The Big Ten is at the epicenter of college football's shifting landscape

The Big Ten left the Pac-12 for dead but doesn’t want to be the one to pull the plug on the conference. 

In an article for The Athletic on the conference flirting with the idea of adding Pac-12's Cal, Oregon, Stanford and Washington, Nicole Auerbach wrote, “The Big Ten does not want to be the one to cause the death of the Pac-12 Conference.” 

That’s so kind of the Big Ten to think of the Pac-12 after it ransacked the conference last June, absconding with the conference’s two most-cherished brands, UCLA and USC, which will crossover to the Big Ten in 2024.

It’s also disingenuous. Allow us to help, then. Big Ten, you killed the Pac-12. It’s over. Can we move on?

Once the Big Ten comes to its senses, it’s likely to expand further, adding the northernmost remaining Pac-12 members.

If that is the route the conference takes, it might not only be the Pac-12 that gets destroyed. A super, 20-team conference might cause the SEC to expand. The logical place for it to look to broaden its borders is the ACC. Popular schools such as Clemson, Duke, North Carolina and Florida State could all be intriguing adds for the conference as it tries to keep up with the Big Ten.

Florida State is practically throwing itself at the SEC.