Living part of my life in the Midwest, I followed the Big 8 and then the Big 12 in football and basketball and still get my fix on college basketball and football by following the teams, especially MIZ-ZOU.

They had a good thing going, but it appears it is about to end.

Colorado recently decided to head to the PAC 10. I’ve heard rumors that Nebraska may jump to the Big 10. A friend of mine who lives in Nebraska told me the times have changed in the Big 12 and that the members of the former Big 8 conference were getting a little tired of the Big 12 being centered on the Texas teams.

I read that Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State may go to the PAC 10 making it a mega-conference with an east and west division.

If that happens, you will have Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Baylor left from the Big 12 – hardly the powerhouse of major college football, but they still will be near the top in basketball.

This mass exodus from the Big 12 will cripple the conference and, if it happens, the conference leadership will have to lure at least three other major colleges to join them. Hey, we may end up having the Big 8 once again!

So who could the Big 12 steal? Teams from the Mountain West Conference like BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah, or Wyoming would fit nicely in the conference as would Boise State from the Western Athletic Conference.

Of course, it would not be as grand as the Big 12 was or the PAC 10 or the Big Ten is, but it would be a start. The biggest thing that the new Big 8 would need to lure other teams (if all the above happens) would be to keep their automatic BCS bowl bid.

At least these events will be interesting to watch as they unfold.