September doesn’t define much. It helps pad bowl eligibility and wallets. October is about starting the process of winnowing down the field for the BCS National Championship game. And on the first day of October of this season, that process starts with a buffet of big games.

On Saturday there will be five games that will feature undefeated teams playing one another.

But Nebraska at Wisconsin looms largest.

This game is huge and it’s perfect for prime time. It’s the Big Ten opener for both teams. For Nebraska the game is its first Big Ten game ever. What a way to start. The conference could have chosen to start the Cornhuskers with a patsy like Minnesota. Instead it drew a road trip to Camp Randall. Continue Reading…

Note: This series previously ran at RoadTripSports.com, but given the current climate of conference realignment, stoked by the Big 12, I feel this series of articles is as relevant now as it was a year ago. It will run every few days here at PigskinU.com. Check the PigskinU.com archives for Parts 1, 2 and 3.

So in Part One I laid out an overview of building a better college game. In Part 2, we put our commissioner in charge with a mandate – change college football for the better. In Part 3 we re-drew conference lines, though not as radically as I originally intended.

Now we get to the fun part, starting with the regular season schedule. Given the fact that we will now have conference championship games in every conference, plus a 16-team playoff system, the regular season schedule needs to be altered a bit. If you want a true national champion, streamline the schedule.

Depending upon the schedule some teams play right now, some FBS teams play 14 games in a season. I think that’s a little much, although some teams in our playoff scenario are going to play 16 games, at least the ones that reach the title game.

So my schedule proposal is simple. All FBS teams should play an 11-game regular season schedule. Eight of those games will be conference affairs. Teams should play everyone in their division (that’s five games) and the other three games should be against teams in the other division. Therefore, three non-conference games will be played by each team.

All non-conference games should be played before conference begins. Why? To me, non-conference games are tune-ups for the real season, which is conference play. Winning a conference title is every team’s one guaranteed path to the playoffs. That’s what they should be preparing for. Therefore, all non-conference games will be played starting on the final weekend in August. That will allow teams to have a bye on the third week of September to whet everyone’s appetite for conference, which would start the final weekend of September.

Now, there are a couple of different ways teams could schedule non-conference games. They could continue to do it the way they’re doing it now, which is fine. It would allow teams that have non-conference rivalries to continue those games. For instance, would the world be a better place without Notre Dame-USC? Probably not. I’d love to see texas play Arkansas every once in a while. Pitt and Penn State need to have the opportunity to play. So allowing teams to schedule their non-conference games seems fair. If an average teams schedules patsies every year, well, they’ll be exposed in conference action. Each program and their athletic staff probably know best how to prepare their players for conference.

One formula I came up with was the following; Divide the nation into four quadrants of 30 teams each. Rank them in each quadrant by record for the past two years, and tier them into sets of 10. Then let a computer do the scheduling on a home-and-home basis for the next two years. For instance, a team in the top tier of quadrant 1 would play a Tier 1 team in quadrant B, a Tier 2 team in quadrant C and a Tier 3 team in quadrant D.

One advantage I saw in this was getting teams to play games in different parts of the country. When was the last time Syracuse went west of the Mississippi before this year’s trip to USC? Or USC went east of South Bend? It would allow fans to see different teams from different parts of the country. And it would allow smaller teams to at least have one big home game every two years, if they’re lucky enough to get one of the big boys in the selection process.

But I’m not married to this. I just thought it would be interesting.

The conference schedule would run from the start of October to the end of November, probably right around Thanksgiving. Conferences can schedule this however they would like. This doesn’t vary much from most conference schedules in 12-team leagues.

Once the conference title game contestants have been determined, those games would be played in the first weekend of December, as most of the conference title games are now.

Imagine – 10 conference title games over a two- or three-day period, all broadcast nationally over the ESPN family of networks, CBS or ABC. The exposure just boggles the mind, really. It would be a smorgasbord of exceptional college football. Plus, there’s something on the line for everyone – a playoff berth. The winners get in; the losers go recruit (in some cases).

The revenue these schools will lose by giving up one regular season game will more than be made up in the revenue generated by a conference title game, new playoff TV rights and enhanced conference television network packages. And fans get the buildup we deserve toward a weekend in which everything is on the line for the best teams in the country – and not just the ones that are playing.

Next up: Determining our 16-team playoff field.

Matthew Postins files The Walkthrough twice a week during the season at PigskinU.com. Early in the week, it’s a wrap-up of last weekend’s action. Late in the week, it’s a preview of what’s coming up that weekend. And it call comes with news, commentary and Postins’ dry wit and opinion.

The Aggies Wave Goodbye to Tradition. On Sunday the SEC announced that it was officially taking in texas A&M as its 13^th member, starting with the 2012 season. The decision that, in part, set off all of this realignment mess of the past month is finally official.

Now, what does this mean to the SEC? Well, the rich certainly get richer. The Aggies are a well-known program that seems to finally be turning a corner after several years of mediocrity. They’ll provide access for the SEC to not only Texas’ fertile recruiting ground but also to cable networks and laptops via the SEC’s Digital Network. It’s definitely a big win for them. Continue Reading…

So I have a problem with the Associated Press.

On Sunday the AP voted LSU as the No. 1 team, leapfrogging the Tigers over Oklahoma, which had been the nation’s No. 1 team since the preseason poll. Also, Alabama dropped to No. 3.

Why do I have a problem with this? It’s not that I don’t believe that LSU is a great team. The Tigers have proven that in spades the past month, beating three ranked teams in the process. It’s that in order to move LSU to the top the voters have punished Oklahoma and Alabama.

Yes, Oklahoma WAS No. 1 and Alabama WAS No. 2. Now they’re Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. They’ve done nothing wrong. Both teams have played their schedule, won four games and remain undefeated. Both the Sooners and Crimson Tide have beaten ranked teams and creampuffs alike, just like LSU. But instead of keeping the two teams where they were, the voters, collectively, chose to drop them.

I know it’s a voter’s prerogative. But this part of the AP poll process has always driven me nuts. This happens every year. A team gets a few wins under its belt, attains a ranking they deserve and then gets dropped a spot by another team that’s undefeated.

I don’t think it’s fair. I think if you’re undefeated and you reach a certain ranking that’s where you stay until you lose. Say you’re the nation’s No. 5 team and you’re undefeated. You’re 6-0 and then you drop a spot, even though your team hasn’t done anything to deserve being dropped.

You take care of your business and yet you get dropped? I don’t like it one bit. Sure, if you’re No. 5 and another undefeated team leapfrogs you to No. 4, I can deal with that, as long as you keep your No. 5 ranking.

But what happened to Oklahoma was wrong. The Sooners were No. 1, were 4-0 and yet, and yet, the voters fell in love with someone else, in this case LSU and were dropped.

So, in MY poll Oklahoma is my No. 1 team, Alabama is my No. 2 team and LSU is my No. 3 team, just like the past two weeks. You may agree, you may disagree.

But my logic is clear and I think I’m right. But I suppose that’s part of why we debate these things every week. Everyone thinks a little differently. But Oklahoma is MY No. 1 team until they lose. If the lose.

So, without further ado, My PigskinU.com Top 25 poll after Week 4:

1. Oklahoma (last week: 1): The Sooners opened Big 12 action by taking care of Missouri, a team that always seems to give the Sooners trouble. The Tigers did so on Saturday, but not nearly enough trouble to put the Sooners on the ropes. Ball State comes to Norman next Saturday, followed by the trip to Dallas for the Red River Rivalry game with texas.

2. Alabama (last week: 2): One down, one to go for Alabama and its early SEC landmines. I’m not surprised that the Crimson Tide took care of Arkansas the way it did. But I am a little intrigued by next weekend’s matchup with Florida, even though that’s more because I’m interested in seeing how the new-look Gators measure up than determining if the Tide are a Top 3 team. I think we know that by now.

3. LSU (last week: 3): QB Jarrett Lee is turning into the one thing Jordan Jefferson was never able to become – consistent. Now that September is over, the Tigers need to take care of business and get ready for the early November tilt with Alabama, one that appears as if it will decide the SEC West.

4. Boise State (last week: 4): I don’t think the Broncos have lost a home game against an unranked opponent since the Clinton Administration. Now the punishment begins. The Broncos start playing Mountain West opponents and its strength of schedule takes a nosedive until the Nov. 12 tilt with TCU.

5. Stanford (last week: 5): The Cardinal remains undefeated and QB Andrew Luck remains a top-flight Heisman candidate. Not a bad month’s worth of work. UCLA is up next.

6. Nebraska (last week: 6): Nebraska took care of business against Wyoming. Now it’s time for the game I’ve had my eye on since Ohio State fell from grace this summer – Nebraska at Wisconsin. The Big Ten opener for both teams. It’s the biggest game of the season (Oct. 1 edition).

7. Wisconsin (last week: 7): Wisconsin has either had it easy or made it look easy. That’s hard to gauge.  But the way QB Russell Wilson has assimilated into the offense so easily should scare the heck out of the rest of the Big Ten.

8. Oklahoma State (last week: : Well, now I think we know that the Cowboys are made of an especially tough kind of stock. Going into College Station and edging out the Aggies in a close game is fodder for making a case that the Cowboys should move up in this poll. But, since no one lost ahead of them, I’ll keep them here.

9. Virginia Tech (last week: 9): Virginia Tech made easy money out of Marshall. It’s been a pretty quiet month for the Hokies, which I assume they’ll take after last year’s 0-2 start with losses to Boise State and FCS’s James Madison. The Hokies’ ACC opener is against Clemson, which is really starting to gather steam after its win over Florida State.

10. Oregon (last week: 11): The Ducks seem to have rebounded nicely since their season-opening loss to LSU. Remember – the Ducks drew a significantly easier conference schedule than some of its Pac-12 North mates. The path seems clear from here to their Nov. 12 meeting with Stanford.

11. South Carolina (last week: 12): South Carolina made sure that Vanderbilt didn’t ruin their shot at an SEC East title. But here’s the thing – does the 21-3 result leave you more impressed with what James Franklin is doing at Vanderbilt or less impressed with the Gamecocks’ 4-0 start? They struggled with Navy the week before. That’s cause for concern for me.

12. Florida (last week: 13): Florida is 4-0 entering next weekend’s matchup with Alabama, a big one for seeing how much progress the Gators have made under first-year head coach Will Muschamp. Frankly, I don’t expect the Gators to win. But I want to see how close they make it. This is also a great game to take stock of QB John Brantley’s ability to handle a top-flight secondary.

13. texas A&M (last week: 10): The Aggies acquitted themselves pretty nicely against Oklahoma State, but they also dropped a 17-point lead in a game they could have won. I’ve felt all along that the Aggies were the No. 3 team in the Big 12, and that loss proves that I’m right. For once.

14. TCU (last week: 17): I expect a placid journey for the Horned Frogs to their Nov. 12 meeting with Boise State. The Horned Frogs ended up dismantling Portland State. But the slow starts are concerning me, and SMU has enough talent to take advantage of those slow starts. I expect TCU to win, but SMU could make it interesting. Just not Baylor interesting.

15. South Florida (last week: 18): QB B.J. Daniels is providing the Bulls with some salty numbers on the ground and in the air. This Bulls team steadily makes its way up our poll.

16. Michigan (last week: 20): Wolverine brass now looks very smart for hiring Brady Hoke, at least in the short term. And bonus points to the coaching staff for not trying to fit QB Denard Robinson into an offense that doesn’t utilize his best skills. Too many new coaches make that mistake.

17. Baylor (last week: 19): The Bears gave Rice the business to improve to 4-0 before starting Big 12 play. Now the fun begins. Are the Bears the best of what’s left after Oklahoma or Oklahoma State, or will they wilt now that they don’t have the element of surprise? I think their Rice could be very interesting, especially since the big teams don’t hit their schedule for a few more weeks.

18. texas (last week: 21): texas was idle this weekend and that gives their dynamic group of freshman some time to reflect before getting ready for their first Red River Rivalry game in two weeks. But before that it’s Iowa State, which is looking like a pretty interesting team right now.

19. West Virginia (last week: 15): First of all, the all-yellow uniforms need to go. Second, don’t totally panic over the Mountaineers’ loss to the Tigers. QB Geno Smith still has enough to carry the Mountaineers to a Big East title. But that South Florida matchup will be the biggee. 

20. Arkansas (last week: 16): So how far do you drop a team that just lost to the No. 2 team in the country. To me, Arkansas probably needs to be in the 20-25 range after losing to the Tide. They’re the third-best team in the West, but the chasm between the Hogs and the Top 2 is significant.

21. Florida State (last week: 14): Oh, what a drop for the Seminoles. The only thing that keeps me from dropping them out of my Top 25 completely is that QB EJ Manuel was hurt. But, goodness, losing to inconsistent Clemson doesn’t bode well for FSU winning its division, much less winning the ACC.

22. Michigan State (last week: 14): It’s time to find out what the Spartans are made of after they just dismantled Western Michigan. Still not ready to put them back in my Top 20 yet.

23. Illinois (last week: 24): Illinois is off to a 4-0 start. But I’m not moving them up after nearly being upset by Central Michigan. But, by my roles, the Illini don’t drop, either.

24. Clemson (last week: 25): A huge two week stretch for the Tigers, who were pegged by many as underachievers entering this season. The Florida State victory now puts Dabo Swinney’s crew among the leading contenders in the conference.

25. Georgia Tech (last week: unranked): I wasn’t high on the Yellow Jackets until they beat North Carolina last weekend, pulling the victory out late. They’re running the ball well, which isn’t unusual. But the defense looks better than the unit I saw play in the Independence Bowl last year.

Dropped out: 23, Southern Cal.

Note: This series previously ran at RoadTripSports.com, but given the current climate of conference realignment, stoked by the Big 12, I feel this series of articles is as relevant now as it was a year ago. It will run every few days here at PigskinU.com. Check the PigskinU.com archives for Parts 1 and 2.

So in Part One I laid out an overview of building a better college game. In Part 2, we put our commissioner in charge with a mandate – change college football for the better.

Now the real work begins. In order to sell our new college game to television and to the masses, our commissioner must construct a framework for the new college game, and it must start with conferences.

Why? Well, in my model every conference will have a TV network. In addition, every conference will have a champion that receives an automatic berth into the postseason. So before our commissioner can even go in front of television networks and sell the product, it must be defined. You want a true national champion? Realign the conferences.

Currently there are 11 different FBS conferences at varying degrees of quality. I think most would agree that the SEC is No. 1 and the Sun Belt is No. 11. You can debate the rest. But there are the six haves (the ones that get BCS automatic bids) and the five have-nots (the ones that don’t). In order for us to have a true, fair college football playoff, our commissioner must be a trust-buster.

Yes, that means breaking up the big boys – to a certain degree.

My rationale when I started this series was that I would create true regional conferences. My desire was to truly mingle the big boys and the smaller boys together. For instance, I created a conference that included all seven Florida schools, along with both Georgia schools, both South Carolina schools and East Carolina.

I submitted those conferences a friend who pointed out a couple of things, the biggest of which was the fact that by creating true regional conferences, I was destroying some of the traditions college football fans hold dear. There was also the matter of smaller schools’ stadiums not being able to accommodate fans of these larger programs. Plus, our commissioner must be an honest broker. By now, he’s gotten all 120 schools to sign off on creating new conferences. If he goes and breaks up the Big 12 or the Big Ten (and I pretty much did), revolt will certainly follow.

So I re-examined the conferences, and while they’re not truly regional, I think they are more truly reflective of the intent of this exercise.

Now, we all know that super-conferences are coming. We also know, based on the WAC experiment in the 1990s, that it has all the makings of a waste of time. The fact is we have 120 FCS football teams. Why not just do the most logical thing and divide them up evenly?

In this scenario, that’s what our new commissioner would do. Those 120 schools would be divided into 10, 12-team conferences with two divisions each. Twelve teams, to me, is perfect. Anything more and it just becomes a mess to schedule and to determine a fair champion.

These new conferences are designed to make more sense. It reduces the number of leagues from 11 to 10 (sorry Mountain West). I made minor tweaks to the ACC, the SEC and the Big 12. The Big East received a major overhaul out of necessity, and geographically I think it makes much more sense. By borrowing a couple of teams from the SEC, I think I was able to make Conference USA stronger and give those two teams a better chance of reaching the playoffs. The Pac 10 (now Pac 12) got its two teams, just not the two you would think. And I provided the WAC with an anchor school that gives it a bit more clout, historically.

Below you’ll find the new conferences that I came up with. They include all 120 current  FBS teams (yes, even the independents) and were based on three major factors:

Geography: Again, I stress, it’s not true geography. For instance, the Sun Belt is more far-flung than I wanted. Oddly enough, the three schools that I struggled with the most were New Mexico, New Mexico State and texas-El Paso. They’re kind of in college football no man’s land. When you look at the map, there are 27 teams west of texas, and that throws off the 12-team conference model. It was difficult to find those three teams a home.

Tentpole Teams: One thing I wanted to do for the smaller conferences was give them at least one program that has had some success, or is in a power conference, to help give it some clout, especially early in the transition to this system. Again, I did this when it made geographic sense. That happened in the WAC and Conference USA. I really couldn’t make it happen in the Sun Belt and the Mid-American. You can do that if you go to a true geographic format (and I included my original “regional” conferences in the next story).

In-State Rivalries: I wanted to see if I could build in some more in-state rivalries in these conferences. I made it happen in the SEC, the ACC, the WAC, the Sun Belt and Conference USA. I think anytime you can have two state rivals play each other with conference standing on the line, it just makes that rivalry better.

Understand that these new conferences aren’t about providing a handout to smaller programs. It’s about creating a system that is fair and equitable to every program. We don’t have that right now. It’s not even close. This conference system provides the foundation in which to give every team a shot at a national title. Each conference gets a bid to the playoffs, even the smaller ones. From there, they have to earn their way forward. Imagine if we had a system like this when Utah went undefeated, or Boise State, or even Tulane. Maybe they’ll never be as good as Alabama or texas, but they deserve the chance to find out, and that’s what this series is all about. Determining the participants in a national championship game should not come down to strength of schedule or quality wins. It should come to what happens on the field.

Next up: We have our conferences. Now, let’s talk about the schedule.

HERE ARE MY PROPOSED CONFERENCES:

ACC: Central Florida, Duke, East Carolina, Florida State, Maryland, Miami (Fla.), North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Florida, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

Why? I shuffled three programs out of this league because I thought they were better fits elsewhere. Bringing in Central Florida and South Florida gives the conference a firm hold in a fertile football market (Florida). East Carolina is one of the better programs in Conference USA and should catch up quickly, in terms of the conference’s competition.

Big East: Army, Boston College, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Marshall, Navy, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, West Virginia.

Why: This conference needed a huge makeover. Moving BC to this league gives them a foothold in a Top 10 TV market, along with New York/New Jersey (Rutgers). Buffalo comes over from the MAC, and the service academies on the east coast need a home, too. Navy will be competitive here. I’m not sure Cincinnati should be here, but they’re a bit farther east than Louisville, which I moved to another league.

Big Ten: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin.

Why? This one was easy. Notre Dame needs a home in the new formula and the Big Ten is the most natural fit. The Irish don’t become an immediate favorite in this league. But it will end up being one of the most powerful leagues in the land.

Big 12: Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, texas, texas A&M, texas Christian, texas Tech.

Why? Welcome back, Nebraska. The Huskers don’t make a whole lot of sense in the Big Ten, but they make much more sense in the Big 12. I moved Colorado out (but not where you would think) and moved texas Christian in, a team that has proven it deserves a spot in a big-time conference. Now they get the chance to prove year-in, year-out they belong.

Conference USA: Air Force, Alabama-Birmingham, Houston, Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis, Rice, Southern Methodist, Southern Miss, Tulane, Tulsa, Vanderbilt.

Why? I really contemplated several options here. There are 27 teams out west, and that makes the 12-team model a little difficult. I think Air Force was a good fit here. It’s a quality program that fits in well in this league. Louisville moves in, along with Kentucky and Vanderbilt, a pair of SEC programs that should be better fits here.

Mid-American: Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, Troy, Western Michigan

Why? Buffalo had to move to the Big East, in my opinion. And, after moving Marshall, I needed a team to bring in. Troy has been a dominant team in the Sun Belt for a while now and should bring a competitive program to the Mid-American. Travel will be a bit of a pain for them, being the southernmost program.

Pac 10: Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, Brigham Young, California, Oregon, Oregon State, Southern California, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, Washington State

Why: Keeping the Pac 10 intact was the easy part. Picking the two teams that would join them was harder. Boise State has earned the right to be in a top league, based on its play the past seven years. BYU, to me, is a slightly better fit than Colorado. It’s closer to the coast and has a solid fan base west of its campus location.

SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, South Carolina

Why: Adding Clemson and Georgia Tech to replace Vandy and Kentucky creates great in-state rivalries for Georgia and South Carolina. The conference gets a bit stronger, as if it needs to get any stronger.

Sun Belt: Arkansas State, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, New Mexico, New Mexico State, North texas, texas El-Paso, Western Kentucky

Why? This was the hardest league to put together. I had to add the two New Mexico schools, along with UTEP, in keeping with the conference’s name. Just as it is now, the Sun Belt is probably the weakest league. But, North texas and FIU bring Top 20 TV markets.

WAC: Colorado, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Nevada-Las Vegas, San Diego State, San Jose State, Utah, Utah State, Wyoming.

Why? This conference is deceptively strong. Fresno State, Hawaii and Utah have all had big seasons recently. Colorado brings a big TV market and annual rivalries with Colorado State. Nevada is in the midst of a tremendous season. This league could definitely be competitive with the new C-USA.

And, just for fun, here are the “rough draft” conferences Postins created, based on true geography:

Conference 1: Army, Boston College, Buffalo, Connecticut, Maryland, Navy, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, Virginia.

Conference 2: Duke, Marshall, Memphis, Middle Tennessee, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, West Virginia, Western Kentucky, Vanderbilt.

Conference 3: Central Florida, Clemson, East Carolina, Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Miami (Fla.), South Carolina, South Florida

Conference 4: Akron, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio U., Ohio State, Toledo.

Conference 5: Ball State, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, Minnesota, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Purdue, Western Michigan, Wisconsin.

Conference 6: Alabama, Alabama-Birmingham, Auburn, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Southern Miss, Troy, Tulane.

Conference 7: Air Force, Arkansas, Arkansas State, Colorado, Colorado State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa, Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming.

Conference 8: Baylor, Houston, North texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Rice, Southern Methodist, texas, texas A&M, texas Christian, texas Tech, Tulsa.

Conference 9: Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, Brigham Young, Idaho, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Nevada, Nevada-Las Vegas, texas-El Paso, Utah, Utah State.

Conference 10: California, Fresno State, Hawaii, Oregon, Oregon State, San Diego State, San Jose State, Southern Cal, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, Washington State.

Feel free to leave your comments below.

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and his school presidents are off the expansion train, for now.

Matthew Postins files The Walkthrough twice a week during the season at PigskinU.com. Early in the week, it’s a wrap-up of last weekend’s action. Late in the week, it’s a preview of what’s coming up that weekend. And it call comes with news, commentary and Postins’ dry wit and opinion.

The Pac-12 surprises us all and says they’re just fine. The 24-hour news cycle is a double-edged sword. Sure, you get information whenever you want. But there’s only so much information to go around. In the world of search engines and SEO titles and blog tags, you need current content to keep your site relevant.

So what do we do? We speculate. We’re all guilty of it. Sure, we qualify it with information from “sources” and “reports from other agencies” but deep down it’s all just an educated guess. None of us can tell you for certain if team X is going to go to conference Y until team X says yes or no.

So for days I, as much as anyone else in our business, speculated that Oklahoma and texas would be moving to the Pac-12 because, well, who wouldn’t want to have those two teams in their conference?

Apparently not the Pac-12, which thumbed its nose at everyone Thursday and basically said, “You know what? We’re good.”

Continue Reading…

Your daily dose of realignment news, gathered from various sources around the Web:

The Pac-12 says not so fast on expansion. With all the talk about conference realignment, I guess we forgot to ask the Pac-12 if they actually WANTED to expand. The conference ended that speculation today, according to numerous news outlets. The Pac-12 is happy with 12 members, according to a news release, and doesn’t plan to expand. There wasn’t even a qualifying “at this time” in the release. Seems the Pac-12 is happy with its mammoth TV contract. Good for them. I’ve always though that 12 teams was the most any conference should be.

Beebe’s Bad Luck Growing. Yesterday officials at the University of Oklahoma related to local news outlets that there was a simple way to work toward regaining trust and allegiance in the Big 12 (and to keep OU) — fire the commissioner. Dan Beebe has come under great fire the past few days and now it seems the rancor is growing. The Tulsa World reported today that the Big 12 presidents will have a teleconference on Thursday to discuss keeping the league together and Beebe’s job is on the agenda. Now, this is a “sources” story, but the World reports that former Big 8 commissioner Chuck Nienas would be the interim commish if Beebe “resigned.” Sounds like Beebe might not get a choice in the matter.

Hey, we’re still with you Big East. It has been a stellar year for West Virginia AD Oliver Luck. Certainly, there’s the whole accelerated promotion of Dana Holgorsen to head coach and the controversy surrounding that. But he had to do a little PR work on Tuesday after he represented the Mountaineers at a high-level Big East meeting about keeping the conference viable for football. Luck said afterward that he was impressed with the conference’s plan to attract “top-level BCS caliber institutions.” He made no mention of whether West Virginia was still committed to the league. I’m sure that didn’t escape the league’s watchful eye. Still, the only schools I’m hearing being floated around are Navy and Air Force. Uh, you guys have a backup plan, right? Right?

Oddly enough, that’s all for now. We were all waiting for the Pac-12 to say yes to OU and texas and the chaos that move would trigger. Now that the Pac-12 has said no, we’ll have to wait for some other move to trigger the next great conference shift. Maybe I can go without writing one of these for a few days? Nah.

See ya then.

It was in the second quarter of Baylor’s 48-0 win over Stephen F. Austin last weekend. Griffin was flushed out of the pocket and rolled right. He had some running room. Ahead of him 15 yards away were three SFA defenders, all set up to make a tackle. If this were any other quarterback, the defenders would have had enough time to call their girlfriends on their cell phone and study for a pop quiz before needing to break down to prepare for the tackle.

But this was Griffin. It isn’t just that Griffin is fast. He’s also quick. He possesses a long stride and closes gaps with defenders much faster than you expect. So, in the space of time it takes most of us to blow our nose, Griffin had closed the gap between himself and the defenders to the point where the defenders knew they had no chance to stop him. Griffin split the trio untouched and gained more yardage before being forced out of bounds.

I’ve seen Griffin in person three times in the past two seasons. I saw him dominated by TCU and stymied by Illinois last year.

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Here’s your daily update on all things college realignment. Don’t waste your time going to several different sites when you can get all the updates here.

Is Missouri on its way to the SEC? Remember last week when I wrote that Missouri‘s likely fit was the SEC, if the Big 12 disbanded? Well, according to CBSSports.com via the Kansas City Star, the Tigers are sitting on an offer to join the conference. Now, here’s the bad news. The Star’s source is a Missouri booster with says he’s spoken to a school official who has told him there’s an offer (the SEC is denying all of this). Isn’t that three degrees of Kevin Bacon or something like that? While I’m not exactly holding my breath on this report, I made clear Missouri‘s desirability last week — the Tigers have a quality program, own the state of Missouri and provide access to the St. Louis and Kansas City media markets.

Goodbye is the hardest part, except when it’s not. Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com, one of the more reliable guys in the business, is reporting that West Virginia‘s overtures to both the ACC and SEC have been turned down. So the Mountaineers are stuck with whatever the Big East can cobble together once the big boys get their business straight.

Middies could have been a contender. McMurphy also reported today that before Pittsburgh and Syracuse did their escape act, the Big East was in serious talks with Navy to bring on the Midshipmen as a football-only member. Turns out Air Force was also on its short list. I still think this could be a good deal for Navy and the Big East, but this likely won’t happen until the Big East determines if it can merge with the Big 12. I know this — if Mizzou heads for the SEC, there’s a spot open.

Get Rid of Beebe. CBSSports.com had an interesting post via NewsOK.com. Oklahoma might actually consider staying in the Big 12. It’s condition? Get rid of commissioner Dan Beebe. Of course, this is a “sources” story, so take it as you will. But since OU’s real problem is how Beebe handled the whole longhorn Network thing, and it’s not going away, something tells me this is just a bunch of hooey.

Tuesday’s meetings. The Associated Press is reporting that the Pac-12 could meet as early as the end of this week to consider its options when it comes to expanding to 16 teams. The Big East has a meeting scheduled for tomorrow as well to consider its options.

Because the 16-team WAC worked so well. According to multiple courses the Mountain West and Conference USA are considering a merger that would inflate the combined league to 22 teams. It sounds insane, but there’s some logic to it. Remember the other day I wrote that a combined Big 12-Big East would reduce the number of BCS automatic conference title bids from six to five? Well, the idea here would be to combine resources and claim the last BCS berth. I’m not sure that works, but it might be the best plan the pair have to get into the party.

What? No WAC or Sun Belt news? Like you, I’m blown away they haven’t gotten into the act.

Until tomorrow…

Note: This series previously ran at RoadTripSports.com, but given the current climate of conference realignment, stoked by the Big 12, I feel this series of articles is as relevant now as it was a year ago. It will run every few days here at PigskinU.com. Check the PigskinU.com archives for Part 1.

So in Part One I laid out an overview of building a better college game. In Part 2, we’re going to need someone to run it. You want a true national champion? Start with a benevolent dictator.

There’s a fundamental issue when it comes to creating a college football playoff system. Power in college football is not centralized properly. Consider this:

The NCAA regulates the college game. Games are played by their rules. Recruiting is done by their rules. Practices are conducted by their rules. But when the regular season ends, they outsource the postseason to the Bowl Championship Series.

What other sports entity outsources its postseason? Unbelievable. Continue Reading…