Colorado complicates Big 12's future

[RSSBot]

Tuesday afternoon, a report out of Boulder surfaced, stating that Colorado was more likely to exit the Big 12 after the 2011 season, instead of 2010, when Nebraska plans to leave for the Big Ten.

"That is our plan and that is what we are working on," athletic director Mike Bohn told the Camera on Tuesday.

Colorado's exit date had been in flux since the school announced its original intention to leave for the Pac-10 prior to the 2012 season, and Nebraska expressed its intentions to leave after just one season. But most signs from both Colorado's administrators and Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe indicated that the Buffaloes had to finalize the details of withdrawal fees subtracted from their conference revenue. Still, an exit after 2010 still seemed likely.

Clearly, that is not the case anymore, though still a possibility. Utah will become the Pac-10's 11th member for the 2011 season.

To leave the Big 12 after 2010, Colorado would sacrifice 80 percent of its revenue, according to Big 12 bylaws. If the Buffaloes roam westward after 2011, that figure drops to just 50 percent.

That number likely has more to do with the delay in finalized details than does an earlier report that former UCLA chancellor Chuck Young attempting to rally the conference's chancellors to block Utah and Colorado's entrance into the Pac-10.

Also on Tuesday, Colorado announced a previously reported game at Ohio State that will net the school $1.4 million, a sizeable chunk of cash that would help replace the lost revenue from a Big 12 exit.

So, what does this mean for the Big 12?

Unfortunately, more posts like this with phrases like "conference revenue" and "withdrawal fees."

But it also would mean a year of an 11-team Big 12, which brings into question the league's round-robin schedule in 2011 and an absence of a championship game. Both moves seemed to be supported by the majority of the league's coaches, who also expressed excitement about seeing the Big 12's other nine members annually.

It would also mean at least one team in the Big 12 would be put on a bye each week, barring some fancy nonconference finagling. But the league could keep an additional conference game as planned, leaving one team from the conference off each's teams schedule. Who's missing who from their schedule could quickly become contentious, especially with big fish Texas and Oklahoma floating around, two teams surely to dodge playing one of the two powers who have won the past six Big 12 titles.

"We're waiting for further direction from the Big 12 on how many games will be incorporated into the conference schedule for 2011," Bohn told the Camera.

For now, so are the rest of us.

More...