The Conference Realignment World Has Turned and Left Me Here; What Next?

Just when we thought conference realignment might be settling down and we were just getting used to the new state of things, business picked up again and sent everyone in a tizzy. As we saw the first time, it was the Big Ten that set things in motion, adding Rutgers and Maryland last week. That proved one thing: that the stability of the ACC was vastly overstated. It also sent the Big East and the ACC scrambling to find replacements.

So the Big East grabbed East Carolina (for football) and Memphis (for all sports), furthering their transformation into 2004 Conference USA.

The ACC made their move yesterday, eschewing academics (and upholding Boston College's slightly inscrutable grudge against UConn) and adding Louisville to fill the Maryland-shaped hole in their conference.

So what next? Are we done? That seems unlikely. We thought we were done a year ago, but that was proved laughably wrong. And 14 remains a slightly strange number of teams to stay on. And then there's this quote, which may either be a prescient statement about more chaos to come or just a lot of harmless saber-rattling.

"All bets are off now," said a person with direct knowledge of the ACC's move. "At some point in time someone crosses the line and starts to enter the next level of growth. If that happens, do you want to be the institution on the outside looking in?"

So what's the next move? Does the Big Ten look to grab someone (or someones) and get up to 16? Vote in the poll and hit up the comments. We need a break from thinking about Iowa football anyway.

For the sake of reference...

ACC 2013; new members in BOLD
Florida State
Miami
Duke
Clemson
North Carolina
North Carolina State
Wake Forest
Maryland
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Georgia Tech
Boston College
Syracuse
Pittsburgh

ACC 2014; new members in BOLD
Florida State
Miami
Duke
Clemson
North Carolina
North Carolina State
Wake Forest
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Georgia Tech
Boston College
Syracuse
Pittsburgh
Louisville

BIG EAST (football-only) 2013; new members in BOLD
Louisville
Cincinnati
UConn
South Florida
Rutgers
Temple
Central Florida
Houston
Memphis
SMU
Boise State
San Diego State

BIG EAST (football-only) 2014; new members in BOLD
Cincinnati
UConn
South Florida
Temple
Central Florida
Houston
Memphis
SMU
Boise State
San Diego State
Tulane
East Carolina

BIG TEN 2013
Iowa
Illinois
Indiana
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern
Nebraska
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Wisconsin

BIG TEN 2014; new members in BOLD
Iowa
Illinois
Indiana
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern
Nebraska
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Wisconsin
Rutgers
Maryland

BIG XII 2013 (and beyond)
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Texas
Texas Tech
TCU
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Baylor
West Virginia

PAC 12 2013 (and beyond)
Colorado
Utah
Arizona
Arizona State
USC
UCLA
Cal
Stanford
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington
Washington State

SEC 2013 (and beyond)
Alabama
Auburn
Arkansas
LSU
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
Texas A&M
Missouri
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Vanderbilt
Tennessee
South Carolina

(I'm not even going to pretend to know what the non-BCS leagues look like or will look like.)