The SEC and the Big 12 have been the premier football conferences for the past several years according to the power rankings. The Big Ten seems to be in a down cycle, other than Ohio State, and will be until Michigan gets back on track. The last I heard, the Big Ten had the poorest record in bowl games over the past 6 years of any conference. In my opinion, the additions to the Big Ten will not improve anything but TV income very much because they will only add viewing states. Nebraska will bring some name recognition, but at present will most likely fit in with the 'second' group of Penn State, Iowa, and Wisconsin. If Notre Dame joins, recent history says they will at best be below that group. The other teams mentioned, Rutgers, Maryland, Syracuse, Missouri, will not add anything to the conference's football standing. Most of them will fit in with Purdue, Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Illinois as also rans with an occasional strong showing. The Pac 10's football quality will improve the most. USC has been the only consistent player lately and with the likely sanctions facing them, that may not continue. Adding Texas and Oklahoma to any conference would be an upgrade. Oklahoma State seems to have an endless supply of revenue and will become an increasingly important player if that continues. Texas Tech and Texas A&M have historically fielded competetive teams. Obviously Colorado and Baylor would be several notches below and would fit nicely with the rest of the very average Pac 10 teams. The SEC will be strong as long as they continue to do whatever it takes and can get away with it. The rumored addition of Florida State and Miami would probably make it a clear 'best in the nation' conference if it isn't already. The latest figures I found showed Tennessee with an $86 million athletic budget with most of the rest of them not far behind. Ole Miss was last with $30 million, though Vanderbilt did not report. The ACC and Big East are nearly inconsequential now and will fall even further if all this goes through. After the shakeup, if it happens, I envision a possible playoff system with the top 2 teams each from the Big 10, Pac 10, and Sec, with the top two of the remaining teams to fill in the other spots of the 8 team field. Quarterfinals will begin at $50 per game for pay per view, semi-finals @ $100, and finals @ $250. I'm sure they can count the dollars already.