Slocum: This is more than an evolution

Time heals everything.

It may not keep the Big 12 intact, but over time, we will all adjust to the new collegiate conference landscape. At least that’s what former Texas A&M head coach R.C. Slocum believes.

Slocum was the Aggies head coach in 1994 when the Big Eight joined forces with four schools from the Southwestern Conference — including Texas A&M — to form the Big 12.

“In the back of my mind, when we put the Big 12 together and had realignments around college football,” Slocum said in a phone interview, “I never thought that it would be the last time (conference realignment) would ever happen. Because the same things that drove it back then will continue to drive it. And that is the money.”

The Pac-10 hopes to form the first super conference and establish a television network like the Big Ten Network that will create additional revenue opportunities for the conference and the schools involved.

According to orangebloods.com, who first reported it, the Pac-10 has extended invites to six schools from the Big 12, including Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Colorado.

Slocum says that the driving forces for expansion are “the money, the exposure, and how you can best position yourself to take advantage of the interest by the fans and the interest in seeing the games and the interest in having the good matchups.”

On Wednesday, Nebraska reportedly decided to leave the Big 12 to join the Big Ten after receiving clearance from its board of regents. A formal announcement is expected on Friday.

According to orangebloods.com, Nebraska leaving has doomed the Big 12. The Web site reported that Texas officials gathered their coaching staffs and told them that they tried to save the Big 12 but could not.

“When you go through these things, they’re painful at the time,“ Slocum said. “But, you know, college football will survive, the individual schools will survive. It will take time to see the overall effects of it, what it ends up being.

“As you look at this, back when we went through this with the Big 12, when we combined the old Big 8 conference and the Southwest Conference. There were parts of those leagues that I’m sure a lot of people hated to lose. I know as a long time follower of the SWC and a coach in the SWC, I hated that we had to give that up.

“At the same time, there were a lot of positives about the Big 12. It raised the level of competition, it raised the level of exposure that the teams got. And certainly raised the level of financial support that we got out of television. I think overall, it was good for us, it was good for the schools.”

Slocum says that eventually the coaches at schools in the newly formed conferences will adjust. College football might look different to fans, but the hype will grow and the new matchups will become more comfortable.

“It takes time to develop the familiarity,” Slocum said. “You know, every school around the country has teams that they’ve played for a long period of time. You know those people, you know their fans, you know their teams. But it takes a while to really develop the appreciation for the rivalries — the new rivalries — that comes out of league expansion and people being partners in an enterprise that were not partners for long.

“And when this re-shuffling occurs — if it does in fact occur — then there will be a starting over for some of these schools and it will just take some time for these schools to get accustomed to their new homes.”

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