Texas and Oklahoma jumping to the Southeastern Conference would blow up the college sports landscape.
The Longhorns and Sooners joining the rich and arrogant SEC would begin a total realignment. Many observers believe that four 16-team super-conferences will emerge from the ruins of the old NCAA-ruled collegiate empire.
But why would the SEC stop with Texas and Oklahoma? The ACC's Clemson, Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech look well-matched to the SEC football-dominant model. Why not 20 teams instead of the 16 that Texas and Oklahoma would make?
At least Clemson and Florida State are really in the Southeast. Not that geography still makes a difference.
Texas and Oklahoma's exit would leave the Big 12 without a dominant football power. Oklahoma State has never reached the level of the Sooners, and Baylor's intermittent football success is overshadowed by the school's basketball championships.
The SEC's Vanderbilt, South Carolina and basketball-dominated Kentucky will find it tougher to compete in football with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma.
Many believe that 30 football powerhouses will form their own national super-conference. With players receiving pay, college football would turn into a semi-pro operation, no longer associated with schools, as ESPN's Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon asserted on their Pardon the Interruption show Thursday.
The shakeup in football might also sound the death knell for college basketball and other sports. Basketball schools like the ACC's Duke and the Big 12's Kansas would not have a place in a 30-team football league. Without money from football, women's basketball, baseball, track, gymnastics and softball will need to support themselves.
Lesser football powers like Baylor, Kansas State, West Virginia, Stanford, Virginia, Michigan State, Northwestern, Iowa, Purdue and so on might keep the student-athlete concept going. Proud Notre Dame will have to come in from the cold.
But will teams like Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, USC, Florida, Oklahoma, and Clemson lose their college football traditions? Will alums still get as excited about semi-pro teams? Will traditional rivalries like Michigan-Ohio State or Alabama-Auburn mean anything anymore?
Money and gambling rule now. Old school ties matter less and less.
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