Tradition when it suits them...

Tradition. College football and basketball revel in it. Tradition is a calling card extraordinaire. Homecoming. Alumni tailgating. Tradition. The backbone of college sports is tradition-- where long-tenured coaches are often the rule. Name a pro sport where multiple mentors last more than two decades consistently. Tradition. And while fall Saturdays continue to be the most relevant regular season in sports, March Madness remains sports best postseason... giving fans a marathon and a sprint in their respective sports. Tradition. From the Texas State Fair in Dallas being the centerpiece to Oklahoma-Texas to Alabama facing Tennessee on the third Saturday of October to Ohio State meeting Michigan the Saturday before Thanksgiving, major matchups aren't just set in stone--they're formed in bedrock. Tradition.



What did Teyva say--"A world without tradition is but as shaky as a fiddler on the roof"? Welcome to the college conference landscape-- a roof with an entire orchestra of brass, woodwinds and percussion (must have the kettle drums).



We begin with a change of numbers but not names... Nebraska bolting for the Big Ten (until Northwestern gets the hint) gives that league 12 schools, while the departure of Colorado to the Pac Ten (until Washington State joins the WAC) leaves the Big 12 with ten universities. Can't we just be gentlemanly and swap titles? After taking the Cornhuskers, it would be the chivalrous thing to do.



How the schools and leagues benefit:

Nebraska-- a football factory that has trouble not just winning its conference but beating Kansas and Missouri to take the weaker division in the Big 12 is now potentially set up for success. If they break the Big Ten up into East and West divisions, the Huskers face Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern and either Indiana or Purdue. Quality programs from time to time, but no worldbeaters-- like the Big 12 North. Nebraska also gets a bigger check from the TV and cable networks and they're not so far out of place with the other land-grant universities in the league. The Big Ten gets a name school to anchor it's western wing footballwise and a patsy for basketball season-- did you know the Cornhuskers are one of the few BCS schools to have never won an NCAA Tournament game?



Colorado-- long a stepchild in the Texas-centric Big 12, the Buffaloes will be able to tap better into west coast talent with annual visits to LA and San Francisco. And there are fewer monsters on the gridiron and the court. Instead of a football slate that features Texas, Nebraska and Oklahoma-- CU gets a probation ravaged USC, a rebuilding UCLA and the Oregon/Washington schools plus two universities where academics are really big (Cal and Stanford-- like having Vanderbilt and Northwestern in the same league). Instead of Kansas and Texas (with a quality second tier in K-State, Oklahoma State and Scott Drew-led Baylor) in hoops, the Buffs have a probation ravaged USC (is there a running theme here?), a rebuilding USC and Arizona plus the Washington/Oregon schools and Cal/Stanford. The league gets the Denver market.

If I were the Big Ten: I'd stop at a dozen. We've seen unwieldy 16-school conferences topple under their own weight (the WAC) or bludgeon it's basketball teams from monster regular seasons (Big East), rendering them toothless for the tournament.

If I were the Pac Ten: I'd recruit another California school (San Diego State?) to give me a dozen and another Golden State market.

If I were the Big 12: I'd get back to my original number by recruiting Memphis (the guy who owns Fed Ex reportedly is offering 10 million dollars a year to any BCS conference that takes the Tigers) and Texas-El Paso. Neither school will destroy the league from a football standpoint and both programs have hoops history on their side; although while UTEP has historical significance (the 1966 title against all-white Kentucky), Memphis has infamy (two vacated final fours).

If I were big into college sports (and I am): I'd wonder why schools can uproot for other leagues but we can't have a football playoff. I'd wonder why the NCAA feels it's okay to think about adding 31 schools to a near-perfect tournament field of 64 yet can't find a way to get a 4-team gridiron bracket. I'd wonder why I'm being force-fed how the football regular season means more than any other sport and then being given a dreck-filled, near tradition free postseason. Tradition? Bring on the fiddlers.