Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe all but killed his own conference on April 30, 2008.
Thats when he decided to team up with the Big Ten and Pac-10 to reject a four-team playoff being pushed by the SEC and ACC. If the Big 12 (and/or the Big East) had supported it, the so-called Plus One model likely wouldve happened.
Even that modest playoff would have meant hundreds of millions of additional revenue for college athletics. It would have then allowed for easy expansion for an even more lucrative 16-team postseason. That would have solved all the monetary concerns that have left the Big 12 on the verge of collapse at the hands of its one-time allies, the Big Ten and Pac-10.
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany admitted to Congress a 16-team playoff could gross four times what the current Bowl Championship Series does in other words about $900 million annually.
He opposed it anyway. Beebe and the others never seemed to ask why. Theyre finding out now.
Conference expansion is about to forever alter college athletics: destroying traditions, hammering taxpayers and increasing competition. It will leave once-major programs out of the loop, consolidate power and extend the gap between haves and have nots even within leagues such as the Big Ten.
No one is in a more desperate spot than the Big 12, which this week could see as many as eight league members receive invites to leave.
