Given the opportunity yesterday to place a headstone above the grave of conference realignment, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany passed.  “Dead is a strong word” he said when asked about further conference expansion.

That shouldn’t scare anyone.  It’s a “forever” question and a lot can change in a day, a year, 10 years or 20 years.  To say expansion is stone-cold dead means it’s forever dead and that’s not going to be the case…. even though the ACC appears stable at the moment.  Also, Big East, er, American Athletic Conference schools don’t appear to be attractive enough for the Big Ten or others to come calling right now.  But Delany says his league still has its eyes open and when it moves, it will likely move east:

“I can’t speak for others, but we’ve been focused on making a home in a new region (with Rutgers and Maryland), making new members feel at home in this region.  Everything we’ll do competitively and in television and in bowls is to bring, as quickly as we can, a level of comfort.  The Eastern corridor is… the richest corridor in the world from the standpoint of financial institutions, political institutions, media institutions, and we’re new to it.  So if we can build relationships, make friend and be impactful and relevant over time, that’s the goal.

We’re not going to be changing the world, but we are looking forward to doing everything we can to build a presence in that place.”

Whether a conference can thrive as a two-region entity remains to be seen.  And while Delany is correct about the advantages to be found on the Atlantic Seaboard, those advantages haven’t helped the ACC or Big East very much.  The former has been picked clean of its best athletic programs and totally rebranded while the latter now ranks as the poorest league cash-wise among the five remaining major conferences.

Of course, ACC and Big East schools haven’t matched Big Ten schools in terms of size — where 50,000 students on a campus isn’t unheard of — and, therefore, in terms of alumni.  Delany pointed out yesterday that the Big Ten has 1.2 million alumni living between Northern Virginia and New York.  Not bad for a conference that’s not even located in the area.

Delany also said that his league is planning to open up a second conference office — probably in New York — to serve the East Coast.  All for Rutgers, Maryland, and maybe Penn State?

Expansion isn’t dead.  It’s resting.  And at some point — hopefully several years down the pike — it will awake and rise again.  When that happens, it’s clear in which direction the Big Ten will start looking.  If it sees that it can make it as a two-region league.

Out with the old.  In with the new.

With the SEC/Big East Challenge dying — right along with the Big East as we knew it — the Southeastern Conference has found a new league to play against in the early part of each basketball season.  The SEC confirmed today what had been rumored for months — the Big XII/SEC Challenge will begin play in 2013-14.

The two leagues also recently partnered in taking control of the Sugar Bowl, which should turn into a fast-flowing revenue stream for both conferences.

Naturally, ESPN is behind the new hoops challenge.  All 10 Big XII teams will take part, while only 10 of the SEC’s 14 schools get to participate (for obvious reasons).  Like the old Big East challenge, the title of the series will flip-flop each year with the SEC getting top billing next season.

“The ability to showcase SEC basketball in this kind of conference competition makes this a unique and exciting event for our coaches, student-athletes and fans,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said via press release.  “We are pleased to be able to work with the Big XII and ESPN to highlight the sport of men’s basketball.”

Here are the matchups for Year One of the Big XII/SEC Challenge.  (Arkansas, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee are the SEC squads not taking part.)

Thursday, November 14th — Texas Tech at Alabama

Monday, December 2nd — Vanderbilt at Texas, Auburn at Iowa State

Thursday, December 5th — Ole Miss at Kansas State, West Virginia at Missouri, TCU at Mississippi State

Friday, December 6th — South Carolina at Oklahoma State, Kentucky vs. Baylor (at Arlington, Texas)

Tuesday, December 10th — Kansas at Florida

Saturday, December 21st — Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma (at Houston, Texas)

In its first year this new challenge might have already equaled the number of interesting matchups created in six years of the SEC/Big East challenge.

Future schedules will be put together with input from ESPN, the SEC and the Big XII.  With the Big XII having a say, it will be interesting to see if Texas and Kansas ever OK a games with Texas A&M and Missouri, respectively.  Obviously, that won’t be happening this year.

You’ve got to hand it to DeLoss Dodds.  His lies give credence to the old line that “everything’s bigger in Texas.”

The Longhorn athletic director said in an interview with the student newspaper at UT — the Big XII’s UT, not the SEC’s — that it’s Texas A&M who brought the football rivalry between the two schools to a halt, not the other way around.  This in spite of the fact that everyone outside the Lone Star State and half the people in it know full well that A&M has said it wants to continue playing the series and that Dodds’ school is the one that balked:

“I’m think we’ll play sometime.  I don’t know when it will happen or how it will happen, but I’m sure it will happen…

They left.  They’re the ones that decided not to play us.  We get to decide when we play again.  I think that’s fair.  If you did a survey of our fans about playing A&M, they don’t want to.  It’s overwhelming.  I know.  I hear it.  Our fans are important to us.  I think there’s got to be a period where things get different.  I think there’s too many hard feelings.”

“They’re the ones that decided not to play us,” is a complete fallacy, a canard, an untruth.  Georgia Tech once left the SEC.  Their arch-rival, Georgia, didn’t take their ball and run home.  South Carolina left the ACC in 1971.  Their hated cross-state neighbor, Clemson, didn’t pout and cancel the South’s uninterrupted football series.

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Until November, Notre Dame was scheduled to begin play full-time in the ACC (in all sports but football) by 2015.  But then Rutgers announced it was leaving the Big East.  That led to a breakaway by the “Catholic 7″ and even the loss of the Big East name altogether.  As of today, Notre Dame has no home for the 2013-14 academic year.

It should come as no surprise, however, that sources tell ESPN the ACC would allow the Fighting Irish to join its ranks this summer, ahead of schedule if the school desires.

After losing Maryland to the Big Ten, John Swofford’s league is currently attempting to fend off further potential raids from the Big Ten (and maybe the SEC and the Big XII).  Getting Notre Dame into the fold as soon as possible might not prevent future departures, but it can’t hurt.

Of course, nothing ever goes smoothly when it comes to schools switching conferences.

What’s left of the Big East — or whatever it will be called — apparently intends to make the Irish pay an exit fee before it can flee the shrinking league.  “Nobody’s going to let Notre Dame just leave; it needs to be negotiated,” a Big East source told ESPN.

Anybody else sick of all this realignment/expansion/lawsuit/negotiations nonsense?

By Kurt Wirth

It strikes me, being the stats nerd I am, how under-developed college baseball coverage is. I mean, it’s really, really poor. PerfectGame and BaseballAmerica are both Rivals-esque sites, relying more heavily upon writing and features than statistics and data. WarrenNolan does some fancy numbers work, but only weighted crunching to produce RPIs. The only reliable source for those of you unfortunate enough to share my addiction to numbers is d1baseball.com, though the depth just can’t match what’s available for college football and basketball.

Okay, enough with the complaining.

I bring the previous point up because I wanted to compare the major conferences and their performances thus far, and it took a great deal more effort than I expected. I was able to pull some data together, and it’s not a pretty picture for several of them.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The SEC is dominating the college baseball scene so far. Owning the best overall record in the country, the league also has played more games versus major-conference teams than any other. Here’s how the performances compare:

• SEC 40-13 (.755)
• ACC 29-10 (.744)
• Pac 12 24-13 (.649)
• Big 12 23-13 (.639)
• C-USA 17-16 (.515)
• Big 10 11-22 (.333)
• Big East  9-21 (.300)

For the record, I counted Conference USA due to its relevance on the college baseball landscape and the Big East because its considered a major conference in other sports.

It seems obvious that there are three levels of play on the college baseball diamond this year. There’s the SEC and the ACC, a gap followed by the Pac 12 and the Big 12, another gap and then everyone else. Admittedly, it’s early, but this follows a trend. Here’s the conference RPI rankings by WarrenNolan last season:

1. SEC .5728
2. ACC .5720
3. Pac 12 .5640
4. Big 12 .5435
6. C-USA .5329
11. Big 10 .5170
13. Big East .5104

Unlike football, there isn’t a media outcry about scheduling for the Southeastern Conference baseball teams. The league has played the most games against the other “majors” and holds the second-best record in those games. This on top of the disastrous Mizzou weekend sweep by Southern Miss of C-USA. Here’s the conferences’ records against each other:

• SEC 9-4 (.692)
• ACC 6-5 (.545)
• Pac 12 7-3 (.700)
• Big 12 0-4 (.000)
• C-USA 5-3 (.625)
• Big 10 4-6 (.400)
• Big East 1-7 (.125)

In short, the SEC is – once again – the haven for college baseball talent. Not a bad place to be for fans, either. Due in large part to the sunny weather (minus a few snow storms this past weekend) and mild temperatures this time of year, the SEC also held the top five spots nationally for average attendance. Led by LSU, with an average more than double that of sixth place (!), the conference held the top five attendance spots for the weekend and 10 of the top 25.

I say this, though, with some caution. No matter how much SEC fans may scream, call and comment, there very clearly is a gap in both talent and practice time between the SEC and northern schools. There is little coincidence that a conference as wealthy and powerful as the Big 10 is located primarily in the Midwestern states and holds an 11-22 record after a weekend.

I’d also like to point out that the SEC’s performance in football is far and away more impressive than its domination on the diamond. College football is infinitely more competitive, receiving more funding and television exposure across the board. Schools must compete in football. Financially, baseball is a novelty.

This is relevant because winning seven-straight national titles in college football, after the sport has matured to where it is today, is darn-near unthinkable. This comparison can be paralleled to Nick Saban, and his growing dynasty, and Bear Bryant. Saban’s current beastly program, again, is far more impressive today than Bryant’s was. It’s simply easier to excel when you’ve got less competition.

Regardless, 2013 is looking like a pretty fantastic year for Southeastern Conference fans, particularly in its exceedingly sizeable baseball stadiums.

Kurt Wirth is graduating in the spring with a Master’s in Communication and Media Technology. A lifelong follower of SEC athletics, you can follow him on Twitter @SEC_Nerd.

When Ohio State president Gordon Gee admitted last month that there seems to be “movement towards three or four super-conferences that are made up of 16-20 teams,” he was stating what many already suspected.  While some may envision a sporting landscape that includes four conferences of 16 schools each, there’s absolutely no reason to believe leagues will stop growing when they hit that imaginary ceiling.  If a conference believes there’s more money to be made with 17, 18, 19, 20 or more schools, you can be sure that conference will expand accordingly.

Over the past three years, we’ve seen as much movement, as much shuffling as the college sports world has ever known.  A chart of this evolution would show a slow rise from ape to man from the early 1900s to the 2000s… and then a huge leap forward to a man with both gills and wings in the 2010s.  For the geeks out there, consider these the X-conferences.  And the mutants are taking over.

Here’s a look at what’s transpired since 2010:

* The ACC has lined up Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Louisville, but it’s lost Maryland.

* The Big Ten has added Nebraska and it’s scheduled to add Maryland and Rutgers.

* The Big XII has added TCU and West Virginia, but it’s lost Colorado, Nebraska, Texas A&M and Missouri.

* The Pac-12 has added Colorado and Utah.

* The SEC has added Texas A&M and Missouri

* The Big East, well, that list is too long to mention.  Ditto those poor, poor leagues smaller than the Big East.

With the exception of the Big XII and the revolving door that is the Big East, the biggest conferences have been getting even bigger.  Money is the obvious motivation.  Conferences are adding schools so they can make more television dollars off an increased amount of content (games).  Schools are switching conferences in order to find a better pay day.

But if history is a guide, don’t expect any super-conferences currently on the horizon to stick together for too long.  Contracts, grant-of-rights agreements, and exit fees be damned… those leagues expanding to 18, 20, or more schools will eventually splinter right back apart.

Here’s why:

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Being part of a conference that’s lost four teams and added two in recent years, Texas A.D. Deloss Dodds has seen firsthand the impact of conference reshuffling.  The result of losing Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri and Texas A&M and adding TCU and West Virginia means the Big 12 is a 10-team conference, a number Dodds seems to like.

With the Big Ten on the verge of expansion, the Big East crumbling and rampant realignment rumors seemingly popping up daily, Dodds was asked by Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News how closely he was watching the national landscape.

“Absolutely you watch that and think about it and plan around it and think about your own conference, the Big 12. The Big Ten added geography and markets. I don’t know about the SEC and if it might react by going to 16. I don’t know if the Big Ten will go to 16. We’re very happy with 10. It works for us geographically, it works for us financially and it works for us competitively.”

Dodds was also asked by the “haves” and  ”have-nots” of the college football world.  ”Money makes a difference,” said the Texas A.D., “but not that much of a difference. The 85 scholarships have made more difference.”

Those comments on money come as a new study shows spending on sports in the power conferences has passed $100,000 per athlete.  In the SEC, the figure tops $163,000.  In the Big 12, that number exceeds $131,00  per athlete.

Another year, another SEC national champion.  All the handwringing over the league’s 3-3 start to the bowl season was clearly a major waste of time and effort.  We noted a week ago that the SEC’s bowl winning percentage over the past 15 years was about 60%, not 100%.  As it turns out, this year’s winning percentage was about 67%.

This wasn’t a down year for the SEC in bowl games… it was an up year.

Below are the updated bowl records for all of the major conferences during the 2012 season and over the course of the last 15 years (the BCS era):

Observations:

*  The SEC has 16 more bowl wins than any other conference since the 1998 season.

*  The SEC has more bowl bids over that span than any other conference.

*  Despite its teams often playing opponents that finished higher in their own conference standings, the SEC has the third-best winning percentage among conferences.  Only the Big West — defunct for more than a decade — and the Big East have better overall winning percentages since 1998.

*  Look at the overall bowl records for the Big Ten and the MAC and you have to wonder just how much talent remains in the American Midwest as people migrate to the South and to the West.  No wonder Midwestern teams and leagues are searching for ways to reach the prospects in the Sun Belt region.

*  Of the five major conferences remaining today — ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac-12, and SEC — only the SEC has a winning bowl mark over the past 15 seasons.

And finally, the list everyone is talking about this morning:

A few thoughts and tidbits that ran through the noggin during Louisville’s 33-23 win over Florida in last evening’s Sugar Bowl:

*  Florida fans shouldn’t complain too much about the loss.  No, really.  They shouldn’t.

Because they didn’t take Louisville any more seriously than the Gator players did.

That won’t actually prevent grumbling, of course, but the fact is, many Gator fans moaned about having to play a Big East team.  UF also failed to sell out its bowl allotment by a pretty good chunk.  So if a fan — who could afford to go — didn’t take the Cardinals seriously and didn’t go to the game, I don’t see how that fan can whine too much about his team not showing up, either.

*  Florida went 11-1 against the season’s toughest SEC schedule.  They did so with a heckuva defense and a penchant for taking care of the ball (they were plus-17 going into last night’s game).  In our game preview, we wrote that with Florida’s depth and talent, turnovers were the only thing that could undo the Gators’ chances in New Orleans.  One fumble and two interceptions later — including an INT returned for a touchdown 15 seconds into the game — and UF had another loss on its ledger.

UF went 11-0 when it turned the ball over two or fewer times in a game this past season.  The Gators were 0-2 when they turned it over more than twice (six turnovers versus Georgia, three versus Louisville).  Even simpler, Florida was 11-0 when it won the turnover battle, 0-2 when it lost it.  Which goes to show…

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With the SEC kicking off its bowl schedule today, we wanted to get you up to speed with the television listings, latest lines, keys to victory and our own predictions for each of the league’s first eight contests.

Naturally, next week’s BCS Championship Game between Alabama and Notre Dame will get its own breakdown a bit later.

But without further ado, here’s your holiday gridiron primer for all the SEC action this week…

Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl (Nashville, TN)

Vanderbilt (8-4) vs NC State (7-5)

12:00pm ET, Today on ESPN

Opening Line:  VU -5

Current Line:  VU -7.5

Sidenotes:  Vanderbilt has the SEC’s longest win streak at six games and it’s won those six games by an average of 24 points, scoring more than 40 points in four of those six contests.  NCSU lost three of its last five games allowing 43 to North Carolina, 33 to Virginia, and 62 to Clemson in those defeats.

Key for Vanderbilt:  Own the air.  NC State had the ACC’s second-best passing attack this season, but Vanderbilt had the third-best pass defense in the SEC.  In the all-important opponent’s passer rating statistic, Vandy actually placed second in the league.  While Commodore QB Jordan Rodgers didn’t match the numbers of Wolfpack QB Mike Glennon, Rodgers protected the football — just five INTs all season — against superior defenses.  NCSU’s pass defense ranked just ninth in the ACC.

Pick:  Vanderbilt 27, NC State 17

Chick-fil-A Bowl (Atlanta, GA)

LSU (10-2) vs Clemson (10-2)

7:30pm ET, Tonight on ESPN

Opening Line:  LSU -3

Current Line:  LSU -6

Sidenotes:  Clemson had the best offense in the ACC rolling up 518 yards per game.  But in a 27-17 loss to South Carolina to end the season, the Tigers put up just 328 yards of offense (145 rushing, 183 passing).  LSU ranked just ahead of Carolina in total defense in the SEC this year.

Key for LSU:  Show up.  The Tigers aren’t thrilled to be heading to Atlanta when slots in more prestigious bowls were available.  The last time a Top 10 SEC team moaned so much about landing in Atlanta, #6 Tennessee was whipped 27-14 by unranked Clemson in 2004.  LSU has the superior defense and the superior team.  But if the Bayou Bengals aren’t fired up for this one, Clemson QB Tajh Boyd will surprise.

Pick:  Clemson 24, LSU 23

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