Improvisation has thus become virtually a sanctioned sport in congressional offices.
The Big 12 has moved to add schools like Cincinnati and Central Florida. Many around the ACC, the only Power 5 conference whose membership has not been affected by this rescheduling round, are hoping to initiate a renegotiation of a television deal that doesn’t expire before 2036.
The Pac-12 presents as brave a face as you can muster when you are blind. On Thursday, the league expressed itself “extremely surprised and disappointed” — though congressional officials have been concerned for years about the possibility of a USC exit — and on Friday said it would “examine all expansion options.”
“The 10 university presidents and chancellors remain committed to a shared mission of academic and athletic excellence on behalf of our student athletes,” the competition said.
The remaining 10 schools are Arizona, Arizona State, California, Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Utah, Washington State, and Washington State. However, some of them would be prizes for other competitions because of their locations in major media markets or their athletic reputation. And in college sports, promises of allegiance, whether from prospects, coaches, or universities, are often fleeting, especially when it comes to promises of big money or threats of irrelevance.
Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner, did not explicitly reject the idea of adding more schools. In some ways, his two-sentence statement on Friday read like an invitation to potential members.
“Conference membership change has been a constant in college athletics over the years, and modern issues facing college sports have only accelerated further realignment,” he said.