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Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Conference Expansion: How We Got Here (Part I of II)

Posted on 7:18 PM by BDM


News broke on ESPN and OrangeBloods.com that Nebraska is officially moving to the Big Ten Conference, and that the Big XII Conference is in danger of folding. If you're late to this story (or have recently returned from a trip to Neptune), let's recap how we got here:

December 2009: The Big Ten officially announces that they will investigate expansion options to move from 11 to 12 teams.

February-March 2010: Notre Dame rebuffs the idea that they would relinquish their independent status to join the Big Ten.

March-April 2010: Texas politely decides that joining the Big Ten would not be in their best interests.

June 4th, 2010: Amongst swirling reports, the Big XII commissioner Dan Beebe issues ultimatums to member institutions Nebraska and Missouri to decide whether they want to remain in the Big XII or move to the Big 10.

June 6th, 2010: Reports surface that the Pac-10 will also actively investigate conference expansion, but invitations would go to current Big XII teams Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Colorado.

June 7th, 2010: The Pac-10 announces that their commissioner Larry Scott has been authorized to offer as many invitations as he deems necessary to improve the conference.

June 9th, 2010: Nebraska reportedly accepts an offer to join the Big 10 Conference. A concurrent report runs that Texas officials claim "The Big XII is dead."

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So that's where we are now. Where will we end up? I'll tell you in Part II.

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