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Report: Five Big 12 Schools Considered Joining Big Ten To Form 16-Team Superconference

By Dan Jenkins
@DanTJenkins

NCAA conference realignment has been running rampant the past few seasons -- six Power Five schools have moved to another Power Five conference since 2011, while many other smaller programs have moved up.

According to Lee Barfknecht of the Omaha World-Herald, officials with five universities in the Big 12 had preliminary talks in 2010 to work out a deal to join the Big Ten and form a 16-team superconference.

Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Iowa State, Nebraska and Kansas would have joined Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota to form one of the two new eight-team divisions in the Big Ten.

"A Big 12 athletic director, who spoke to The World-Herald on condition of anonymity, said he contacted Big Ten athletic directors and presidents with whom he was familiar in June 2010.

The topic: Was the Big Ten, which had 11 members at the time, interested in adding five Big 12 schools?

The feedback from Big Ten school officials was positive, both sources said. The sticking point was devising a revenue-sharing plan to satisfy all. It would have taken at least three to four years for that many incoming schools to hit the financial payoffs sought for moving."

Of course, money trumped the idea of forming a superconference that would have spanned the midwest to the southwest.

Nebraska, obviously, would be the only school of the five mentioned to bolt for the Big Ten in 2011. Meantime, Colorado left for the Pac-12 while Texas A&M and Missouri both joined the SEC.

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