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Big 12, Big East Could Merge

The college football conference carousel has been spinning for over a year now, and there's no end in sight. If (more like when) Oklahoma and Texas leave the Big 12, the conference will be left in shambles without two of its biggest schools. Sound familiar? It's exactly what is happening to the Big East currently, as the Big East just lost Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC -- and Connecticut looks like they're not far behind. 

So, what's going to happen to the remains of the Big 12 and Big East? According to a CBS Sports report, the two conferences could potentially merge. 

A person involved in the discussions tells the Associated Press that school and conference officials from the Big East and Big 12 have been discussing ways to merge what's left of the two leagues if Texas and Oklahoma leave the Big 12.

The person, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly about what is going on behind the scenes, said Monday there has been dialogue between athletic directors and high-level officials in the conference offices.

It had been reported earlier in the weekend that Baylor would be interested in joining the Big East if the Big 12 collapsed. If the Big 12 and Big East merge, then Baylor would almost certainly be apart of that conference, with schools like Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and presumably TCU being an integral part of the conference.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.