I certainly hope that after getting the ball rolling in college football expansion, the Big Ten Conference has more up its sleeve than just Nebraska.

If not, the conference will be left with egg on its face as far as I am concerned, while the Pac-10 will look like the big winner here having plucked both Colorado and now Utah.
The Big Ten did a lot of huffing and puffing since it announced back in December of last year that it was looking at expansion.

The rumors began to fly and the conference was going to end up with 14 or 16 teams by the time everything was said and done.

Now behind closed doors I don’t know if that was what the Big Ten was planning, but the league certainly did nothing to dispel the rumors as they were growing.

Texas was coming, so was Rutgers, Pittsburgh and Maryland.

And of course, there are the constant rumors about Notre Dame joining the league.
But talk is all it has been.

The Big Ten ended up with a Nebraska program that hasn’t been relevant in big-time college football for years now.

The Cornhuskers may be headed in the right direction, but they are not exactly the Nebraska of old.

The league could have done so much better, and yet, here we sit and the Big Ten plus two isn’t close to becoming the premier football conference in the country.

I mean, not even close.

The addition of Colorado and Utah isn’t exactly huge news, but at least it looks like the Pac-10 is still working on its expansion effort.

It is also interesting to see the Big 12 keeping itself together by paying Texas more than anyone else in order to keep them.

If I were the other 11 schools I would have nixed that proposition and looked at other alternatives or at joining another league.

Let’s face it, right now the Big 12 minus two is a second tier conference right now.
Not that Colorado and Nebraska leaving means all that much.

I didn’t think much of that conference even when it was still together outside of Texas and Oklahoma.

And where are the SEC and the ACC during all this expansion?

Can those two leagues really be happy with their current alignments when the Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-10 are all courting teams and landing teams?

There seems to be a lull right now in expansion, but that doesn’t mean it’s all over.

In fact, with the Pac-10 officially inviting Utah on Thursday to join, that may trigger another round of shifts over the next few days.

If the Big Ten is serious about becoming the premier conference in the country, then it better get moving and it better land a big fish.

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com