https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/ncaaf/bigten/2022/06/30/ucla-usc-negotiations-join-big-ten-demolishing-pac-12/7779419001/

The Register article may be unavailable to non-subscribers.

Here is something from ESPN...

Are they going to kick Nebraska out for being an AAU failure?

Are they going to kick Rutgers out for being Rutgers?

Probably not, but they should.

Talks of a new ‘Big East’ type basketball-focused conference centered around the west coast with the departure of UCLA and USC. I’m sure this would consist of the remnants of the Pac12 or most of it, plus Gonzaga and 1-3 other good basketball programs from the MWC/WCC/others

--- Forever True Blue

But the money is still made in football, not basketball.  

Not my idea, just what CBS had a story on + my predictions if it were true

--- Forever True Blue

Stanford, Arizona, Utah, Cal-Berkeley, and Washington have all had just as much or more basketball success as they have had in football recently. They would probably be hesitant to fabricate a new league with smaller schools just for basketball though.

The Big East has survived realignment because of the fact it is basketball based and doesn't bend a knee to football realignment. There are programs that would likely prefer a stable conference with football taking a backseat than an unstable one with a football focus. Schools with good/great basketball programs and lackluster football programs like the ones I mentioned, or even someone like Kansas are stuck watching the world fly by and Mega conferences form while they're stuck in a football focused league who's being forced to pick up the scraps that the Big10/SEC leave behind. There is no Big East equivalent in the midwest or west coast.

I could realistically see Kansas leaving the Big 12 for the Pac 12, especially if it made clear it would make basketball a higher priority. Maybe a team or two from the MWC, and 2-4 from the WCC/WAC. You could have a seriously competitive basketball league.

A conference with some combination of Stanford, Arizona, Utah, Cal, Washington, Washington State, Kansas, Gonzaga, Saint Mary's, Colorado, Colorado State, Boise State, or maybe a UCSD, UCSB, or UC-Irvine. 




--- Forever True Blue

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/34173740/what-ucla-usc-moves-pac-12-big-ten-mean-college-basketball

--- Forever True Blue

I don’t see this as the only big 10 additions because of travel. Create a West, Central, East division maybe one more. Then at least you can have USC vs Ohio St frequently.

I hate it. Worthless as t*ts on a boar. Geographical sense is completely gone. Tradition is completely gone. 

Just DU it !

At this point, I just hope the NCAA basketball tournament remains unaffected for as long as possible.

Long term from an MVC perspective, I do wonder if there will ever be a day when scholarship football schools and non-scholarship/no football schools go their separate ways. 

Will (for example) UNI/South Dakota or Western/Illinois St want to develop all-sports rivalries badly enough to join the same conference?  I dunno.

I don't see Drake taking the lead on any conference realignment.

Tradition is out the window and completely meaningless these days. This move further exemplifies the shifting landscape and the growing divide between the haves (big money athletics schools) and the have nots.

BTW, the Valley has two new members today.

Complete disaster. I'm now in favor of D1 football being removed from the NCAA completely. Call it pre-NFL, D1 is the power 5, D2 is the group of 5, D3 is the rest. Might as well call what is D2 & D3 today D4 & D5. Then we can leave the rest of the sports (including basketball) alone.

The next domino everyone seems to be waiting on is Notre Dame. On one hand the Notre Dame-USC rivalry is important enough I would say Notre Dame might join the Big Ten just to keep that alive. On the other hand they just all but killed the Rose Bowl Game in non-playoff years so.... At least in football I think Notre Dame gains more from the Big Ten than the ACC, but Notre Dame will absolutely want to keep their NBC contract and schedule flexibility.

Three

Drake to the Big East?  Unlikely, but they're one of the many teams that was brought up as a possibility in this article.

https://247sports.com/college/depaul/Article/Expansion-possibilities-for-the-Big-East-190081699/

It is a crazy turn of events to be even mentioned in something like this article.Years past it would not have even come up. We're miles away from that happening, but very encouraging to be mentioned.  

Man, that's some long winded clickbait.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to hear in the next couple of months the NCAA has a plan to stop conference expansion and maybe even reduce the Big Ten/SEC down a few teams. Whether or not it would actually happen is another question entirely, but personally I would like to see a limit of 12 teams per conference.