The future of college sports

The 11 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences began meeting today in Scottsdale, Ariz., and, from what I'm hearing, the major topic will be how many of these conferences will still be in existence after the meetng is over. The word is that the Big East is the most vulnerable conference, followed by the Big 12.

The driving force behind all this is the Big 10, which is the most powerful (and the wealthiest) of all the F.B.S. conferences. It wants to expand from its current 11 to 17 teams. Independent Notre Dame is the obvious choice to become a member of the Big 10. If the Big 10 only adds Notre Dame, I'm not thinking much else will change. The problem is, however, simply adding Notre Dame will not help the conference's television revenues, which is really the driving factor behind all this. The Big 10 is the only conference I'm aware of that has its own television network. (It can be found on Channel 197 on Time Warner's local cable lineup.) The other five teams the Big 10 wants to add are Missouri from the Big 12, and Rutgers, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Connecticut from the Big East.

If that happens, other chips will fall. I see Colorado and Texas leaving the Big 12 to become part of the PAC 10, which will try to expand to 16 teams. In fact, the word is that two other conferences -- the Southeastern and the Atlantic Coast -- would like to form 16-team leagues and, together with the Big 10 and the PAC 10, bolt the jurisdiction of the NCAA, start their own football series and hold their own post-season basketball tournament.

“If you look at the history of what’s been going on for the last decade, I think it’s leading in that direction,” said former Syracuse athletic director Jake Crouthamel, who helped form the Big East Conference.