The Pac 10 and the Big 10 raid the Big 12. How did we get here?

Pretend that the Hamburglar is the Pac 10 and all of those hamburgers represent the teams in the Big 12. It works if you have an imagination like I do.

College football is dominating the headlines today for multiple reasons. Let's see what's going on and then I'll do my best to analyze.

• The NCAA grew a pair and smacked USC with major penalties. The Trojans will lose 30 scholarships, they will serve a 2 year ban on the postseason and they will be stripped of all the wins with Reggie Bush starting from December 2004. This includes a national championship.


• It has been confirmed that Nebraska is heading to the Big 10. Missouri may follow suit as well as Rutgers, Pittsburgh and UConn from the Big East.


• It has been confirmed that Colorado is heading to the Pac 10 and it is assumed that Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State will soon follow.

How did this happen? The Big 12 was the second most successful and entertaining conference next to the SEC. Their teams dominated bowl games and routinely showed up in the BCS national championship game. The Big 10 is the third best conference and the Pac 10 the fourth. The Pac 10 is relatively week year in and year out besides USC. The Big 10 is known for smash-mouth, grind-it-out football but it's not known as an entertaining brand of football.

The Big 10 has something that the Big 12 doesn't have: the most successful and lucrative television network in all of college football. When it comes down to it, Nebraska and the other teams cannot turn down that kind of money plus a chance to play in the Rose Bowl, something oddly reserved only for Big 10 and Pac 10 teams.

The Pac 10 raiding the Big 12 is what baffles me the most. Like I said in a previous paragraph, the Pac10 really has no other national championship contenders year in and year out other than USC. Now that USC is banned from the postseason, it makes the Pac 10 even weaker. If I am the commissioner of the Big 12 I have to ask myself how did I let this happen.

And what about the SEC? Still no definitive word from the power conference. There have been rumors of Texas A&M making it to the SEC as well as Miami, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Clemson, West Virginia and maybe even Louisville. If the Big 10 and the Pac 10 grown by 4 or more teams, then it would make sense for the SEC to try and remain the power that they are and steal some universities.

This would mean the demise of the Big 12, the Big East and a crushing blow to the ACC as well. Will football be as interesting at the collegiate level with only 3 major conferences? Is this what is best for the game? The NCAA could give a rat's a$$ what is best for the game as long as they make their money.

Update: The BCS officially has vacated the 2005 USC national championship. They defeated Oklahoma that year.