Fan Fare: Conference realignment troubling for hoops powers

Fast-break points from expansion-mania:

21. Funny math: As this is written, the Big Ten Conference has 12 members (assuming Nebraska's application for inclusion is approved), while the Big 12 has 10.

20. Irrelevant basketball: For hoops-mad Kentucky fans, it has to be jarring to see Kansas and its regal roundball pedigree treated as disposable as a used diaper in all the conference realignment talk.

19. Kansas hoops: Dr. James Naismith (the inventor of basketball) coached at Kansas. Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith played for Phog Allen at Kansas. Wilt Chamberlain. Danny Manning. Paul Pierce. All Jayhawks.

18. Spurned Rock Chalk: In the current football-dominated college sports landscape, being one of the iconic brands in hoops history seems to make Kansas little more attractive than Iowa State.

17. A really big East: Would you believe people are speculating that Kansas and Kansas State could end up in the Big East?

16. Where is the NCAA? The college sports governing body doesn't have the authority to stop the high-stakes game of conference musical chairs. But since men's March Madness is the cash cow that funds the NCAA, shouldn't the organization at least employ some of its moral authority to try to look out for hoops?

15. The Pac-10's politics: By quickly accepting Colorado, the Pac-10 moved to eliminate political pressure in the state of Texas for Baylor to come along with Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech should the West Coast league go to 16 teams.

14. Fox Sports. Is said to be the TV money behind the Pac-10's possible push to 16.

13. State loyalty? In realignment scenarios, will state legislatures force more attractive schools (say Texas and Oklahoma) to bring along their less prominent in-state brethren (say Texas Tech and Oklahoma State) as a condition of any league switches?

12. Any state loyalty in Kentucky? If the SEC were to expand to 16 teams, would the politicians in Frankfort pressure UK to advocate for Louisville in the way Virginia's leaders had the University of Virginia go to bat for Virginia Tech in ACC expansion?

11. SEC expansion: If it happens, wouldn't it make more sense to add schools from states (Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia) where the league does not presently have members rather than adding schools (Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Louisville) from states already in the league?

10. Texas A&M: Rumblings have the SEC wooing A&M with the idea that Southeastern Conference membership for the Aggies but not Texas might help A&M escape the shadow of the behemoth that is the University of Texas.

9. Virginia Tech: Hokies officials denied so vehemently that they've had contact with the SEC that, well, it made me suspect that they have.

8. Expansion impact on Kentucky football: Bringing more football powers into the SEC cannot be a competitive help to UK.

7. Expansion impact on Kentucky basketball: Would adding more "football schools" to the SEC make it more likely that UK — a basketball school in a conference that pigskin rules — might someday end up in a scenario like Kansas could now face?

6. Missouri: Isn't it amazing how the Tigers went from perceived Big Ten lock to suddenly having to issue statements about how much they valued their standing in the Big 12? Still, a school able to command both the St. Louis and Kansas City TV markets should have value in the new world order of college sports.

5. Big 12 preservation plan: Having lost Nebraska and Colorado, could the Big 12 hold its remaining members and keep a lucrative league championship football game intact by adding two schools from the state of Texas (say TCU and either SMU or Houston) to its South Division and moving Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to the North?

4. No extra bid for 16-team Pac-10: If five-sixths of the Big 12 South join Colorado in jumping to the Pac-10, there is already agitation to give a 16-team Pac-10 two automatic bids to BCS bowls.

I say that's a bad idea. No conference, no matter how large, should have more than one automatic.

3. Respect the Mountain West: Having added Boise State, if the MWC can hold its other signature members — Utah, BYU, TCU — it would be worthy of picking up the BCS automatic bid if the Big 12 goes away.

2. Notre Dame. It's hard to break with tradition, but I have long thought the Irish would be best off in the Big Ten.

1. Stop, don't do it: The intrigue behind all this talk of league swapping has been fun; but the best thing for college athletics would be for no league to expand beyond 12 schools.

This story was originally published June 13, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Fan Fare: Conference realignment troubling for hoops powers."