Guess what gang? Conference Realignment is for real and the SEC better stay on their toes here or we are going to be a second rate conference overnight. But that cannot happen, right? We have all of the National Titles, we have all the best contracts. Grab your seat-belts and hold on, because that won't be enough.

OK, the news reports from ESPN are now saying that the PAC-?? was not a flyer after all. This is actually working towards the first National Power Conference. Now, the significant thing about this move is that it satisfies all parties concerned, be it football, basketball, or even baseball. This new PAC-?? will be a sports-fans dream. The only person who may be in an utter state of panic here is Lane Kiffin, who will now have to really work to earn all the $$$ that USC is paying him.

The PAC-10's offer goes out to Texas, Tex.Tech, Oklahoma,OK State, Texas A&M, and Colorado. Leaving Nebraska,Kansas, Iowa State, Kansas St., Baylor, and Missouri out in the wind. But wait, the Big Ten is still frothing at the mouth as well. They could pick up the remaining teams in one fell swoop and BOOM! we have now 2 National Power Conferences overnight. Now anyone can make an argument that there are hundreds of reasons for these teams staying put and going nowhere, and that those conferences dont have any reason to make the moves, but let's look at this one really close.

The PAC-?? becomes immediately on par with the SEC for football supremacy. I don't care if you like those schools or not, any league which has Oklahoma, Texas, USC, UCLA as it's four pillars of sport is a serious league. They also have some really great mid-range teams in Oklahoma St., Oregon,Tex.Tech, Texas A&M,Cal, Wash. St, and Washington. A look overall through the league shows that they have everything you could want for basketball as well, and baseball to boot. It is truly a win-win situation all the way around for those schools, both in money, and respectability as a conference.

Now let's look at the Big-??. Ohio State, Penn St., Michigan, Iowa, and Co. immediately add Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas St. to their football machine. Not a slam dunk like Texas and Oklahoma would have been, but some really great pickups. All of a sudden the Big 10 which might have to either add one more or possibly drop Baylor from that list is also a BIG conference. They have balance across the league, and the powers that be will feel like they still have the hand on the throttle, so to speak.

So where does this leave the SEC? We can stand pat and say, until you start beating us, we are just fine. Or we can ease into the process and look into possibly adding 2 more schools to build on, such as West Virginia and Florida State, or maybe even Virginia and West Virginia, but that simply starts the domino's falling in other directions, and we get to fight the ACC for the rest of what is left over. In any event, in whatever way we go, the truth of the matter is this, IF, and I really do mean IF, because I don't think the SEC is into bringing up the rear, we wait, what we get , might not be worth getting. Right now we are in a position to offer the world to a lot of schools, and we can pick and choose who we want. A year from now or two, who knows?

One thing is for sure. If you are the first guy to ask the girls to dance at the party, you get your choice, everyone else, they get whomever is left.