Big 12 is apparently in "deep" discussions to potentially add up to 6 Pac 12 schools i.e. Arizona, ASU, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. If all 6 leave that would mean Cal, Oregon St., Washington St., and Stanford would be without a conference.
Seems strange the Big 12 would skip both the northern California schools and go for the much further away Oregon and/or Washington.
They may ultimately just go for the geographic teams making the most sense i.e. ASU, AU, Utah, and Col, and leave behind Oregon and Washington (at least for the moment).
Lots of strange days ahead for the non-power 2.
They won't want to give up that Nike money. Oregon seems like it would be a big target. It especially makes sense if they want to be a nationwide conference.
Depends if they have to take Oregon St. because no one wants that OSU.
I do think we are ultimately going to see 54 or 60 teams break off and form 2 "leagues" and do their own thing. The "academic" schools will join the Big Ten and the other major football powers will join the SEC.
Something like this I think:
16 Big Ten plus: Stanford, Cal, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia Tech, and Duke (if 27) and probably Pittsburgh, Boston College, and Kansas (if 30)
16 SEC plus: Clemson, Miami, Florida St., Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Louisville, NC St., Oklahoma St., West Virginia, and 2 of Baylor, Iowa St., and Texas Tech (1f 27) and the remaining + Arizona and Arizona St. (if 30)
Something like that.
They'd break off into NFL style conferences with 3 divisions of 9 or 10 teams, play their division and then have 8 team playoffs in each conference, with the two winners playing in the National Championship. For the rest of the sports, they would basically have 3 conferences with 3 conference championships.
So looking at the Big Ten the 3 divisions would be something like (with 30 teams)
West - USC, UCLA, Stanford, Cal, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas
East - PSU, Maryland, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, UNC, Duke, Virginia, Pittsburgh, Boston College
Midwest - Ohio St., Michigan, Michigan St., Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota
That seems like a pretty good mix. Notre Dame a bit out of place geographically, but I think the East needs another long time power with Penn State, and this model keeps the original Big Ten members in tact in the same division.
Those 60 teams does leave out some long time power 5 members like Oregon State, Washington St., Kansas St., Wake Forest, but them the breaks as they say.