KU and not Mizzou?

Kids, I'm sorry- but listen, it's fast becoming my favorite thing to do, all right? Every single drop of this is mindless speculation until Texas and Oklahoma decide what to do and even then, the SEC will probably add one more team and leave it at that- but this little suggestion was floated in the Omaha World-Herald... Notre Dame, Boston College, Syracuse and Kansas to the Big 10.

I don't buy this for any number of reasons. First, as Mr. Shatel points out- the Big 10 is going to wait for Notre Dame until the end of time if needs be. Everybody knows it. I can sort of see his argument about KU doing more to bring in the Kansas City market and that's it's a definate national brand- when it comes to college hoops anyway. For sure, adding Syracuse and Kansas would make the super Big 10 the best college hoops conference in the land- but that's precisely why this would never happen. Rumor is that the Big East has offered a soft landing to the Big 12 Orphans if they need it and for Kansas and K-State, the Big East makes more sense than the Big 10. They're hoops schools, not football schools, after all.

Things could further be complicated if the BCS gives the Mountain West an automatic bid next year (I think that's when they were due to look at it, if memory serves.) Suddenly KU and the Orphans get a conference that's upping its quality (they play some good hoops and pretty decent football in the Mountain West) with every passing year- and they can be the big fish in a new conference pond or a little one in a gargantuan Big East hoops pond.

Here's where I am on this:
Texas and Oklahoma go to the PAC-16 taking Tech and Okie State with them.

The SEC takes one more to get to 14 and stays put. (My money is on Florida State)

The Big 10 does absolutely nothing.

The ACC might take one more if they lose a team to the SEC- probably from the Big East- I'm betting UCONN if they can.

So what do the Big 12 Orphans do then? I'd say they hang tough for at least this year. If the Mountain West gets added as an automatic BCS bid then I would say Iowa State and Baylor go to the Mountain West, Kansas and K-State go to the Big East and Mizzou winds up in either the SEC or the Big 10.

Either way, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that it's not going to be the mad dash to the apocalypse everyone thinks it is- and it's worth noting that if the Big 12 had a commissioner that was worth a damn, they would have added back 2 teams right off the bat last year and might not be in this mess. (And had the other schools- especially Oklahoma put pressure on Texas to expand their ridiculous Longhorn Network into a Big 12 Network, they definately would not be in this mess.)