The Big-12 tells the world "the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated"

More heat than light, more style than substance, more hype than reality, more drama than truth. The reports of the death of the Big-12 were greatly exaggerated. After all that high drama in the dead middle of the off-season, what was the sum-in-total at the absolute bottom line?

Let me enumerate just what happened:

• Nebraska went to the Big-10, which actually had 11 teams because of Penn State's addition in the 1990s, thus making them the new Big-12. This reduced the Big-12 to the Big-11
• Colorado went to the Pac-10, which then had 11 teams. This reduced the Big-11 to the Big-10.
• Utah joined the Pac-11, making them the Pac-12. This will allow the Pac to hold a conference championship game.
• Supposedly, the Big-10, formerly the Big-12, is happy with just 10 teams and will stay there for the foreseeable future.
• Fans of the Big-10, formerly the Big-12, are not at all pleased by this news. They want to expand. They want to retain the name Big-12. They do not wish to yield this title to the former Big-10.
• Over on the Bleacher Report, fans have repeatedly suggested that Boise State and BYU should be the targets of Big-12 expansion. Both teams are good, and I mean really good. They have been given short-shrift in one BSC ranking after another. Moving to a powerful BCS conference would be just the ticket to put them in contention for a National Championship.

So much for the events. What is my interpretation of these events?

1. I think it is very regrettable that Colorado and Nebraska left the Big-12. The conference is wounded badly by these departures. I don't care what anybody says to the contrary. The former Big-12 has lost much of its luster. I don't like that.
2. I believe that the Pac-12 has made some questionable moves. A shill for the Pac-12 laid down all the reasoning for these moves, and basically boils down to setting up a league which can mesmerize 20 million U.S. homes. This means they may be able to launch their own network. It's a copycat league. We'll see how they like it when Utah wins the conference in it's first season.
3. I think the former Big-10 (11?) may be the big winner in this piracy. They have some serious name-brands in that conference. Ohio State, Michigan, Penn state, and Nebraska all have multiple national championships. Having these four powers in the same conference is [at least on paper] is as impressive looking as the roster of SEC powers. My money is still on the SEC.
4. I give a big thumbs-down to the whole fucked-up debacle. Nothing really good came of any of this. There is more skulduggery and travesty than progress in these shenanigans. I don't like it.

Speaking of skulduggery and shenanigans, I think we aught to be brutally honest about this whole thing: the Big-10 and the Pac-10, old drinking buddies that they were, cooked up a little plot to raid the Big-12 and split-up the booty amongst themselves. They probably don't like the fact that the Big-12 is the other conference that puts a team in the BCS championships besides the SEC. This makes it harder for USC and Ohio State to claim one or both of these slots each year.

This whole series of machinations would have--had they been successful--utterly annihilated the Big-12, and super-enriched the Pac-10 and the Big-10. The BCS championship game may well have become the Rose Bowl 2.0 edition. Any chances of a frequent meeting of Big-12 champ and SEC champ for the BCS championship would been terminated. The Big-12 would have been knocked-off. It is regrettable that these intrigues worked at all, to any extent.

So here is a much better idea for the Pac and the Big: Why not form a new super-conference together? Rather than raiding the Big-12 cookie jar, why not combine the PAC & Big? You can hold a conference champions game every year in the Rose Bowl. The winner of the Rose Bowl will usually receive an automatic big to the BCS championship. You can all it the All-American Conference, which will piss everybody off.

It would better still if the All-American conference was divided into PAC and Big components, and they were divided into East and West divisions. You could hold a PAC-10 and a Big-10 championship game to see who would have the right to go to the Rose Bowl, which is the All-American Conference's championship game.

Do catch m drift? We're talking about potentially having 3 post-season games in a tournament like structure, incorporating 4 teams from a 24 team league. This is the root and beginning of a college playoff system. I love it. I think it is brilliant. I think I will propose it on the Bleacher Report. This is a capital idea.