Miner Rush, a UTEP Miners community

For the moment, it appears that the Big 12 has somehow managed to survive even after losing Colorado and Nebraska last week to the Pac 10 and Big 10 respectively. This report could be outdated and completely wrong at literally any point in the coming days, but for now, it looks like the major shifts have ceased. There will still be ripple effects, although none as dire or severe as we expected last week. 1. The Pac 10 seems intent on adding a 12th team in order to host a Conference Title game. If the Big 12 schools are out, expect the league to look at Utah. That move would knock the MWC down to 9 teams again. It is possible, the MWC will look to replace Utah. It's also possible that Boise St is the replacement. Losing Utah hurts the MWC. The Salt Lake market is the cornerstone of their TV Network. 2. At this point, that's it. The Big 12 might stay at 10. The Big 10 might stay at 12. AM UPDATE: Of course this happened. I waited all day to post anything on realignment to see where the story seemed to be. Then, two minutes later, 104.9 The Horn (Austin Sports Radio where Chip Brown does his show) reports that the Big 12 will go back to 12 teams by pursuing Air Force and BYU. If, and that's a big 'If", this is true: The MWC as we know it may be dead. Absent BYU, Utah,and Air Force, the league is down to 7 teams and has lost any hope for AQ status that it seemed so close to just weeks ago. In this scenario, it's possible TCU may seek to rejoin Conference USA to get back to playing games in Texas. Remember C-USA has a better TV deal than the MWC and if this is true that's not changing anytime soon. Or, this could be another rumor that dies in 5 minutes.

This is the kind of scenario that Miner fans would love, Richard Justice see's that if the Big 12 does lose Texas, A&M, and Tech, their could be a foundation made for a reborn SWC with Houston, SMU, Rice, Baylor, UTEP, and TCU in the mix.

Chaos! Chip Brown, a very reliable source from Orangebloods.com, is reporting that the Pac 10 plans to extend offers to six Big 12 teams to form a 16 team mega-conference. Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Colorado. CougCenter, SBN's Washington State blog, has the Pac 10 perspective here. UPDATE: Colorado AD Mike Bohn believes that the PAC 10 will indeed invite six Big 12 schools. The Brown story just got legs... LINK HERE