5:12 p.m. Update

The Lawrence Journal-World has confirmed reports that Nebraska University is headed to the Big Ten.

“It’s a done deal,” a source said Wednesday.

Reports of Nebraska’s most recent intentions first surfaced early Wednesday morning and continued to grow throughout the day. Multiple reports have indicated that NU will make a formal announcement Friday.

The loss of the Cornhuskers leaves the future of the Big 12 up in the air but at least one person from Kansas University said Wednesday that he didn’t believe Nebraska bolting spelled the end for the Big 12.

“Our league’s not dead (if we lose Nebraska),” KU men’s basketball coach Bill Self said. “It would be nice if we could keep Nebraska but our league will fight hard. Of course we probably need to do some things and be very aggressive in doing them but it’s not dead.”

3:06 p.m. Update

Chip Brown, of the Rivals.com site OrangeBloods.com, is now reporting that Nebraska has agreed to leave the Big 12 and join the Big Ten. According to Brown, a formal announcement is expected Friday.

Brown, you’ll recall, was the guy who started all of the Pac-10 mess with his report a week ago that said the Pac-10 was prepared to invite six Big 12 schools to join them out west.

Someone close to the situation has said that Brown has the best source in the entire country.

For more, check out Brown’s latest entry.

Original Post

With rumors and speculation flying around at what seems to be the speed of light, we thought there needed to be a place on KUsports.com to accumulate some of this information regarding the future of conferences in college athletics.

As we know, the hottest rumors out there involve Nebraska and Missouri’s interest in the Big Ten and the Pac-10’s longing for six other Big 12 schools.

Deadlines have been set, meetings are ongoing and it seems like everyone out there has an opinion on what’s going to happen.

As the push toward conference realignment moves on, we’ll be updating this blog periodically throughout the day with various pieces of news – links, tidbits, analysis – pertaining to the Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and whatever other conference might work its way into the mix.
Without further ado, here’s today’s first entry.

2:30 p.m. Update

It seems the pleading with Nebraska and Missouri to stay has trickled into the political realm. At least, that’s what The Omaha World-Herald is reporting. In his latest story, Joseph Morton reported that Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts recently approached Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson in a hallway just off the Senate floor.

“Don’t be the domino that blows college football up into four major conferences and gets rid of the NCAA,” a World-Herald reporter heard the Kansas senator tell Nelson. “It isn’t going to do anybody any good when those dominoes start falling.”

All this while the Nebraska Board of Regents had a 1:15 p.m. conference call scheduled for today and with the Friday deadline for declaring their intentions rapidly approaching.

Earlier in the day, The World-Herald reported that a source close to the university indicated that the Huskers were leaning toward bolting for the Big Ten.

In other, less ground-breaking news, an Associated Press report on ESPN.com indicates that the Colorado men’s basketball and football programs will lose scholarships
because of their APR scores.

Call me crazy, but that might not be the best time for something like that to surface if you’re a Colorado fan. This news might make Pac-10 officials think twice about taking Colorado, thus opening the door for a school like Kansas.

Like I said, call me crazy.

More to come.