From Pac-10 to… Pac-16?

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With all the talk about potential Pac-10 expansion, Buster Sports’ Nick Daschel has an intriguing proposal:

Pac-16.

He proposes not simply adding 2 teams, but a whopping 6, and when you think about it, it’s a pretty great idea.

He advocates wooing Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Colorado and Baylor out of the Big 12, and Utah out of the Mountain West. Add Arizona and Arizona State to those 6 and you have an Eastern Division. The Western Division is made up of the original Pac-8 schools from Washington, Oregon and California (I think calling them Pacific and Mountain divisions would be more fun). Scheduling now becomes 7 games against your division opponents, 1-2 crossover games and 3-4 non-conf games.

The expansion would give the Pac-16 control over 8 of the top 25 TV markets, more than 1/5 of the country’s TV sets. And think about the bowl possibilities. You could end up with some great West Coast / East Coast matchups now that non-west coast bowls might have ties to the conference.

Personally I’d throw out Baylor and try and woo Nebraska instead, giving Colorado a better natural rival. BYU/Utah would be a good split except for the difficulties scheduling that BYU brings.

Worth thinking about at least.

[Bumped; original timestamp 2/18/10 @ 12:38 PM. -ed.]