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CONFERENCE ARMAGEDDON: BIG EAST DOWN TO 7

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Iowa State is 3-0, and their safety conference is falling apart.

As the third college football Saturday came to a close, Pitt and Syracuse were officially accepted into the ACC. This puts the ACC at 14 teams, the Big East at 7, and sudden questions into play about  the stability of the Big East as a conference. Combined with Texas A&M's departure from the Big XII, the conference landscape is getting more unstable by the second.

Oklahoma's Board of Regents will be discussing the matter Monday, as will the Board of Regents at Texas. In both cases, it is expected that they will give their school's President the power to choose a conference for the school. Indications are currently that Oklahoma (and probably Oklahoma State) will be headed to the Pac-12, and who knows what else from there.

When the Big XII threatened to crumble last year with Nebraska and Colorado leaving, the Big East had made statements that they were open to the idea of taking on the Big XII North refugees. Yesterday, it was reported that the Big East had once again been in contact with all of the Big XII refugee schools, including Baylor and Iowa State. Now we know why they were reaching out - their conference is losing two of it's founding members.

Now, the Big East crumbling isn't a good thing by any means, but it could help to push an invite Iowa State's way. As it stands, the Big East has six original teams left, and TCU. If the league wanted to save itself, it could pick up, say, ISU/KU/KSU/MIZ/BAY and have an eastern and western division. This would also likely be Iowa State's best chance to stay in an AQ conference. An ugly road win over last year's Big East champion will hopefully make the Cyclones seem like a good addition.

But as for now, we have to wait until Monday to see what Oklahoma and Texas decide to do. If either decided to head for the Pac-12, It will put the nail in the coffin of the Big XII.