The Super-conference frontier: How the Big 12 unrest could redefine the college landscape

Many of you may have heard that Texas A&M has opted to leave the Big 12.  After the summer which saw Nebraska leave for the Big 10 and Colorado leave for the Pac12, Texas A&M has decided that succombing to every whim of their big brother is not in their best interests and is exploring the option of joining the SEC.  Joining the SEC would be of mutual benefit to the conference and Texas A&M but could be the kiss of death to the Big 12 and the college football landscape as we know it.  I will admit I was against the Pac 16 in the beginning.  I still feel there is nothing pacific about Texas or Oklahoma, states that are more Midwestern than Pacific.  I welcomed Colorado and Utah with open arms seeing them as a good cultural fit (and helping to bring in $$$).  I also was a huge fan of the Pac 10's organization as 5 pairs of teams.  While some argue Colorado and Utah aren't exactly travel pairs or natural rivals, but I feel they are closer travel pairs than Colorado and one of three Texas schools.  With the Big 12 being Texas + 9, I feel super-conferences are inevitable.  I took it upon myself to examine what these super-conferences could look like and am gonna start a series on the potential new landscape of college football, as well as what future implications that could have.

Let's start with the easiest conference to predict: The Pacific 16

Western Division:
University of Washington
Washington State University
University of Oregon
Oregon State University
Stanford
UC Berkeley
USC
UCLA

Eastern Division:
University of Arizona
Arizona State University
University of Colorado
University of Utah
University of Oklahoma
Oklahoma State University
University of Texas-Austin
Texas Tech University

None of this should come as a surprise to anyone.  Essentially the Pac 12 merges with 4 teams from the Big 12, bringing the Big 12 down to 6 teams (hooray for college level math!)  I think the 4 teams added as pairs will work well but it will be dependent on if Texas is willing to buy into equal revenue sharing and altering the Longhorn Network.  If they are not, I foresee Texas going Independent as no other conference will want to be controlled by the Longhorns.  Larry Scott has made this clear and smaller schools such as OSU and WSU should be grateful that we have a great commissioner who will ensure the playing field is "level" (as much as can be) and that it doesn't turn into MLB with the only teams that are relevant are the teams with the $$$ (see Yankees and Red Sox).  Tomorrow night I will preview how the dominoes of Texas A&M could affect the SEC and preview what the potential SEC Super-conference could look like.