Colorado Has 'Secret' Meeting About Leaving The Big XII

The Colorado Board of Regents was to have a secret meeting regarding the Buffalos accepting an invitation to join the Pac-10, but the Rivals site Orangebloods broke the news about the meeting:

Colorado is expected to have a major announcement on Wednesday, sources said.

If the specualation is true, Colorado could be preparing to accept a bid from the Pac-10 Conference, which has targeted the Buffaloes for expansion.

The move would undercut an attempt by Baylor to sway the Texas Legislature into helping the Bears get an invite ahead of Colorado.

It would also guarantee that the Pac-10 probably pulls off at least one of its plans presented to league presidents and chancellors at meetings over the weekend in San Francisco.

Now, if this is actually going to happen it actually is good news for Utah, because Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott has said that his league would do one of three things: stay pat, invite Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State, and then just bring in Utah and Colorado.  The ideal choice is for the Pac-10 is to bring in Texas and others from the Big XII to form a super league which would bring in a ton of money to the league, but with Baylor trying to block Colorado with legislative help.

Now, Utah fans should calm down about the possibility of joining the Pac-10, because Colorado to the Pac-10 could still mean that the Texas and Oklahoma schools could be along for the ride to form a Pac-16; that would leave Utah out of the mix.  However, just recently listening to a sports radio station they 'reported' that the Oklahoma State has been removed from consideration (not sure on that).  If Oklahoma State is removed it looks like Utah inches up the ladder to join Colorado in the Pac-10 so they could have a championship game.  

There is still a lot of things that have to happen for Utah to get to the Pac-10, but if Colorado is the first move then it looks more like Utah actually has a chance to be in the Pac-10.  The Buffs desperately want out of the Big XII would be willing to make the first move, but with Nebraska and Missouri given a deadline of June 17th to declare the allegiance for or against the Big XII means the Pac-10 will sit back until then to make more moves.

The key to the Pac-10 expansion lies with the University of Texas, and if Nebraska and Missouri stay in the Big XII the Longhorns will stay and dominate that league.  That leads to a side note of who will replace Colorado?  BYU is a good fit geographically but the Sunday game situation would be hiccup, but not impossible to over come.

Now, if Nebraska and Missouri do not pledge allegiance to the Big XII and end up in the Big 10 that leaves the Big XII with nine teams which then could persuade Texas and others to join the Pac-10, because their options of expanding could be to get Utah, BYU, and TCU.  Those are some solid teams, but the television money (which is king) would not increase with those teams now in the Big XII.   

With Colorado maybe making the first move it is a good sign that Utah is still in the running to join the Pac-10, now that maybe a long shot, but it is more likely then had Texas made the first move in joining the Pac-10.  Wait for the news to come from Colorado tomorrow to possibly announce their intentions to join the Pac-10.  Then we must all wait until the new deadline of June 17th to see what Nebraska and Missouri do.  

If they say 'see-ya' Utah could have an invite in the mail waiting for them to join the Pac-10.  Not holding my breath with any of this expansion, and am taking it one story at a time.

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