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Now that Texas A&M is in the process of destroying the bloated spawn of the Southern Conference, most people seem to think a free-for-all is going to ensue as the Big XII has its death throes. And as any Wall Street scum will tell you, when a huge institution is burning to the ground and the market is generally more and more depressed by the day, that’s when it’s money-making time, people! Time to snatch up the pieces and make as much as you can.

If the Aggies are allowed to leave, and it isn’t clear if Baylor is letting that happen yet or not, expect some conferences to swoop in and snatch a few key schools that could help profits, which is the only thing the conferences care about anyway.

As a grad from a Big Ten school (Indiana), we like to pretend that our conference cares about academic prestige as much as financial gain from athletics. That’s total crap, of course, but we have our illusions.

So if there really is a 1929-style meltdown of the Big XII, it might be time for the Big Ten to dirty itself up a little and pick up some pieces. There are still markets out there who might enjoy the Big Ten’s slower, midwestern style of football. Or at least markets that could have it forced down their throats and alumni who will pay good money to see it no matter what anyway.

So here are a few schools the Big Ten should pursue, in order of importance and likelihood they’d come in case of conference alignment disaster:

Missouri

God that feels like an underwhelming start, but incorporating the St. Louis area, which is already in the Midwest anyway, into the Big Ten Network’s sphere of influence would be super sweet for advertising dollars. Plus Mizzou is a fairly respected academic school, though the grads from the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism at IU might get a little growl-y at Mizzou’s journalism school in the same conference.

Missouri is also a natural rival for Big Ten member Illinois in both football and basketball. The “Arch Rivalry” is something of a big deal between the two schools, though you’re likely to see something of a pillow fight most years on the field. Still, more rivalries are good since the conference gets so overshadowed by the Michigan/Ohio State rivalry.

Why they might say no: They might not have too many options if the Big XII really does melt down, but there may be other conferences that might be smaller and more financially beneficial, giving the Tigers would get a bigger piece of the pie. The football program also really loves recruiting out of Texas and Oklahoma, which doesn’t exactly translate to the Big Ten game when they’re trying to sell recruits on Columbia, MO. It’s way easier to say they’ll be playing four or five games in Texas than to say they’ll be playing in Iowa City, IA and State College, PA every couple of years.

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