CU Buff fans, I know you're excited about your move to the Pac-10. Truthfully I might be excited about road trips to places like Eugene, LA and Tucson.

But let's be honest... you are going to an athletically inferior conference.

Yep, the conference you're leaving is a better conference than the one you're going to.

Don't believe me? Let's look at the numbers of the two sports most college fans follow: basketball and football.

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The Case for the Big 12 Conference

Well, a couple months back this was probably on his desk...  A few weeks back Texas Tech's blog, I Am The 12th Man, posted a link to 60 pages of emails from the since averted crisis.  Many of the emails were merely press releases and relevant articles; however, some were top secret.  Probably the most important was an essay from the commissioner himself, making his case for the Big XII (it's found on page 39 of the Google Doc if you want the original piece).

Beebe's introduction is directed at Texas: "the Conference has not had the benefit of even a first generation that has grown up following his or her institutions solely as a part of the Big 12."  It's not surprising Beebe is appealing to Texas.  As the fate of the Southwest Conference before it, the Big XII's future is hogtied to the Longhorns.  As a football power with a national fanbase, not to mention its influence on A&M, Texas Tech, and (to a lesser extent) Baylor, Texas has all the cards.  Had Texas bailed, there's not doubt in my mind that the Big XII would have disintegrated shortly thereafter.  At some point Texas' seemingly infinite power influence (see unequal revenue sharing, personal TV network, conference headquarters, etc.) will probably alienate the remaining member institutions (see Nebraska).  No one likes a dictator; while the member schools were willing to sacrifice to save the Conference from the worst, they won't stand for the current agreements forever.  It won't be long before the crisis will fade from memory (frankly, we might be there now), and the Missouri's and Kansas's of the worlds will want their say.

Beebe continues by addressing the controversial revenue sharing, or lack thereof, within the Big XII: "It is interesting that the two conferences that pose the most threat to poaching our members, the Big 10 and Pac 10, have opposite approaches to division of television revenue."  While that's certainly an interesting point, it doesn't refute anyone's reasons for leaving the Conference.  Part of the problem with the Big XII's current instability is that there are different opinions on revenue sharing.  Clearly, Texas wants unequal sharing: it's the breadwinner, and it wants its due.  However, this leaves other schools, like Missouri, wanting a more equal share.  But Missouri and Nebraska never wanted to go to the Pac 10, with its unequal revenue (setting aside geographic difficulties); they both lusted after the equal shares of the Big 10.  As for Texas, they flirted mostly with the Pac 10 (at least according to rumors at the time), because they weren't interested in doling out their earnings to less successful institutions.  As for Colorado, they jumped early; I'd be shocked if the Buffaloes thought that there was a future in the Big XII when they jumped aboard the new Pac 10 with a nasty fee for leaving to boot.

The rest of my analysis after the jump.

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According to published reports, "Former UCLA chancellor Chuck Young is leading the opposition of adding Colorado and Utah to the league."

The very, VERY, VERY likely scenario is that everything goes off without a hitch and the Buffaloes and Utes join the Pac-10.

However in the unlikely event that there is enough Pac-10 dissention, the question then for Big 12 brass is whether the league would accept the Buffs back into the conference.

I think after how the conference accepted Mizzou back into the mix after their "secret" flirting with another conference, that CU would be gladly welcomed back (if for nothing else than the Denver TV market).

CU has always been the outlier of the conference... a different time zone... the furthest West.. and I even outlined their exit last September here.

But with that said, I think that if the apocalypse happened and they were a team without a conference that the Big 12 would be idiotic not to invite them back. The other option for CU would be the Mountain West conference, which would be a coup for that conference and come back to haunt the Big 12.

So the question for you, the fan, is whether you would want them back. How would you feel if this unlikely scenario played out?

Dan Beebe wooed Texas (with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech close behind) with promises of more unequal revenue sharing and Longhorn TV rights to boot.  It was a gutsy move that almost definitely saved the Big 12 from being cannibalized by its neighbors.  In the process the Big 12 significantly upgraded its basketball facet by shedding Nebraska (albeit with some history) and Colorado like basketball was at the heart of expansion.

Considering last week most people (including yours truly) had already written a Big 12 obituary, I couldn’t have dreamed of a more appealing resolution from the eyes of basketball (no offense to the dearly departed, but the conference just got exponentially more difficult, and everyone will play twice a year).

But for some reason, I don’t feel completely satisfied with the result…more after the jump.

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The Huskers Regents are meeting today at 1pm CT.  Visit HUSKERS.com for a live feed.

Colorado is headed to the Pac-10 Conference, no matter what happens with the rest of the Big 12, a source close to the situation said Thursday morning. The Pac-10 will hold a news conference later this morning to announce the invitation.

via Denver Post

With Nebraska apparently headed to the Big Ten, the Pac-10 is poised to become the Pac-16.

Colorado already has received an invitation to join the conference, while five other invitations will be extended to Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.

via ESPN.com

More and more signs point to the Big Red in the Big Ten.

Among those now reporting the deal as done are Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune, a well-known college football writer for the hometown paper of the Big Ten Conference.

The Tribune is reporting that Nebraska has been invited to apply for Big Ten membership, citing a source with ties to the conference's expansion talks.

In the parlance of big-time college athletics, such invites rarely are discussed unless a decision to accept the applicant already has been made.

Throughout the day, a host of other media outlets have reported that Nebraska has or will accept an offer to join the Big Ten. Among those offering unsourced reports to that effect Wednesday evening were the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News and ESPN.com.

The University of Nebraska, for its part, says no decision can be made until its Board of Regents meets on Friday, issuing a statement early Wednesday evening to that effect.

via Omaha World-Herald