(03-20-2020 11:09 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(03-20-2020 09:40 PM)Sactowndog Wrote:  I think it is unlikely USC goes to the Big12 without the other 3 Pac12 CA schools. But I could well see a shuffling of the PAC12: and Big12 to create two California and Texas based conferences.

Pac12/Big12 Merger
West: USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Wash, Ore, AZ, Utah
East: Texas, Kan, Ok, Colorado, T Tech, TCU, Nebraska, Houston

The left overs fill in:
West: Washington St, Oregon State, Arizona State, Boise State, Fresno State, SDSU, BYU

East: Baylor, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, West Virginia, Kansas State, Cincinnati, SMU,

See Rice getting in before Houston, as the PAC AAU schools would much prefer them.

I'd go with Arizona State over both of them. They'd want the Phoenix market. Utah would move to the East. Rice is great academically but too weak athletically. We don't know if the Pac-12 or Big 12 schools would call the shots but at least ASU has ties to the Pac-12 schools in the group, Rice has ties to none of them (unless anyone has a time machine and can go back to the SWC).

I would guess Cincinnati and West Virginia would stay with whatever conference Memphis, UCF, USF, Tulane, and Tulsa are in. They gain nothing being in the 2nd tier conference you suggested. Iowa State might move to that conference. Maybe the MWC, AAC, and the remains of the Big 12, Pac 12 become two or three conferences, one East of the Mississippi and one West of the Mississippi.