Admiration for Big Bill. Imagine building something that no one had built before you. Imagine bringing success to your place of employment in a way that no one had ever done before. Imagine reaching the summit of your profession, even if for just a moment. Then, when you feel you’ve accomplished all you can, you walk away, confident that the legacy you built would continue in perpetuity.

Then imagine watching it decline, slowly and painfully. Then you know what it’s like to be Bill Snyder.

Snyder was the head coach at Kansas State from 1988 to 2005 before he returned near the end of 2008. Now, for a generation of college football fans, they know Kansas State as a Top 25 team and, at times, a national contender. They probably looked upon what happened after Snyder left as, well, a hiccup.

So here’s a little perspective. Before Snyder arrived for the first time in 1988, Kansas State stunk in every way. The program had the most losses in FBS (then Division I-A), had only been to one bowl game, hadn’t won a conference title since 1934, had only four winning seasons in the previous 34 years and had lost 27 straight. Sports Illustrated called it “Futility U.”

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It being the whole thing. As in the BCS National Championship.

I expected the Badgers’ Big Ten opener with Nebraska to be closer. But Nebraska faded as the game went along and the Badgers claimed a resounding 48-17 win over the Cornhuskers.

It was my first chance to really scrutinize the Badgers this season and I didn’t see many weaknesses. QB Russell Wilson, as I’ve written before, has added a different dimension to this pro-style offense that was already capable of pounding opponents with the run game. The defense turned the Husker offense impotent by halftime and QB Taylor Martinez was never comfortable after a solid first quarter.

Anyone who watched that game should have walked away with the idea that the Badgers are the team to beat in the entire Big Ten, not just their division. Frankly, I felt that way in August, but I resisted the temptation to come right out and say it because I just wasn’t sure about the QB situation. Could Wilson really go into that system and be a contributor that quickly? Apparently the answer was yes.

So here we are after five weeks and the Badgers are now on the short list of BCS National Championship contenders. Winning out may not be enough, though, as I think three other conferences could have undefeated teams this year. But winning out is the only way the Badgers will get in, if you ask me.

The Badgers only move up one spot to No. 6, since the five teams in front of them won and I don’t drop teams that win.

Meanwhile our PigskinU.com Top 25 took a hard hit this weekend, the result of the start of conference play for most leagues and a bevy of upsets. After you get outside our Top 6, all but two teams stayed where they were last week. It was a discombobulating weekend to say the least.

So, without further ado, My PigskinU.com Top 25 poll after Week 5:

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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.

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.”

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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.

So, it’s been another crazy day on the college realignment front. If you don’t feel like going to multiple sites to get your news, well, here’ we go:

Oklahoma, texas get clearance to go to new league. The board of regents for both the University of Oklahoma and the University of texas gave their respective athletic departments permission to seek new conference affiliation. Speculation, as you might expect, is on the Pac-12. Oklahoma has made it clear their only choices are to stay in the Big 12 or move to the Pac 12. texas did not mention where it might go if it leaves the Big 12. But the Austin American-Statesman reported on Monday that conversations between Oklahoma, texas, texas Tech and Oklahoma State are already happening with the Pac 12. Talks are not far enough along, though, for Pac 12 commissioner Larry Scott to involve the presidents of the other member universities or to call for a vote. All four teams must apply for membership before any vote can take place and the longhorn Network still has to be worked out.

What Could Have Been. The Statesman also reported that one of the schools texas was seeking to court in a revamped Big 12 was Pittsburgh. The Panthers‘ successful petition to join the Atlantic Coast Conference put an end to that.

Saving the Leftovers. CBSSports.com reported that there are conversations between the leftovers from the Big 12 and the Big East to merge conferences. That would be Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Baylor in the Big 12 and Cincinnati, Connecticut, South Florida, Rutgers, Louisville, West Virginia and TCU (in 2012) in the Big East. That would create a 12-team league capable of stretching from New York and Florida to texas and allow the league access to major media markets in New York City and Dallas-Fort Worth.

I find two things interesting. First, that merges two automatic BCS berths. Does the BCS provide a sixth automatic berth to one of the current non-AQ conferences or keep the automatic berths at five and expand the at-large berths. Second, what does the Big East do about the basketball problem? The basketball membership in this conference would swell to well over 20, which seems completely unmanageable.

The ACC sparks college football’s next great shift. Perhaps the ACC wanted to get some pub before the craziness began. But the additions of Syracuse and Pittsburgh came out of left field. Most of the word the past week had been how the ACC was seeking to up its buyout fee to keep teams, not add them.

The fact that the two teams are a charter member of the Big East (Syracuse) and a Big East member since 1982 (Pittsburgh) underscores the new philosophy of college sports – find me the best deal. While there is no better conference for basketball than the Big East, the conference is No. 6 among the BCS conferences in football. And football pays the bills.

So the Orange and Panthers will migrate south in search of a better financial deal. The ACC gets access to upstate New York and Pittsburgh media markets, which will be handy at the negotiating table with ESPN. And, they’re now the closest to being the first “super conference” of the 21^st Century.

At least for the moment.

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Since the offseason, Oklahoma has been my No. 1 team. The game with Florida State, which OU won by 10 Saturday night, was the one trap game I saw before the mother of all Big 12 games this season against Oklahoma State. The win over FSU proves Oklahoma is a worthy No. 1 team.

The Sooners stay at No. 1 in this week’s PigskinU.com Top 25 poll, which is no surprise. But now that LB Travis Lewis is back, the Sooners could be dominating as they march to the end of the regular season and a potential BCS National Championship berth.

Who’s going to beat them?

texas? The longhorns are young and talented, and may be oblivious enough to the moment when they face each other in two weeks. But I don’t see it. OU has way too much experience and texas still has a lot of growing to do. It will be a closer game than I thought it would be a couple of weeks ago, though.

texas A&M? I’m still not totally sold and I expect the Aggies to lose to Oklahoma State this weekend, despite the fact that the game is in College Station. But the Aggies have enough firepower to make things very hard on the Sooners when they meet on Nov. 5.

Baylor? It SOUNDS enticing. But the Bears have already been exposed on defense (is everyone forgetting that TCU scored 48 points on them) and the Sooners have the talent to contain QB Robert Griffin III.

Oklahoma State, to me, is the one game that could ruin Oklahoma’s march to New Orleans. That game is Dec. 3 in Stillwater.

There’s a lot of football between now and then. But with Saturday’s win, everything is in Oklahoma’s favor.

So, without further ado, My PigskinU.com Top 25 poll after Week 3:

1. Oklahoma (last week: 1): Do you know what the Sooners did on Saturday night? Claimed their first road win against a Top 5 team in non-conference action since 1977. texas is now the Sooners’ only road block before their early November game with texas A&M. The Sooners could be No. 1 for a long time.

2. Alabama (last week: 2): Alabama did what it needed to do against North texas – get a win and stay healthy. The next two weeks will be testy as the Tide starts SEC action against two Top 25 teams – Arkansas and Florida.

3. LSU (last week: 3): The Tigers’ defense is just awesome. They made Mississippi State looked like it looked before Dan Mullen arrived. West Virginia should provide an interesting test, but the Tigers should be able to overcome it.

4. Boise State (last week: 4): You may not have looked at the game against Toledo as a trap game. I did, considering what the Rockets nearly did to Ohio State. But Boise State took care of business on the road. The Broncos are holding steady at No. 4, so someone has to falter.

5. Stanford (last week: 5): Stanford opened Pac-12 play with a nice victory over a pesky Arizona outfit with one of the nation’s most talented quarterbacks in Nick Foles. Next up is reeling UCLA and then Colorado, where I’ll get my first in-person look at Andrew Luck.

6. Nebraska (last week: 6): It was a scorefest against Washington, which was a bit surprising to me. The Huskers gave up 38 points to the Huskies. Don’t sleep on next week’s game, though. Wyoming is 3-0 and much improved. The Huskers better not be biding their time before Wisconsin on Oct. 1.

7. Wisconsin (last week: 7): I’m just impressed with how the Badgers have responded to the transition to Russell Wilson at quarterback. Plus, the defense is just playing lights out. Next up is a cupcake game against South Dakota before facing Nebraska.

8. Oklahoma State (last week: : Oklahoma State had to wait three hours to play its game against Tulsa (more on that in the Walkthrough). Three games, three relatively easy wins for the Cowboys. Now, it’s texas A&M and we find out what OSU really has.

9. Virginia Tech (last week: 9): The Hokies’ relatively soft schedule continues next week against Marshall. After that, ACC play starts against Clemson. I don’t know, I look at this schedule and I see 12-0 and an ACC Title game berth, as long as the Hokies take care of business.

10. texas A&M (last week: 13): The Aggies leapfrog Oregon and South Carolina based on the quality of their wins this season. Oregon, of course, has a loss. South Carolina struggled with Navy. The Aggies look like they’re on the right track heading into next weekend’s game with Oklahoma State. Remember – I don’t drop teams that win, but I’m not opposed to moving them up in this fashion.

11. Oregon (last week: 11): After two sensational blowouts against relatively benign opponents, the Ducks start Pac-12 play against Arizona. This game’s in Tucson, so it’s a nice trap game for the Ducks, who need a long winning streak before they face Stanford in November.

12. South Carolina (last week: 12): C’mon, South Carolina – Navy? The Gamecocks needed a late touchdown to beat the Midshipmen, who are good, but shouldn’t be challenging an upper echelon SEC team. Of course, that’s assuming South Carolina is an upper echelon ACC team. Based on the first three weeks, I have some questions. Vanderbilt, now 3-0, may provide some answers.

13. Florida (last week: 16): The Gators have zoomed up in the PigskinU.com rankings the past three weeks and now have their sights on the Top 10. The offense has reacted well to Charlie Weis as offensive coordinator, QB John Brantley is playing much better and they took care of a game Tennessee team last weekend. The Gators warm up on Kentucky before a major test Oct. 1 against Alabama.

14. Florida State (last week: 10): The Seminoles have to drop after losing to Oklahoma. But they don’t need to drop that much. I still think they’re a Top 25 team and better than such teams below them as West Virginia, Arkansas and TCU. I don’t, however, think they’re better than Florida. The status of EJ Manuel is key to the Seminoles’ chances against an improving Clemson team.

15. West Virginia (last week: 15): I’m not terribly impressed with the Mountaineers’ 6-point win over Maryland. Something tells me the LSU Tigers won’t be impressed when they go to Morgantown this weekend.

16. Arkansas (last week: 17): Troy gave the Hogs a real good game, with Arkansas only winning by 10. It was a solid test and good preparation for the SEC opener against Alabama next weekend. A win would be huge for the Hogs, and debilitating for the Tide.

17. TCU (last week: 18): The Horned Frogs struggled a bit with Louisiana-Monroe before asserting themselves in the second half to claim their second win of the season. Portland State is easy pickings this weekend before hosting SMU to start October. There isn’t much standing in the Horned Frogs’ way of being a one-loss team heading into its trip to Boise State in November.

18. South Florida (last week: 19): The Bulls just overwhelmed Florida A&M. Not much else to say. The win’s worth a one-spot move, based on what happened above them. UTEP gives them a shot at a 4-0 start before starting Big East play with Pittsburgh.

19. Baylor (last week: 20): I saw Baylor’s rain-shortened 48-0 win over Stephen F. Austin and QB Robert Griffin III is the real deal. But more on that later this week. In the meantime, expect the Bears to be 4-0 after this weekend’s meeting with Rice.

20. Michigan (last week: 21): Michigan is 3-0 heading into a home game with San Diego State. The Aztecs are 3-0 and will be emotional, as Michigan coach Brady Hoke used to be their skipper. I think Michigan wins, but keep an eye on the emotions in this game.

21. texas (last week: 24): This texas team is getting younger and more dangerous. Joining redshirt freshman QB Case McCoy, freshman QB David Ash, freshman RB Malcolm Brown and freshman WR Jaxon Shipley is third-string TE D.J. Grant, who missed two seasons with redshirts and injuries and caught three touchdowns against UCLA.

22. Michigan State (last week: 14): To me, the Spartans have to take a steep drop after going into South Bend and losing to an 0-2 Notre Dame team. Any national title hopes the Spartans had likely went out the window with that loss.

23. Southern Cal (last week: 23): The Trojans handled Syracuse rather easily. They’re 3-0 as they get back to Pac-12 action against Arizona State in Tempe. I think this could be a trap game for the Trojans.

24. Illinois (last week: unranked): Hey now, look what Ron Zook is doing in Champaign. The Illini are 3-0 after beating a ranked Arizona State team. I’ll keep them at No. 24 for now, though Big Ten play will likely expose them as a middle-of-the-road team. But, for now, embrace the optimism Illini fans.

25. Clemson (last week: unranked): That was an impressive win over a ranked opponent for the Clemson Tigers and it allows them to sneak into our Top 25. Now, can they beat Florida State? If EJ Manuel doesn’t play, maybe. Otherwise, no.

Dropped out: 22 Arizona State, 25 Ohio State.

Outside looking in: Iowa State and Vanderbilt are two of the most surprising teams in the nation. Both are 3-0, but I don’t think they’re Top 25 teams. Florida International slipped by a solid Central Florida outfit to remain 3-0. Houston is out there too, but it struggled with Louisiana Tech before winning by a point. Wyoming is also 3-0 but isn’t ready for prime time. Notre Dame is out there, but I can’t put a 1-2 team in my Top 25.

I awoke from a restful sleep on Sunday morning to find that the ACC is going to swell to 14 members. CBSSports.com reported that Syracuse and Pittsburgh will bolt the Big East for the ACC. Next up? texas and Oklahoma board of regents meet on Monday.

We may remember the next 48 hours as the hours that ushered in the era of the super conference. Or not. We’ll see. We thought that way about 15 months ago.

But it’s clear the ACC now has firepower if schools like Florida State or Virginia Tech bolt for other leagues, especially the SEC. If FSU and Va. Tech stay, then the league only needs two more members to become a 16-team league. ESPN was reporting on Sunday that Connecticut — another Big East charter member — is set to pursue a spot in the ACC.

If the ACC accepts Uconn, it will be interesting if they seek another Big East team or, perhaps, leave that 16th spot open for texas. Speculation is rampant that the longhorns, if they seek a new conference, would need a league that is open to allowing the school to retain its affiliation with the longhorn Network. That’s unlikely in the Pac 12. The ACC may be more likely to allow the agreement to continue. Of course, we’re talking about texas, so any league would be dumb not to at least consider the longhorns.

As for the Sooners, well that’s the worst-kept secret in college sports. If the Sooners elect to leave the Big 12, it will be for the Pac-12. And Oklahoma State would follow quickly.

And then the shakeup that we all saw coming a year ago will be at hand. And all bets are off.

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.

Could the dominos in conference realignment start falling as early on Monday? The University of Oklahoma board of regents will meet on Monday and on the agenda will be the school’s conference affiliation. That doesn’t mean a decision is coming on Monday, but it means that the board must feel there’s enough information at hand to at least start talking about what direction the school wants to head.

If you’ve been keeping up, you know that the rest of the Big 12 is waiting to see if the Sooners are going to stay in the Big 12 or, most likely, head west to the Pac-12. There have been plenty of rumors the past couple of weeks, and perhaps it’s time the Sooners laid them to rest so we could all get on with our college football lives. Continue Reading…