Expansion and falling dominoes

Most of the news these days is too depressing to think about, but there's some interesting speculation in the sports pages concerning realignment around the world of college football. Most of it involves the Big Ten, which has actually been the Big Eleven since Penn State joined some years ago. The juiciest gossip is that the Big 10 wants to expand to the Big 16, facilitating a two-division conference similar to the Big 12 and the SEC. Where would the additional five teams come from ? According to some sources, Missouri and Nebraska would be strong possibilities. If those schools left the Big 12 North, then dominos would start toppling. Would the Big 12 recruit new members, or could it fragment further with remaining schools moving to the Pac 10 or the SEC ? Notre Dame would seem to be a great addition for the Big 10, but as long as the Irish can sell the TV rights to their games as an independent, that merger is remote (or so say the experts). My interest in CFB waned somewhat in recent years, but significant shakeups in conference configurations stirs my imagination and creates a little suspense as well.