If you're just getting up from a two month-long coma, then you probably haven't heard that Texas A&M has been in close talks with the SEC for future membership. Well, it's now official, as TAMU has sent an official letter to the Big XII today announcing its intent to leave the conference by June 30, 2012.
Now that you're all caught up, it's time to talk about the near future: where does the Big East fall into all this? Ever since Nebraska and Colorado left the conference, the Big XII has been dangerously unstable, hanging around with just 10 teams. Texas's introduction of the Longhorn Network didn't help matters, as UT strengthened its monopolizing grip on the Midwest. Now, with the departure of A&M, the rest of the teams may be realizing their unhappiness with the conference. This is where the Big East comes riding in on its stallion and sweeps multiple basketball and football-rich schools off their feet. Teams ripe for the plucking include (though not geographically ideal, but that's not a consideration here anymore) Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri. Any reasonable person can see that Texas and Oklahoma are beyond the reach of the conference at this point (Texas should go independent in my opinion), but the addition of any combination of these auxiliary teams would be an excellent step forward. You know, that letter from TAMU only said it would be applying to other conferences, so the SEC isn't locked in just yet. The Big East could at least extend an invitation.
If the Big East is serious about going to 12 football teams and increasing its football profile, it would have already been on the phone with officials from Kansas, K-State, and Missouri. Additionally, if John Marinatto is serious about keeping his job, he'll have the paperwork already filled out for those three schools.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment