Conference Expansions Only Benefiting College Football, Not College Basketball

College Basketball has always been one of the more enjoyable sports in the country. Many players from around the globe get to showcase to the world how well they can play basketball at such a young age. So has College Football. One of the most amazing sports to watch is the BCS title game, especially with an athlete like Tim Tebow participating. 

College football post season games were always interesting to watch; some of the regular season games? Not so much, unless you through in a UCLA, USC match-up.

 With the college football season steadily approaching the expansions talks are beginning to heat up. You have the Big 12 on the brink of collapsing but nobody pays attention to that; everybody is worried about who is landing where.

Nebraska is said to give its commitment to the Big Ten on Friday, and all the Big 12 south teams are said to jump to the Pac-10 to form the "Pac-16."

That's really great if you're a College Football fan, but has anybody stopped to think about what this is doing to college basketball?

The expansion talk leaves only a few teams in the Big 12. The Big Ten closed the door on Missouri, and Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, and Iowa State are the lone teams left out in the Big 12.

Yesterday, I stumbled over an article written by Jim Beck. Jim Beck is a contributor on Bleacher Report as well as a writer for Triangle Hoops Journal. He wrote an article similar to this and he had this to say, "The problem expansion causes for college basketball is that it diminishes the rivalries that make the game great and creates an unbalanced conference schedule."

Right there is the first mistake from expansion. What is going to be the key rivalry in the Big 12 now? It was always the Border-War between Missouri and Kansas, now we have to look forward to a Kansas State and Kansas sunflower showdown from now on.

Also, what teams do the Big 12 have to lean on to come to the conference? Or is the conference going to have to diminish? 

Before I go any further, I want to give you a rundown on the Big 12 in college basketball.

The Big 12 in college basketball is always competitive. You saw it this year witnessing a complete showdown between Kansas State and Kansas three times, Oklahoma State beating Kansas, two teams that reached the No. 1 ranking last year resides in the Big 12 and more.

As we seen this year with Kansas State, the Big 12 is always producing some of the best teams to surprise the NCAA as well. Last year with Missouri, this year with Kansas State, next year with.....

Once the expansions actually happen one of the greatest conferences in college basketball will go down. This is not good news at all if you're an avid Big 12 fan like me.

Let's say that the Big 12 actually collapses. What about the lone programs left? The programs that are left in the Big 12 all could have had surprise seasons in the NCAA and maybe the expansion will kill any thought of that possibly happening.

Not many teams are willing to take Kansas, K-State, and Iowa State in; leaving them as the major losers of these expansion talks.

As expansion talks heat up, and the Big 12 coming closer to a close, the Big East may be the new home to the "left-over’s." 


Written by DeAnte Mitchell