[ISUKappa]

I am an Iowa State alum and this whole shakeup is extremely disconcerting to me. Iowa State (an AAU and Tier-1 research school) has the potential to be left out in the cold due to greedy bastards who don't care about the student athlete, they just want $$$$.

The only known certainty right now is that Colorado is Gone. Nebraska will most likely be gone as of this afternoon. As to what happens after that, nobody knows. There are so many rumors floating around that it's hard to say what's based in truth and what's complete crap. Unless the Pac-10 definitely decides to expand to 16 teams, I highly doubt that the Big 10 (or whatever they're going to call themselves now) will expand further.

There's speculation that this will eventually evolve into the creation of four 16-team "super" conferences that will form their own governing system, thereby nullifying the NCAA, and move toward a play-off style championship system. That is entirely driven by $$$ and the government would most likely start getting involved due to anti-trust issues. College athletics would lose their "not-for-profit" status.

To some conferences, it is about academics. The Big 10 has outright said that. But in reality, it's more about TV sets and expanding footprints to make more $$$ from athletics. Increasing $$$ for academics via grants and research is important, but secondary. Athletics (FB specifically) is completely driving this bus.

I hate it. I wasn't fond of the Big XII only because it wasn't a good relationship from the start. I miss the Big 8, but know those schools will never be back again.