Is bigger always better? That is the question that has been circulating the landscape of college football for the past few weeks in the aftermath of revelations that the Pac-10 conference had not so quietly been trying to lure several teams from other conferences to join its Pacific coast alliance. Teams that were initially mentioned to join the Pac-10 have included the usual suspects of Utah, BYU, Colorado, Boise St, and even Texas was thrown in the mix. For area college football fans particularly those fans and alumni's of Pac-10 town near you. Let the chaos begin now that the first two dominoes have fallen in the pond of reshuffling, as Colorado and Nebraska are leading the wave to greener pasture as each school are set join the Big Ten and Pac-10 respectively as early as the 2011 season. The Thursday announcement that Nebraska was leaving the Big 12 all but brings a death to the once BCS conference, as  it now sits on life support. The Pac-10 now in a position to pluck as many as six schools (Texas, Texas A & M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, and Colorado) creating the new Pac-16 conference or whatever they are calling it these days.

Why is there all this conference reshuffling you might ask? Well it boils down to dollars, and we are talking about multi millions here folks, as the top football schools want a bigger share of the pot that will come with being in a bigger conference with more television viewers and revenue to be had, its that simple. Markets and demographics mean that much as these schools athletic departments operate like businesses and they want to increase their brands. This is not academics running the show, its big time money making and big time college football we are talking about. What this now means to us as college football fans is that we have to adjust to seeing our beloved teams in bigger conferences with new rivals emerging. While I am a Florida Gator fan and diehard for the SEC, the shame in all this is how quickly the Big 12 conference has fallen like a house sitting on sand after losing one of its brand programs in Nebraska. Left out in the cold are schools such as Kansas, Kansas St, Missouri, Iowa St., and Baylor with no home to go to. Kansas a basketball power does not have the same marquee value in football that is enjoys in basketball which is why it has fallen off the major conference map. The left over schools out of the Big 12 could end up in the Mountain West Conference which wants to add schools and join the BCS party. If the Mountain West Conference can add some schools it too will add value to its revenue and television base.

For Pac-10 fans having a super conference of 16 teams now puts you on par with the powerful SEC conference that has produced the last four national champions in football, including my Florida Gators who have won two out of three titles. Bringing in schools such as Oklahoma and Texas is a major coup for Pac-10 commionser Larry Scott after getting the green light from Board Presidents this week to negotiate with candidate schools about potentially joining the conference. On another note it does make sense for schools that want to increase their academic profiles to belong in the same conference as such academic heavyweights as Cal, Stanford, UCLA, and USC. Schools such as Oklahoma St or Texas Tech would thus have closer access to foster joint research and other projects that otherwise would not be afforded to them had they not been a member school of the Pac-10 conference. On the football field the new Pac-16 can now offer a conference championship game for prestige in a venue such as Texas Stadium in Arlington, Texas and home of the NFL Dallas Cowboys. Playing a conference title game in a state of the art facility will produce more millions to the coffers of the conference. Also the Pac-10 has long wanted to have a conference championship game however it could not previously do without expansion. While the Sacramento region is not a hotbed for producing powerhouse college football teams this expansion move should make plenty of college football here in town very happy.  Imagine driving to Cal or Stanford to watch one of them play a school like Texas or Oklahoma. Likewise there are some Pac-10 expansion benefits that could help local schools such as Sacramento State and UC Davis including better scheduling and more access to recruiting kids. Additionally, local high school student athletes who not fit for the larger programs may now consider a Sac State if it give them a chance to play early and perhaps against one of the big boy Pac 16 schools.

In the end this is just the beginning of what's to come for big time college sports.