One of the huge dominos in the conference expansion may be close to falling. Missouri is planning on applying to the SEC and the conference reportedly has the votes to admit them in. This is huge news that will impact the entire country.
What does this mean?
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE. The SEC has 14 teams now, the same as the ACC. It looks as if the conference will stop at that number. All there is to do now is move one of the West teams to the East and figure out the scheduling. The team most likely to move would be Auburn, which would be quite interesting. Splitting Bama and Auburn could mean the two teams meet in the SEC title game.
SEC EAST: Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
SEC WEST: Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss State, Missouri, Texas A&M
BIG XII CONFERENCE. Now the Big XII is down to 9 teams again. They will lose A&M and Missouri and gain TCU. The league and the members want to get back to 12 teams ... meaning they must find three schools to join in. Since BYU isn't interested anymore (though the Big XII should revisit), the plan is to head east. Louisville, West Virginia and, possibly, Cincinnati should be on the list. Boise State and Air Force could be, but the MWC-CUSA merger may stop all that (more on that later).
BIG XII NORTH: Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Louisville, West Virginia
BIG XII SOUTH: Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech.
BIG EAST. In short, done. With Missouri leaving the Big XII, the Big XII will look to loot the Big East for three teams. Right now, only six schools play football in that conference. If the Big XII rips half of that, only three remain: Rutgers, UConn and South Florida. UConn would then beg the ACC to let them in. Either way, the Big East football conference could be done. The Mountain West-Conference USA merger has kept those schools thinking twice about moving to the Big East. A raid by the Big XII would completely scare those schools off. Seriously, they'd have a better chance gaining a BCS berth with the MWC-CUSA merger than a rebuilt Big East.
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE. While the ACC isn't in the mood to expand, if the opportunity to snag Notre Dame happens they will jump all over it. Then they will add UConn to be the 16th member. If Notre Dame gets scared into joining a conference, the ACC would be the most likely landing spot.
ACC NORTH: Boston College, Connecticut, Maryland, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech
ACC SOUTH: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest
MOUNTAIN WEST AND CONFERENCE USA. In reality, neither conference is now all that concerned with being looted. For those who don't know, the MWC and C-USA have agreed to have a football alignment where the champs from both conferences will play to create a sort-of champion. They think this could entice the BCS to consider the winner to be BCS bowl worthy. It could be. It probably won't be. But it would be closer than anything the Big East could offer.
Sure, East Carolina and a few other schools could bolt for the Big East but it won't bother these conferences too much ... as long as Boise State sits still.
BIG TEN AND PAC-12. It seems as if both leagues are cool with the memberships they have. Sure, Rutgers is out there and attractive to the Big Ten but unless they can find someone to join them (and under this plan, they don't) I don't see them making any move.
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