It's also probably time for Notre Dame to pick a conference. North Carolina, Virginia, Clemson, and Florida State would all be giant gets for either conference. And sorry ACC, that media rights contract won’t seem so ironclad with the SEC and Big Ten begin fighting over the best of the rest. The Pac-12 better have one heck of a backup plan, or at least two more significant members - Oregon and Washington - will also be headed to the Big Ten.

Oddly, the Big 12 may be the most insulated from further raiding of its members. Thus, another reason this news feels more significant than last summer’s is that it seems to be an indication that both conferences appear headed beyond 16 with 20 being the likely number for both in a new post-NCAA super conference environment. If this expansion holds up, both the SEC and Big Ten will be at 16 members. That means that the Big Ten is almost assuredly not done with expansion. The nearest school to USC and UCLA would be in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Big Ten will now stretch from Jersey to Southern California. In some ways, what the Big Ten pulled off Thursday is even bigger than last July’s news of Oklahoma and Texas leaving the Big 12 for the SEC.

And that might not be the biggest news to emerge from Thursday’s stunning breaking news. Just when it seemed as if there would be a brief respite from college conference expansion and realignment, the Big Ten raided the Pac-12 of two of its biggest jewels: USC and UCLA.

Texas tech conference realignment