[Saul Good]

Originally Posted by alnorth

Tough, they didn't have to expand to 16.

No one is ever, ever, ever, going to be able to, or even try to, force the B1G, PAC 12, and big 12 to expand beyond 10 or 12 if they don't want to, and 16-team conferences are not going to be able to get favorable treatment unless their teams qualify for it on their own merits as an at-large.

Besides, it wont be "only the big 4 conference champs can get in, and everyone else is out", everyone has basically acknowledged the legal problems with that by saying a path has to exist for everyone else.

We might eventually go to 8, which would then allow 4 auto-bids for the big 4 since the other 4 would be up for grabs, but it wont be this round. If we do have a conference champs format for this round, or a 3+1, it wont be "these specific conferences", it'll be the highest-ranked conference champs, which due to an amazing coincidence, will almost always be the big 4.

Unless/until the Big XII expands, they are not on the same level as the big three. Slive wants the four superconference model, which is why he put his chips on the Big XII. He was trying to deal the death blow to the ACC.