Superconference Explained

A superconference (also super-conference or super conference) is an athletic conference noted for its large number of members, significant revenue generation, and substantial power that it wields in comparison to at least some of its counterpart conferences. The term is typically used in reference to college athletics in the United States. Because superconferences are emergent and not clearly defined, the term is often used in a hypothetical and speculative way, although one definition of American college superconferences posits that they must form from leagues that were Automatic Qualifying (AQ) conferences during the era of the now-defunct Bowl Championship Series, possess a significant multi-network television deal, and at least consider expanding to the "magic number" of 16 members. The term, though used infrequently before 2010, has historical roots in the proposed "Airplane Conference" of 1959, the Metro Conference's 1990 plan to expand to 16 members, the expansion of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to 16 members in 1996, and the creation of 12-team, two-division conferences with football championship games by the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Big 12 Conference, and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in the 1990s and 2000s. Since major conference realignment began in 2010, the term has been used to describe the expanding ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC conferences.

Background

The proposed "Airplane Conference" (1959)

Although the term was not used at the time, perhaps the first superconference was the proposed "Airplane Conference" of 1959. Suggested by University of Pittsburgh Athletic Director Tom Hamilton, the proposed 12-team football conference would have stretched across the United States. It would have consisted of five former members of the Pacific Coast Conference (Washington, California, USC, UCLA and Stanford), the three largest service academies (Army, Navy, and Air Force), and four eastern universities (Notre Dame, Pitt, Penn State, Syracuse). The conference would, Sports Illustrated said, be the strongest in football in the country; as the schools were independent no conference schedule would be disrupted.[1] [2] [3] The "Airplane Conference" failed to form after the service academies backed out because of the Pentagon's opposition to the idea.[4]

"Developing the Super Conference" (1990)

In 1990, Raycom Sports created a 240-page booklet for the now-defunct Metro Conference entitled "Developing the Super Conference". The booklet outlined Raycom's plan to make the Metro competitive with the major conferences of the day (chiefly the SEC, ACC, Southwest, Big Eight, Big Ten, and Pac-10), which was based on adding new members that were desirable to the Metro in terms of everything from tapping new television markets and increasing the conference's footprint to preserving regional rivalries and exhibiting "institutional compatibility". Raycom's plan was for the Metro, which consisted of eight members in 1990 (Cincinnati, Florida State, Louisville, Memphis State, South Carolina, Southern Miss, Tulane, and Virginia Tech), to double in size to 16, sponsor football for the first time, and then split into either two divisions of eight or four divisions of four. The eight teams named as targets in the booklet were Boston College, East Carolina, Miami, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, and West Virginia, and Raycom's plan was so intriguing to them that the presidents and athletic directors from all eight met with their Metro Conference counterparts in Dallas in the spring of 1990 to discuss the possibility of creating such a 16-team conference.[5]

The Metro Conference never achieved the substantial expansion outlined by the booklet; in 1991, Florida State joined the ACC, South Carolina moved into the SEC, and Boston College, Miami, Pitt, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech began playing football in the Big East. However, Raycom's plan established the blueprint for future superconference creation by emphasizing the importance of using conference expansion to add major markets and increase the conference footprint by expanding into new regions of the country and ultimately securing a significant number of the television households in the United States. According to former Louisville athletic director Bill Olsen, much of the move toward superconferences that has occurred since 2010 is reminiscent of the Metro Conference's plans and ambitions. The Metro itself ultimately dissolved in 1995, when its remnants joined a number of former members of the Great Midwest to form the football-sponsoring Conference USA (C-USA).[6]

Penn State, Notre Dame, and the proposed "Eastern Seaboard League" (1990)

Also in 1990, the concept of the superconference came into the national spotlight as Penn State joined the Big Ten as its 11th member. That same year, Notre Dame reached its own television deal with NBC instead of continuing its participation in the College Football Association's contract with CBS. Both of these moves greatly concerned schools with independent football programs and resulted in discussions among Eastern independents concerning the creation of a proposed "Eastern Seaboard League" (ESL). According to a 1990 Sports Illustrated article, the ten schools most likely to join the ESL were Miami, Boston College, Florida State, South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Temple, Rutgers, Syracuse, and Pitt.[7] The ESL was never formed, but the Big East decided to sponsor football starting in 1991 and added Miami, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Temple, and Rutgers as conference members.[8]

The SEC expands to 12 (1991)

South Carolina, on the other hand, joined the SEC in 1991 along with Arkansas, giving it an unprecedented 12 members and the ability to play a football championship game.[9] Perhaps the first existing superconference, the newly enlarged SEC took advantage of a little-known NCAA rule that allowed a conference of at least 12 teams to form two divisions and play a championship game at the end of the season between the two division winners, with that game not counting against NCAA limits on regular-season contests. The rule had originally been adopted by the NCAA in 1987 to benefit two Division II leagues, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (which respectively had 14 and 12 members at the time),[10] but the SEC realized that using the same conference structure for its purposes would allow it to increase its television revenue.[11]

The Big 12 is formed (1996)

See also: 1996 NCAA conference realignment.

The formation of the Big 12 was foreshadowed by a proposed complete merger of the Big Eight with the Southwest Conference (SWC) in 1990, which ultimately failed to materialize largely due to a lack of interest by Texas at the time.[12] In 1996, the Big 12 was created when all eight members of the Big Eight were joined by four members of the SWC (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor). Following the example of the SEC, the Big 12 established two divisions of six teams and its own football championship game, becoming the second Automatic Qualifying (AQ) conference to do so.[13] According to Blair Kerkhoff of The Kansas City Star, the Big 12 was the first conference to be established primarily for the purpose of securing lucrative media contracts, as it strategically combined the television markets represented by Texas and the Big Eight states (which each accounted for about seven percent of the national market in 1996).[14]

The WAC reaches 16 (1996)

See also: Western Athletic Conference and Mountain West Conference.

The first major Division I conference to have 16 members was the WAC, which had decided to expand beyond 10 in April 1994. At that time, the SWC was preparing to disband, and the College Football Association, which had loosely controlled TV rights for all Division I-A (now FBS) conferences except the Big Ten and Pac-10, was disintegrating. The WAC publicly announced plans to expand to 12 teams, giving it the right to add a football championship game. However, the WAC's options increased when the collapse of the SWC left four Texas schools searching for a new affiliation. In the end, the WAC added six new schools in 1996, bringing its ranks to 16.[15]

The 16-team WAC was immediately beset with internal and external issues. It now stretched from Hawaii to Oklahoma and Eastern Texas, spanning four time zones and nearly 4000miles. The three new Texas schools—Rice, SMU, and TCU—were all located in large TV markets, but added little value to the WAC because of the dominance of Texas and Texas A&M in the state's college sports scene.[15]

Karl Benson, commissioner of the WAC during this period, recalled in 2011,

There were schools that never bought into the 16 teams. The 10 original WAC members never had buy-in from all the athletic directors and some of the high-profile coaches. They were critics, not supporters. The other thing that kept it hard to manage — the presidents never had a natural North-South or East-West division. There weren't eight teams that naturally fit either East-West or North-South. As a result, we couldn't come up with permanent divisions.[15]

The WAC tried to manage its unwieldy geography by dividing itself into four "pods" of four teams each. While this appeared to be viable from the outside, the structure limited the development of conference rivalries because each team's conference games in football (except the three within its pod) would rotate among the other pods. By spring 1998, BYU and Utah wanted to have two set eight-team divisions, which would have forced some teams into an unnatural divisional alignment. New Mexico and UTEP were willing to make such a move, but Air Force and UNLV were bitterly opposed, with Benson recalling in 2011 that Air Force threatened to go independent. Shortly thereafter, the presidents of Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, Utah, and Wyoming met at Denver International Airport and agreed to break from the WAC and form a new league. They invited New Mexico, San Diego State, and UNLV to join them, and this group of eight broke away to form the Mountain West Conference, which began play in the 1999–2000 school year.[15]

The ACC expands to 12 and the Big East reaches 16 (2005)

See also: 2005 NCAA conference realignment.

In May 2003, the ACC presidents voted in favor of expanding from nine to 12 members, initially engaging Boston College, Miami, and Syracuse in membership talks. In June, the ACC extended formal membership invitations to Miami and Virginia Tech, both of whom accepted and officially joined the conference the next month.[16] Miami and Virginia Tech began play in the ACC in 2004.[17] In October 2003, Boston College was offered and accepted an invitation to become the ACC's 12th member, and once it officially joined the conference in 2005 the ACC was able to split into two divisions and create a football championship game.

In response to the loss of three of its members, the Big East added five new members from C-USA, three that played football (Cincinnati, Louisville, and South Florida) and two that did not (DePaul and Marquette). These additions allowed the Big East to expand to 16 total members, although it took the promotion of UConn (traditionally a non-football school) to the ranks of the conference's football members to retain the eight teams needed to preserve its status as an AQ conference. According to Bleacher Report writer Chuck Platt, the 2005 realignment accentuated and exacerbated the already-existing tensions between the "football" and "non-football" schools in the Big East, ultimately contributing to the demise of the conference.

Expansion since 2010

See also: 2010–2014 NCAA conference realignment.

Since 2010, speculation about emergent superconferences in American college sports has been rampant and closely connected with conference realignment, with many writers believing that Division I FBS football will eventually be dominated by four or five superconferences consisting of 16 schools each. Speculation consistently includes the Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC as probable eventual superconferences, while both the ACC and Big 12 are sometimes rumored to eventually evolve into superconferences themselves.[18] [19] [20] [21] According to ESPN The Magazine writer Ryan McGee, a superconference is defined by three major attributes: firstly, it is formed from an already-existing BCS Automatic Qualifying (AQ) conference (at the time the article was written in 2011, either the ACC, SEC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, or Pac-12 conference). Secondly, it is in possession of a significant television deal with multiple different networks. And thirdly, it is at least willing to expand to the "magic number" of 16 member institutions.[22] The following sections detail expansions by AQ conferences that have been contributing to speculation that they are becoming superconferences.

The Big Ten and the Pac-10 expand to 12 (2011)

See also: 2010–2014 Big Ten Conference realignment.

After the Big Ten's initial announcement that it was looking at expansion in December 2009,[23] rumors about possible expansion targets and the possibility that the conference might expand to as many as 14 or 16 teams circulated into May 2010.[24] On June 11, 2010, Nebraska applied for membership in the Big Ten and was unanimously approved as the conference's 12th school.[25] [26] Its membership became effective July 1, 2011.[27] Big Ten officials later stated that they had no plans to expand beyond 12 teams in the near future.[28]

On June 7, 2010, the Pac-10 approved expansion plans and issued invitations to six prospective schools, all from the Big 12: Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech.[29] On June 10, 2010, the Pac-10 announced that Colorado would be joining the conference in 2012.[30] For several days, rumors circulated that Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State might follow suit and join the Pac-10 as soon as June 15, 2010,[31] although Texas A&M was also considering a move to the SEC.[32] On June 14, Texas rejected the offer to join the Pac-10, and shortly thereafter Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech pledged to stay in the Big 12 with Texas.[33] On June 17, Utah accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10 as its 12th member,[34] and on September 21, Colorado and the Big 12 reached an agreement to allow Colorado to join the Pac-10 a year earlier in 2011.[35] As a result, Colorado and Utah revived a long-dormant rivalry with each other, which has since been dubbed the "Rumble in the Rockies".[36]

The SEC expands to 14 (2012)

See also: 2010–12 Southeastern Conference realignment. In 2011, the SEC announced the addition of Big 12 members Texas A&M and Missouri as its 13th and 14th members, both of which officially joined the conference on July 1, 2012.[37] [38] These moves set off the second wave of major conference realignment, as the Big 12 responded by adding TCU (left out of the initial 1996 expansion of the Big Eight Conference into the Big 12) and West Virginia in 2012 to retain a total of ten members.[39] Several other schools were rumored as potential expansion candidates for the SEC, but the conference did not expand beyond 14 teams until the 2020s conference realignment.

The ACC and the Big Ten expand beyond 12 (2013–2014)

See also: 2010–2014 Big Ten Conference realignment.

In light of realignment rumors, the ACC voted unanimously to raise its exit fees to $20 million on September 13, 2011.[40] [41] On September 18, Big East members Pitt and Syracuse officially applied to join the ACC and were accepted later that day, giving the conference 14 members.[42] Both schools ultimately negotiated a buyout that enabled them to join the ACC in 2013.[43] [44] On September 12, 2012, the ACC announced that Notre Dame would become the conference's 15th member in all the sports it sponsored except for football, although as part of the agreement the football team will play five games against ACC opponents each season.[45] There remained speculation regarding the timing of the change until March 12, 2013, when it was announced that the Big East would allow Notre Dame to leave for the ACC after the 2012–13 academic year.[46] At the same time, the ACC also instituted an even larger increase in exit fees, set at three times the conference's annual operating budget (for 2012–13, the fee would be roughly $50 million).[47]

In mid-November 2012, however, the landscape had changed, as ESPN reported that Maryland, a charter member of the ACC, was in "serious negotiations" to join the Big Ten.[48] Big East member Rutgers was also reported to be in consideration to join the Big Ten at the same time.[49] On November 19, the Maryland regents voted to accept the Big Ten's membership offer, and the Big Ten presidents unanimously approved Maryland's entry later that day.[50] [51] Maryland would officially join in July 2014.[51] Rutgers announced the following day that it would also join the conference in 2014.[52] In response, the ACC voted to accept Louisville as its 14th full member on November 28, 2012, a move that took effect in 2014 when Maryland left the conference.[53]

In late May 2013, comments made in December 2012 by Ohio State's then-president Gordon Gee to the university's athletics council were made public. Media attention focused on remarks interpreted as slurs against Catholics and Notre Dame, plus digs at the Southeastern Conference, former Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema, and the universities of Cincinnati, Kentucky, and Louisville. Gee soon resigned his post. However, his comments also included his thoughts on future conference expansion and realignment, with one remark specifically focusing on the superconference phenomenon: "I think we're moving precipitously toward about three or four superconferences of about 16 to 20 teams. And the possibility of them bolting from the NCAA is not unlikely."[54]

2021 SEC expansion, Big 12 response, and collapse of the Pac-12

See main article: 2021–2024 NCAA conference realignment. In July 2021, multiple media reports indicated that Big 12 mainstays Oklahoma and Texas had approached the SEC regarding a potential move to that conference. Many reports used the term "superconference" in reference to a notional 16-member SEC, and extensively speculated on the ramifications should Oklahoma and Texas join the SEC, with some commenting on the possibility that Gee's scenario of the biggest athletic programs leaving the NCAA could materialize.[55] [56] Several days after the initial report, the two schools notified the Big 12 that they would not extend the conference's grant of media rights beyond its planned expiration at the end of the 2024–25 school year,[57] which was widely seen as the first step toward the schools' departure for the SEC.[58] [59] By the end of the month, both Oklahoma and Texas formally requested,[60] [61] received,[62] and accepted invitations to join the SEC.[63] While the invitations stated that Oklahoma and Texas would join the SEC in 2025, many media outlets believed that the schools would buy out their media rights and join earlier.[64] These speculations proved to be true when the Big 12 announced in February 2023 that it had reached an agreement with Oklahoma and Texas on a 2024 departure date.[65] The Big 12 would respond several weeks after the initial Oklahoma and Texas announcements by announcing that BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF would join no later than 2024;[66] all would later be confirmed as 2023 arrivals.[67] The expansion of the Big 12 continued in July 2023 with the announcement that Colorado would be returning to the conference in 2024 after a 13-year spell in the Pac-12.[68] The move reignited speculation that the Big 12 would add more members, with likely targets being remaining schools in the Pac-12. On August 4, 2023, five Pac-12 schools announced their departure from the conference effective in 2024. three of which (Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah) moved to the Big 12.

The Big Ten and ACC expand to 18 (2022–2023)

In late June 2022, multiple media outlets began to report rumors that UCLA and USC were considering moving to the Big Ten from the Pac-12. On June 30, the Big Ten confirmed those reports and announced that the two schools would be joining the conference in 2024.[69] The move will take effect after the expiration of the current Pac-12 media deal at the end of the 2023-2024 season and may lead to a more lucrative media deal for the Big Ten.[70] In early August 2023, two additional Pac-12 schools, Oregon and Washington, announced their intention to join the Big Ten, also effective in 2024. In September 2023, two other Pac-12 schools, Stanford and California, as well as SMU, announced that they would join the ACC in 2024.

Gallery

SEC expansion

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: Football's jet-age secret . Sports Illustrated . Maule . Tex . Tex Maule . February 2, 1959 . November 5, 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141105215408/http://www.si.com/vault/1959/02/02/604202/footballs-jet-age-secret . November 5, 2014 .
  2. News: National grid conference is still all talk . Prescott Evening Courier . Arizona . Associated Press . January 29, 1959 . 11. January 2, 2018.
  3. News: 1958-10-15 . Notre Dame interested in Airplane Conference . 24 . Schenectady Gazette . Associated Press . January 2, 2019.
  4. Dunnavant, Keith. "The 50 Year Seduction." Thomas Dunne Books: New York, 2004
  5. News: Smith. Michael. History lesson: Super-conference concept rooted in 1990 proposal. Sports Business Daily. May 27, 2013. September 26, 2011.
  6. News: Wolken. Dan. What to name non-departing Big East schools? Revive 'Metro Conference'. USA Today. May 28, 2013. March 5, 2013.
  7. Murphy. Austin. Kicking Off To Chaos. Sports Illustrated. May 27, 2013. July 9, 1990.
  8. News: Gall. Braden. The History of Big East Conference Realignment. Athlon Sports. May 27, 2013. June 29, 2012.
  9. News: Gall. Braden. College Football: The History of SEC Realignment. Athlon Sports. May 27, 2013. June 29, 2012.
  10. Should NCAA alter title game requirements? Look at the rule's origin . Andy . Staples . . May 16, 2014 . November 6, 2015.
  11. News: Oliva. S.M.. Previous SEC Expansion: How It Happened In 1990. Saturday Down South. May 27, 2013. August 13, 2011.
  12. News: Ubben. David. A lesson on the history of the Big 12. ESPN.com. May 27, 2013.
  13. News: Gall. Braden. College Football: The History of Big 12 Realignment. Athlon Sports. May 27, 2013. June 29, 2012.
  14. News: Kerkhoff. Blair. Big 12 problems trace to league's roots. The Kansas City Star. May 28, 2013. June 5, 2010.
  15. News: WAC a cautionary tale for superconferences . Tom . Deinhart . . . September 14, 2011 . July 11, 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130928042810/http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1264788 . September 28, 2013 .
  16. News: Davis. Ken. Timeline: The Big East-ACC Border War. Hartford Courant. May 28, 2013. September 1, 2005.
  17. News: Platt. Chuck. ACC Expansion: Big East Only Has Itself and Its Own History to Blame. Bleacher Report. May 28, 2013. September 19, 2011.
  18. News: Luther. David. College Football: What a 4 Superconference Model Would Look Like. May 31, 2013. Bleacher Report. May 27, 2012.
  19. News: Nicholson. Marty. NCAA: 4 Super Conferences Inevitable. May 31, 2013. FanNation.com. May 3, 2011.
  20. News: Felder. Michael. After All the Realignment Settles, Are 4 Super-Conferences Inevitable?. May 31, 2013. Bleacher Report. November 29, 2012.
  21. News: Gaines. Cork. Next Stop For College Football: 5 Super-Conferences, A BCS Division, And 40 Pissed Off Schools. May 31, 2013. Business Insider. September 6, 2011.
  22. News: McGee. Ryan. The rise of NCAA superconferences. ESPN The Magazine. May 27, 2013. Ryan McGee. November 2, 2011.
  23. Big Ten Statement on Expansion . https://web.archive.org/web/20091218115625/http://www.bigten.org/genrel/121509aaa.html . dead . December 18, 2009 . May 31, 2013 . Big Ten Conference. December 15, 2009.
  24. News: The Associated Press. Delany denies latest expansion rumors. May 31, 2013. ESPN.com. May 11, 2010.
  25. News: Olson. Eric. Nebraska applies for Big 10 membership. May 31, 2013. The Denver Post. June 11, 2010.
  26. News: The Associated Press. Nebraska approved by Big Ten. May 31, 2013. ESPN.com. June 12, 2010.
  27. News: Rushton. Geoff. Nebraska-Lincoln officially joins Big Ten, CIC on July 1. May 31, 2013. Pennsylvania State University. June 30, 2011. Powers, Lisa.
  28. News: Durando. Stu. Big Ten expansion is over, officials say. May 30, 2013. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. December 5, 2010.
  29. News: Pacific-10 and Big Ten Step Toward Expansion. Thamel. Pete . Pete Thamel . June 7, 2010 . June 10, 2010. The New York Times.
  30. University of Colorado Joins Pac-10. June 10, 2010. June 10, 2010. Pacific-10 Conference. https://web.archive.org/web/20100612014215/http://www.pac-10.org/genrel/061010aaa.html. June 12, 2010. dead.
  31. News: Report: Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State joining Pac-10; Texas A&M has 72 hours to decide . . June 11, 2010 . May 29, 2013.
  32. News: Texas considers 'all options'. June 13, 2010. San Francisco Chronicle. May 29, 2013.
  33. News: Texas move helps Big 12 survive . . June 14, 2010 . June 14, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100617045832/http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5286672. June 17, 2010 . live.
  34. News: June 17, 2010 . Utah Excited by Pac-10 Acceptance . . May 29, 2013.
  35. News: September 21, 2010 . Colorado, Big 12 agree to early exit . . May 29, 2013.
  36. News: CU vs. Utah rivalry officially named "Rumble in the Rockies". Kensler. Tom. November 22, 2011. The Denver Post. December 10, 2014.
  37. News: Russell. Ari. Missouri Joins the SEC. May 30, 2013. BeyondU Sports. November 6, 2011.
  38. SEC Welcomes Missouri and Texas A&M . May 30, 2013 . Southeastern Conference. July 1, 2012.
  39. News: Barnhouse. Wendell. TCU, West Virginia Officially Join Big 12. May 31, 2013. Big 12 Conference. July 1, 2012.
  40. News: ACC adding Big East's Syracuse, Pitt . . September 19, 2011 . September 19, 2011 . Dinich, Heather.
  41. News: ACC finds solid ground in unstable environment. https://web.archive.org/web/20150924001139/http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9PTOQQ80.htm . dead . September 24, 2015 . . September 22, 2011 . September 19, 2011 . McCreary, Joedy.
  42. ACC Extends Formal Invitations for Membership to Pittsburgh and Syracuse . September 18, 2011 . . September 18, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20111011140140/http://www.theacc.com/genrel/091811aaa.html . October 11, 2011 .
  43. News: SU, BIG EAST Reach Agreement for Orange to Move to ACC in 2013. Syracuse University. July 16, 2012. July 16, 2012.
  44. News: Pitt to join ACC next summer . Associated Press . . July 19, 2012 . July 21, 2012.
  45. ACC Accepts Notre Dame as New Member . . September 12, 2012 . September 12, 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20121014033744/http://www.theacc.com/genrel/091212aaa.html . October 14, 2012 .
  46. News: Notre Dame joining ACC . Brett . McMurphy . . September 12, 2012 . September 12, 2012.
  47. News: Notre Dame to the ACC, football not included … but football will have ACC feel to it . Frank . Schwab . Dr. Saturday (Yahoo! Sports) . September 12, 2012 . September 12, 2012.
  48. News: Maryland, Rutgers to Big Ten? . Dana . O'Neil . Brett . McMurphy . Andy . Katz . . November 17, 2012 . November 18, 2012.
  49. News: Maryland, Rutgers in serious talks about move to Big Ten Conference . Pat . Forde . . November 17, 2012 . November 18, 2012.
  50. News: Sources: Terps accept Big Ten invite . Brett . McMurphy . Dana . O'Neil . . November 19, 2012 . November 20, 2012.
  51. University Of Maryland To Join The Big Ten Conference . https://web.archive.org/web/20121123011540/http://www.bigten.org/genrel/111912aac.html . dead . November 23, 2012 . . November 19, 2012 . November 19, 2012.
  52. News: Rutgers accepts invitation to join the Big Ten Conference . Ralph . Russo . . November 21, 2012 . November 22, 2012.
  53. News: McMurphy. Brett. ACC to add Louisville in 2014. May 30, 2013. ESPN.com. November 29, 2012.
  54. Listen to Ohio State's Gordon Gee's controversial remarks in their entirety . . May 31, 2013 . July 15, 2013.
  55. News: Sources: Texas, Oklahoma reached out to SEC about joining conference . Alex . Scarborough . ESPN.com . July 21, 2021 . July 22, 2021.
  56. News: Texas and Oklahoma to SEC? Live news updates as Big 12 powers may kick start conference realignment . Barrett . Sallee . CBSSports.com . July 22, 2021 . July 22, 2021.
  57. Joint Statement from The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Oklahoma . The University of Texas at Austin . July 26, 2021 . July 26, 2021.
  58. Web site: Texas sends critical letter to Big 12, showing intent to leave for SEC. Paul. Livengood. KVUE. July 26, 2021. July 26, 2021.
  59. Web site: Texas, Oklahoma leaving Big 12 Conference as college football shake-up begins. Paul. Myerberg. USA Today. July 26, 2021. July 26, 2021.
  60. Web site: Oklahoma Sooners, Texas Longhorns formally notify SEC of membership request for 2025. Heather. Dinich. ESPN. July 27, 2021. July 27, 2021.
  61. Web site: Texas, OU officially request SEC membership for 2025 season. Ryan. Osborne. WFAA. July 27, 2021. July 27, 2021.
  62. SEC Extends Membership Invitations to University of Oklahoma and University of Texas . Southeastern Conference . July 29, 2021 . July 29, 2021.
  63. News: Texas Longhorns, Oklahoma Sooners unanimously accept invitation to SEC . Heather . Dinich . Mark . Schlabach . ESPN.com . July 30, 2021 . July 30, 2021.
  64. It's Official: SEC Votes in Oklahoma, Texas . John A. . Hoover . Sports Illustrated . July 29, 2021 . July 30, 2021.
  65. Big 12 Announces Agreement for Withdrawal of Oklahoma and Texas . Big 12 Conference . February 9, 2023 . February 9, 2023.
  66. Big 12 Conference Adds Four New Members . Big 12 Conference . September 10, 2021 . September 10, 2021.
  67. American Announces Agreements With UCF, Cincinnati and Houston on Departure . American Athletic Conference . June 10, 2022 . June 10, 2022.
  68. News: Colorado approves return to Big 12: Buffaloes set to depart Pac-12 in 2024 after 13 seasons with conference . July 27, 2023 . July 28, 2022.
  69. Web site: 2022-06-30 . USC, UCLA approved to move to Big Ten in 2024 . 2022-07-01 . ESPN.com . en.
  70. Web site: June 30, 2022 . SBJ Unpacks: EXCLUSIVE: Apple back in on Big Ten talks . 2022-07-02 . www.sportsbusinessjournal.com . en.