you, this is also about the Nebraska athletic director's animosity toward Texas.

Yes, money is a significant factor with the Big Ten Network, but if Nebraska had remained patient with the Big 12, I'm certain a lucrative television deal would have came about when the league's contract runs out in two years.

Osborne is bitter and he's taking advantage of a chance to stick it to Texas. See, Texas has irritated Osborne ever since the Big 12 was formed in 1996. All those years before the Big 12 existed, Nebraska was the big fish along with Oklahoma in a little pond. The Cornhuskers dominated. They won the Big Eight 12 times under Osborne from 1975-95. They won three national championships on the football field, two of which came right before the league formed in 1994 and 1995. Osborne didn't want change. He was dominating.

When the Longhorns entered the picture, Nebraska blended in. Texas pushed for rules that hurt Osborne's chances of continuing his winning ways. He didn't want a Big 12 championship game, but everyone else in the league did. That championship game cost him against Texas in 1996, when Osborne saw his team lose to the team he would grow to loathe.

The Longhorns led the charge to change eligibility standards that were in place when the Big Eight existed. The Big Eight didn't limit the number of partial qualifiers to a school and allowed non-qualifiers to enroll at universities. Non-qualifiers would have to sit the first year — paying their own way and then were eligible to play the second year as long as they passed 24 credit hours over two semesters.

When the Big 12 formed, the schools agreed to stay with the old rules, but Texas wanted otherwise and got its way. Under the new Big 12 rules, only two male and two female partial qualifiers are allowed to enroll each year, with no more than one athlete in each sport. Non-qualifiers aren't accepted at all and must go to junior college before admittance.

The Big Ten, which prides itself on academic integrity, does not limit the number of partial and non-qualifiers. Wonder why Osborne wants to leave? There's just another reason.

It is widely rumored that Osborne was the only athletic director at the Big 12 meetings last week who voted against the league's football championship being played at Jerry Jones' stadium in Texas for the next three years. Osborne wanted it to alternate between Kansas City, Mo., and Dallas.

The Big 12 championship in basketball belongs in Kansas City, but Osborne doesn't want to hear it, because he's a football guy. 

This is all coupled with the fact that the Cornhuskers were within a second of a Big 12 championship in football last season, only to see time added to the clock. Texas would win on a field goal due to the extra time, all adding bitterness to the situation.

Osborne can complain all he wants about the Big 12. But the league has been better for his university than most of the others. Yet he whined the most. He complained about the television revenue not being divided evenly and that Texas had a significant advantage. In 2007, Texas made $1.1 million more than Nebraska in television dollars, which is penny change in the multi-million dollar business college athletics has become.

The Big 12 has done plenty. Remember that year Nebraska got throttled 62-36 against Colorado and failed to even play in its own conference championship? Well the Cornhuskers still got the chance to play in the national title game. Kansas State wishes it could say its double-overtime, three-point loss to the No. 10 team in the country (Texas A&M) in 1998 could at the very least have gotten them to a BCS game rather than the Alamo Bowl.

If anyone should be complaining, it should be the Iowa States and the K-States of the league, not Nebraska.

Over the last 14 years, Nebraska has slowly faded as the league's big fish. It hasn't won a conference championship since 1999 on the football field. Now the Huskers are reportedly moving to the Big Ten, where they will continue to blend in.

But hey, Nebraska will be good for seven or eight wins a year on the football field and a trip to the Alamo Bowl. Maybe even a trip to the Capital One Bowl and a nine, maybe 10-win season.

Enjoy the Huskers Big Ten. Their fans travel well and they have a big football stadium. If that's what you're looking for, you got the perfect fit.

What we're seeing is a seismic shift in college athletics. It's just another step toward greed. And frankly, it's sickening.

And Nebraska, a program  that prides itself on tradition, seems to have become part of it.

Manbeck: Have fun in the Big Ten, Cornhuskers

Future Huskers together on Nebraska Juniors team

KU chancellor asks Nebraska to stay The Nebraska-Kansas rivalry in football, lopsided as it is with the Huskers holding a 90-23-3 all-time mark, is a survivor.

The teams played in 1919 during the influenza epidemic. They met in 1920 when every team in the old Missouri Valley Conference refused to schedule the Cornhuskers because Nebraska wanted to play its home games in Omaha. The Jayhawks stood by their neighbor and played to a rare nonloss — a 20-20 tie that helped inspire fund-raising for Memorial Stadium in Lawrence.

Now, Kansas is asking Nebraska to keep alive the relationship as conference members.

Kansas chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little told the Associated Press that she had reached out to Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman and planned to do the same with Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton, urging them to remain in the Big 12 and spurn a potential offer from the Big Ten.

Meanwhile, Baylor president Kenneth Starr — yes, the same attorney who investigated Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky — spoke with reporters on Monday and said he “emphatically supports” the Big 12.

KU, Baylor urge status quo The Kansas City Star

• Share
• Retweet

'); } else { $(_this).append(' Follow him on Twitter: @'+value+'.'); } } }); } }); T(_t.selector).hovercards(anywhereOptions); T(".for-twitter").hovercards(anywhereOptions); //REMOVE THE CLASS NAME SO WE DON'T ANYWHERE IT TWICE $(".for-twitter").removeClass("for-twitter"); }); } if(typeof(twttr) == "undefined") { $.getScript("http://platform.twitter.com/anywhere.js?id="+config.key+"&v="+config.version,anywhere); } else { anywhere(); } return this; };})(jQuery);

You just know there's someone screaming right now -- whether it's into a phone at a talk-show host or at the guy next to him at the bar -- that the Nationals need to sign Bryce Harper in time for him to get in the lineup and catch Stephen Strasburg tonight. We can't help ourselves; it's just how we roll.

Immediacy is our thing. We don't have to wait for the paper to get our scores anymore; we get our stats updated after each at-bat. The immediacy of information breeds a mentality that reduces attention spans and makes people queasy when they have to wait around for something -- or someone -- to develop. Technology has done its best to eliminate the unknown.

Which brings us, perhaps surprisingly, to the slowest-developing and most frustrating story of the current cycle: college conference realignment. This could reupholster the entire college-sports mansion, with about 50,000 square feet reserved for a handful of teams and a cozy yet rustic servants' quarters for the rest.

Without boring into the thousands of permutations currently in play, let's just say the first domino figures to be (A) Notre Dame's decision to accept the bended-knee, dog-slobber entreaties of the Big Ten, or (B) Nebraska's thumbs-up/thumbs-down on the Big 12 if Notre Dame can't decide.

Nebraska is being cast as the Judas of the entire opera, with schools such as Kansas suggesting that Tom Osborne consider his roots before pushing the plunger that detonates college football as we know it. But Nebraska, just like every other school, is trying to position itself to take advantage of the biggest and most lucrative Next the NCAA has to offer. Why should the Cornhusker State care about the fate of Kansas' basketball program?

(By the way, where's the NCAA in all this? Do its officials have any say in what happens here, or are they too busy licking their fingers in preparation for all the money-counting they'll have to do if this comes about? Because as it stands, we're left to listen to the words of people like Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, who has shown a tic-like tendency to string together words that contain absolutely no meaning. It's as if he's trying to set the world record for the random use of the odious phrase "at the end of the day.")

What are you supposed to think? There are too many moving parts. Who wants to sink their teeth into a good slow-developing story? We just want answers, and we want them now, and if you don't have them we'll settle for educated guesses. The story is being covered, but it's mostly speculation until something happens. That's the beauty of immediacy: Nobody's wrong anymore, at least not for longer than it takes to do a quick Internet scrub.

I don't really know what to make of it, other than the obvious: A bloated Big Ten and a super-bloated Pac-16 would be another concession to money and power and another cannonball to the nethers of tradition. For people who yearn for the days of the Ohio State-USC Rose Bowls, this is Armageddon.

Eventually, college sports will be centralized and monopolized (even more) by the top 50 or so universities. It'll be kind of like the media. There will be three conferences controlling all the television time, all the money and all the spots in the eventual national playoff system. The Boise States and Bowling Greens of the world will become de facto JV programs, because they won't have the resources to compete for recruits or championships. If you root for the pit bull over the hamster, this plan's for you.

Let's take this to its logical extreme: The players at each of these schools in each of these "super conferences" should be paid. The destruction of tradition might as well be complete, right? If the top handful of schools are going to be the only ones with the opportunity to compete at the highest level, then do away with the amateurism sham and go full bore. Let every blue-chip high schooler go to the highest bidder, and make the figures public. Forget the idea of promoting the high-minded ideals of amateurism so that Texas and Alabama can't pay a kid when Miami (Ohio) can't. In the age of the super conference, Miami (Ohio) isn't going to be playing the same game anymore. An undefeated Ball State will be lucky to get an invite to Shreveport, La., to play the seventh-place finisher in the Pac-16 Arid America Division.

Oh, and academics (it makes me feel almost Dickensian to type that word) will be devalued even more, which means they'll go from being a quaint afterthought to being a quaint non-thought. And that might be preferable, actually, to the hypocritical wink-wink that's being played out in too many universities under the current system.

See? See what I mean about speculation and impatience? Conference cannibalism has the potential to become the endless pasta bowl of sports stories. When the Big Ten's plans first broke, it went from being a complete secret to completely exasperating us in less than a week. (The exasperation part might be a stretch, but play along.) The insatiable need to know everything in order to render a loud and half-educated opinion about it supersedes all. Give it to us right or wrong, but by God, give it to us now.

ESPN The Magazine senior writer Tim Keown co-wrote Josh Hamilton's autobiography, "Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back," which is available on Amazon.com. Sound off to Tim here.

MORE COMMENTARY »

Big Ten, Pac-10, Big 12 college football expansion a slow-moving story, but we ...

The loss of the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Colorado Buffaloes leaves the Big 12 with 10 teams but accentuates the conference's financial imbalance problem. The smaller conference has not yet been renamed but I would recommend something like the Big Texas Plus Nine conference.

Nebraska and Colorado both ranked in the top-5 in Big 12 conference football revenue leaving fewer teams to compete with the Longhorns. Although individual school revenue is not destiny, it is a key variable in being able to hire the best coaches, build and maintain the best facilities, and have the political influence to affect the sport.

The University of Texas now has really only two conference financial competitors in football. Based on 2008 figures, Texas had revenues of $87 million with Oklahoma at $47 million and Texas A&M at $38 million.

All other schools came in with $26 million or less. Baylor came in last at $12 million per year.  How can a conference expect competitiveness with such a mismatch in financial resources from top to bottom in a conference?

Initial reports suggest that the new 10-team conference will probably be more financially imbalanced.  Although new television contracts will boost total conference revenue, Texas and Oklahoma will benefit the most. They will get more TV revenue and be allowed to develop their own individual TV contracts.

This would not be allowed in any other major conference but seems to be a desperation attempt to do anything necessary to keep the league together.  

Oklahoma State, Missouri, Texas Tech, Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State, and Baylor just signed on for the Big Texas Plus Nine conference. Their chance to win the conference championship in football likely fell under the new conference arrangement.  

The new conference will not be eligible to have a conference championship. But based on the growing financial inequality, the championship game will likely be played each year in the Cotton Bowl. That's when Oklahoma and Texas meet in the annual Red River rivalry.

For many years, the rest of the conference teams will likely be battling for third place. 

NCAA Football: The Big Texas Plus Nine Conference