Conference Realignment: A Wave of Sanity Arrives

  For awhile, it looked like Oklahoma was joining a Pacific conference and a Dallas school was joining an eastern conference. Sure, it would work for football, where teams only make five conference road trips at most per year with at least one week between each journey. For the Olympic sports and baseball/softball, it would prove disastrous. Naturally, the improved compensation from lucrative media packages, primarily the result of football rights, would cover travel costs of the non-revenue sports, and then some. However, long road trips over long weekends could prove ruinous to student-athletes, interfering with class attendance and study time. 
  Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed. The Pac-12 decided against further expansion, at least that far east, using the Longhorn Network and Oklahoma State/Texas Tech academic reputations as a pretext (as if Oregon State and Arizona State are siblings of Harvard). The leaders of TCU swallowed their pride (after being slighted at the time of the Big 12's creation and recognizing the injustice and disparity of the Longhorn Network) and decided to switch from the Big East (set to begin affiliation in 2012-13) to the Big 12. The leaders of the Big 12 decided to be logical instead of obsessing over geographical footprint expansion, and so they placed TCU at the front of the line to replace Texas A&M.
  How long will this wave of sanity last? Nobody knows for sure. If Missouri bolts for the SEC, as looks probable, will the Big 12 leaders look to Houston or Rice for another logical replacement, or will they stretch the footprint to West Virginia, Kentucky (Louisville), Utah (BYU), or Idaho (Boise State)? A compromise between logic/convenience and footprint expansion would be New Mexico or a return to Colorado (Air Force or CSU). For media market size, it's hard to believe Colorado will be ignored if the Big 12 returns to 12 members.
  If this wave of logical, geographically compatible expansion/realignment continues, the Pac-12 should look at Boise State, Colorado State, Utah State or BYU, New Mexico, and Hawaii. Perhaps they should also look at San Diego State, UC Davis, UNLV, and Wyoming. If academic reputation is so important, they should boot out Washington State, Utah, Oregon State, and Arizona State. Otherwise, that excuse just smacks of hypocrisy. 
  The Big 10 should incorporate Notre Dame and Rutgers. The SEC should think about Clemson, Florida State, Maryland, Virginia Tech, or North Carolina State. The ACC should pick up the remaining Big East football schools once the dust settles, since it is hard to believe the Big East will survive as an AQ conference with the losses of Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and TCU. The conference will survive as a basketball and football non-AQ league by adding Army, Navy, Central Florida, and East Carolina. Forget about Air Force.
   The Mountain West should be promoted to AQ conference status, even with the departure of BYU, Utah, and TCU. After all, the MWC still will have Boise State, Hawaii, Nevada, Fresno State, San Diego State, and possibly Air Force in 2012. As an AQ conference and with much better media rights packages, perhaps the MWC could even lure BYU back to the fold if the Provo school fails to get a bid from the Big 12 (50-50) and Pac-12 (slim odds at best due to religious prominence). It's only right to have three AQ BCS conferences east of the Mississippi and three AQ conferences west of the river. That is also called geographically logical balance. Sanity.