I guess that $20 I spent on a Big XII hat a couple weeks ago was wasted.  Glad I didn't buy a T-shirt, too, at least.

Assuming Nebraska to the Big10 happens, it is likely only the first move of a multi-move game.

And it looks like a smart one.  It forces action from other conferences--Big12/Pac10 obviously and then Pac10 and then SEC and then Big East--that will likely net the Big10 what it really wants (ND), but could not get right away.  And if not, well then a 12 team conference with Nebraska is still pretty sweet.   As a Big10 fan, I'd rather the conference be proactive and start the whole process than be reactive to the Pac10.

I think when the dust is settled this will look like a brilliant opening move.  Texas was never happening.  A 14 team conference with Nebraska, ND, and one of several other eastern schools?  Nice conference! We could not get that in one swoop, but move by move it will happen.

Unless of course this is all bogus news.....

Damn!

So much for being proactive.

Thanks Pac-10.

[u]Football and the BTN[/u] Pretty obvious, second place in the BigXII thanks to their defense and 11 wounded ducks that they claimed was an offense. They’ll be competitive and ranked and go to a bowl *sobs, cuts self*. Speaking of bowls they’re a great to team to add in terms of getting more bowl bids. Lil’ Reds fans travel like crazy. I mean any excuse to get out of Nebraska, right? “Honey, the schedule says we’re playing the Siberian Polytechnical Cosmodrome Tundra Wolves, pack the parkas and get us some tickets from that there website Shatner advertises.” Long story short, two days after scheduling a game at SPC, Nebraska would be on the phone asking for a larger ticket allotment because they’ve sold out. Now the TV market does kind of stink in terms of set top boxes. We own Omaha and Lincoln now, woohoo! Yay, *trails off*. However don’t forget big names brings ESPN. Nebraska-Penn State/Michigan/tOSU/Wisconsin/Iowa, all of thoses are going to get eyes on the TV. Even if the program isn’t terrible relevant, if all of the above can manage to be ranked *sobs more, cuts self again* it gives us big name programs with those magic little top 25 numbers in front of them. People love to watch those games. Michigan can stumble into the Horseshoe a drunken and bleeding mess and ESPN still spends a week hyping us simply because of the names involved in that game. Another example of this is Notre Dame, they’re shit and they schedule like shit, yet they have a lucrative TV contract because of their name and the fact people watch their games. The more people you have watching your games on Saturday the more you can charge for advertising on the network. So we may not pick up a large number of set top boxes, but we’ll command eyeballs come Saturday and that means advertising dollars. *As various posters have pointed out, the BTN is already carried in New York and other major cities due to the fact the B10 has alumni everywhere. The next step is getting people to change to the BTN channel and watch a game. We need stuff bars will show, people will gather together to watch, etc. Nebraska gives us that. [u]Other Money Issues[/u] Now BTN and football money is nice, don’t get me wrong. The other lure of the B10 though is the CIC and the insanely huge amount of research dollars we get. The millions the BTN generations is sweet, but the University of Michigan Health Services (hospital, medical school, various biological research, etc) generations [b]billions[/b] of dollars. Some of this comes from patients and private grants, a lot of this comes from federal grants (CDC, NIH, etc). Adding in Nebraska means we have two more state senators who suddenly want to see the CIC given money, plus most of Nebraska’s Congressional Reps. Best part is they all have loyalty to the CIC. No other school in Nebraska has the academic chops to go after high end research money and grants. What will happen is Nebraska will do a lot of joint projects with other CIC schools. The academic credentials will come from the schools, while the backroom lobbying and political pressure comes from the politicians. ND really doesn’t help us here since we already have Purdue and Indiana to put pressure on the Indiana reps. In Texas it appears the loyalty of the legislature is “In state schools first, conference second.” Hockey! Clearly the state of Nebraska is capable of supporting a college hockey program (Nebraska-Omaha). Now we have the BTN and it needs stuff to show in the football offseason, beyond rerunning the Gator Bowl to keep the suicide level low in the Ann Arbor region. One of those “Wouldn’t it be nice things” would be a Big10 hockey conference that the BTN had rights to. We seen some signs of moving in that direction, with the Big 10 schools in the CCHA and WCHA moving to play each other more. So, and this is entirely speculation, part of the reason Nebraska may have been invited is they promised to use some of their BTN payout to get a hockey program off the ground. Notre Dame would obviously be a better prize in this area. I just can’t see Texas starting a hockey program though. [u]Corn[/u] B10 now controls Iowa and Nebraska. All your corn is belong to us. So at the end of the day, Nebraska does a lot for us, without really threatening us. Michigan and tOSU likely remain the biggest fish in the pond and we pick up the second most profitable program in the BigXII. We get their political pull (you think Nebraska and Iowa don’t have political pull? Explain those corn subsidies then good sir.), their name in football and another AAU land grant state school that likely fits our culture. They’ll be making money hand over first and likely fit in with us fairly well. With Texas we’d have 2-3 Texas schools that vote in lockstep and a Texas sized ego that may or may not have run the SWC and BigXII into the ground, all in exchange for the Texas market and a hugely profitable sports program. High risk/high reward right there. With ND we’d get the Catholic political pull and a hockey program, but let’s be honest, after a week of listening them talk about how honored they should be that surrendered their cherished independence to join us, we’d likely strangle them. As much as I covet adding in ND’s hockey program and massive fanbase, I’d must rather see them forced into the Big East to die a slow death as they become Navy’s new whipping boy.

As various posters have pointed out, the BTN is already carried in New York and other major cities due to the fact the B10 has alumni everywhere.

Yes, but it is part of the sports tier, which costs extra. It is not part of basic cable in New York.

I live in Austin, and I can assure you, most UT fans are more than happy to stick around the Big 12 (now 11, soon to be 10) and dominate. 

Expansion is not a big subject around here.  It's hasn't even been the lead story on the sports page yet.  Some of my friends who are season ticket holders are not even aware the Big 12 could be falling apart. 

I will admit UT fans are a little arrogant which probably upsets the other Big 12 schools, but UT has earned it.  They dominate in a wide range of mens and womens sports.

I don't really see it that way. The three big fish in the expansion derby are Texas, Nebraska, and Notre Dame. Delaney has already bagged one of the three, and the chess match with Notre Dame is still playing out. Even if he "loses" Texas, the Longhorns were always a longshot.

I suspect Delaney can have the Irish anytime he wants, simply by putting a bullet in the Big East, which he could easily do. That he has not done so, suggests that he is keeping his options open, not that he has lost the game.

And now we get revenge for those damn Sunbelt referees at the Alamo Bowl. Come on down Cornhuskers... we got something for you and your precious Blackshirts.

...Mandel's take on Nebraska.

Once you get over the sentimental part of it -- which, mind you, Kansas isn't about to do anytime soon -- Nebraska's decision is a no-brainer. The fact is, Tom Osborne and Co. aren't leaving the actual Big 8, the league in which it used to vie annually with Oklahoma for annual supremacy and accompanying trips to the Orange Bowl. There's no going back to those glory days of Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier and Thanksgiving dates with Barry Switzer.

No, Nebraska is leaving the Big 12, a highly competitive but highly dysfunctional marriage of the old Big 8 schools with four Texas schools from the scandal-savaged Southwest Conference. At the time of the league's 1996 inception, the Huskers were kings, in the midst of their amazing run of three national titles in four years. A decade later, the center of power in the Big 12 had shifted squarely to its South Division lynchpins Texas and Oklahoma and, while third-year coach Bo Pelini seems to be engineering a resurrection, even he couldn't fix the off-field issues that hampered the league -- years of mismanagement and in-fighting; archaic television contracts and unequal revenue distribution.

Enter the Big Ten, which in many ways is the antithesis of the Big 12. On the field, its teams have struggled to gain national respect, and, not coincidentally, the density of top-shelf recruits in its home states appears to be waning. Off the field, however, the 115-year-old conference is a model of stability. It boasts the shrewdest commissioner in the sport, the richest television deals in the land (highlighted, of course, by its ground-breaking cable network) and the high academic standing of its institutions.
 

Here's Dennis Dodd's. 

It is a national program with incredibly deep local roots so be gentle, Jim, because Nebraska football isn't a "brand" or "inventory" as you like to call the games you sell to networks. Nebraska football isn't just something to fill air time on the Big Ten Network. It is a culture. It is brawn. It is Outlands, Heismans.

It is the Great Plains version of Michigan -- with its pride still intact. [Screw you, Dodd.]

Now it's all yours, Jim. Don't mess it up. Don't make Nebraska football into ... Purdue, something lost in the haze of a 16-team conference. I'm talking to you, Jim Delany. This is on you, the Big Ten commissioner. You didn't just invite a school or a team or a program. You invited a state, its people, its past, its future, its ethic.

If everybody goes to a super conference (as it looks like they will), how bad is it to get the texas package deal? especially if this whole situation leaves ND with no other option but the big 10. Also, if that were the case, would it be possible for the big ten to have a TEX-ND division and a MI-OSU division? that way, rivalries could stay pretty much the same