Source: Colorado moving to Pac-10
Colorado is poised to announce as early as Thursday that the school is leaving the Big 12 to join the Pac-10.
Colorado's conference move was first reported by The Sporting News.
A source with direct knowledge of the Pac-10's discussions about adding more Big 12 teams told ESPN's Joe Schad on Thursday that from the Pac-10's perspective, it's "simply a matter of who signs next."
Colorado's impending move might spell the end for the Big 12 Conference. Nebraska is also poised to announce its move from the conference to the Big Ten.
Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has asked Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor to meet with him Thursday so they can talk about ways the four state schools could remain in the same conference.
A Big 12 football coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach on Wednesday night that if Nebraska left the Big 12 the conference would dissolve, according to his athletics director and university president. The coach said Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado would join the Pac-10, leaving Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Iowa State behind.
"Nebraska is the key," the coach said.
The coach said the Pac-10 favored Colorado over Baylor because of the Buffaloes' presence in the Denver TV market.
Another Big 12 coach said Wednesday night that an anticipated Nebraska announcement of moving toward the Big Ten Thursday would indeed trigger the death of the Big 12 and a mass migration west.
"If Nebraska leaves," the coach said, "everyone has to look."
The new conference would be split into divisions with Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado forming an Eastern Division with Arizona and Arizona State opposite the former Pac-8 (USC, UCLA, Stanford, California, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State) in the Western Division.
The coach said it's possible the Pac-16 would push for two automatic bids to the BCS, one for each division champion. That potential bonanza could open the possibility of the two division champs from one league playing for the national title, and it would eliminate the need for a conference championship game.
"The Pac-10 doesn't believe in a championship game," the coach said. "And coaches in the Big 12 don't like it anyway."
Information from ESPN's Joe Schad, ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach and Ted Miller and ESPNDallas.com's Jeff Caplan was used in this report.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5271438
