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The New Fuzzy Math - June Recap
Whew! Now that June is over and the dust from conference realignments has settled down (for the moment), are you disappointed, excited or indifferent with the way things turned out? If you’re a second grade math teacher you might have reason for concern. After all, how do you explain to the little shavers in your class that 10 is the new 12 and 12 is the new, well, 10! That’s right, the Big 10 has added Nebraska to grow to 12 members while the Big 12 has lost two schools to reduce its membership to an even 10. Obviously this creates conflict and confusion, not only in the mind of an eight year old but for plenty of adults as well. Minus two schools, the Big 12 can hardly rename itself the Big 10 – not without setting off a legal scrum that it would have no chance of winning. So instead of worrying about numbers we suggest the Big 12 do the smart thing and reclaim its old Southwestern Conference handle. That makes sense on multiple levels: conceptually, regionally, and rivalry-ly. As for the Big 10, it’s been living a lie ever since Penn State joined, so why stop now just because you’ve added a twelfth member?
Suffering from a clear case of premature expansion, the Pac-10 has added a couple of nice prizes in Colorado and Utah, but it was left at the altar by Texas and three other Big 12 partners when Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe dug his spurs into the haunches of the Conferences’ remaining members and roped them back in. (Kudos to him.) As for the rest of the BCS conferences excluding the SEC (i.e. the ACC and the Big East), they can relax for the moment knowing that they still play second fiddle to the other conferences on the gridiron. They’ll have to wait patiently for the hoops season to come along so they can return to the national consciousness.
As we count our blessings, the editors at CSBN wish you a safe, relaxing and numerically-coherent vacation season.