Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany reconfirmed that his league is going to follow the original time line of 12-18 months regarding expansion, and the earliest a report would be completed will be in November. This should mean that the daily (or even hourly) expansion rumors with team X going to the Big 10.
This is actually great news for the Mountain West, because the Pac-10 is only going to expand out of necessity or peer pressure to keep pace with their Rose Bowl counterparts. Plus, the Pac-10 is working with the Big XII to create a merger for a television package which will place the rumors of Utah and Colorado to Pac-10 on the back burner for a few months.
After all of the talk about the Big 10 expanding this summer to a mega-conference, the fall of the Big XII, and placing Big East football in the history books it looks like none of this is going to be happening this year. The Mountain West will be the snake in the weeds and looks to be the only league to actually make a move by inviting Boise State this summer to strengthen the league for a potential BCS automatic bid.
If the only move this summer is Boise to the Mountain West and if the Pac-10 and Big XII create a packaged television deal then it looks like the Mountain West will be intact for a bit longer, because there would be no need for the Pac-10 to expand to twelve just to have a title game. Also, we have been handed a big old bazinga regarding conference expansion with the tease of something relevant actuall happening in the offseason.
Follow Mountain West Connection via Twitter and Facebook for news quick hits and random nonsense.