Conference Re-Alignment 2: Blogosphere Boogaloo

Three weeks until kickoff in what could be the swan song of the Big XII, and reactions to Texas A&M's potential departure across the conference have been mixed. Oklahoma has already met to discuss their next move if the conference should collapse. Texas continues to be passive-aggressive as hell and insists that they've totally got like 20 other people who can easily replace the Aggies. Every blogger and their mother has some sort of re-alignment scenario that puts their school in slightly better shape than in everyone else's scenario. The common thread among all these scenarios? Iowa State is the last team picked that gets picked up out of the pieces of the imploded Big XII.

As Tom Petty once put it, "The Waiting is the Hardest Part." We won't know anything for sure until Monday, but various scenarios have us holding out in the dying Big XII as long as possible Texas deigns to allow it to exist, headed to the Big East, banding together with K-State and Kansas as some sort of crazy 3-pack of basketball powerhouses. The haters continue to tell us we're heading for the MAC. Iowa State has yet to make any statements because Alfred E. Pollard is out of the country right now.

And that's pretty much why we're Iowa State, isn't it? For the first time ever, Iowa State athletics won't have to dip into the general fund to pay for anything: the Athletic Department is finally self-sufficient. We have a good coach that people are excited about, and have started developing a reputation as the occasional giant killer. Which means it's time for the other shoe to drop. Welcome to another year of uncertainty and political maneuvering. Welcome to Conference Re-Alignment, year two.

And just to take your mind off of it, here's George Carlin talking about football. Only 21 more days to go. Go Cyclones.