And you thought conference expansion was dead.

Oh sure, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany will try and tell you that today's announced "collaboration" between their two conferences isn't expansion, or even a step toward it. But that's a bunch of bunk.

Scott has said from the very beginning that he feels like colleges leave billions of dollars of television revenue on the table each year because the biggest conferences fail to fully leverage their product, something they simply can't do if they're only negotiating their own conference's rights. It's akin to each division in the NFL negotiating their own TV rights. If that seems absurd to you, imagine how absurd it must seem to Scott that these conferences, who also all have the same end goal, have historically worked against each other.

So it is that Scott and Delany have taken the first step towards multiple conferences leveraging their product together. No, it's not a complete merger, or even a full partnership, but this certainly sets up for the two leagues to wring even more money out of their television partners, as well as provide excellent content for each others' fledgling networks.

Ted Miller has the relevant details here, but here's the one you'll be most interested in:

Starting in 2017, there will be a full slate of home-and-home series between the conferences. Yes, that means Ohio State will play in Pullman and Michigan will go to Corvallis. And vice versa. This isn't just about matching the big stadium teams and the smaller stadium teams.

Sounds great! But wait -- they're not going to send the Buckeyes to Pullman for no good reason, since the idea behind this was to create "high-quality content" for television (read: buzzworthy matchups). To that end, Delany said "competitive equity" will play a part in determining the matchups.

So yeah, if WSU gets real good under Mike Leach in the next half decade, maybe they'll make Michigan or Ohio State or Penn State come to Pullman. Playing them in Seattle is certainly a possibility, too, but I've got to imagine that Bill Moos would much rather bring them to Martin Stadium, especially after the upgrades are finished. But either way, it's likely going to be dependent on the quality of the team.

I don't want to make it sound like I'm sour grapes on this thing -- I'm not at all. This is great, especially since this agreement is across all sports. That means a Big Ten opponent will be coming to Pullman every other year in basketball, which is even harder to make happen than football. But you can just put me in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp when it comes to the very best football schools visiting Martin Stadium.

And yes, I know Wisconsin is coming in 2014. But we had to play a 2-for-1 to get that, starting with going to Madison back in 2007. However, if you were worried about Wisconsin eventually buying itself out of the final two games (we make one more trip there in 2015), I'd wager that this agreement actually makes it more likely that these two games come to fruition.

But after that? I'll be looking forward to an epic Indiana/WSU matchup in 2017.

My co-host Seth Kolloen and I got together on our Pac-12 basketball podcast to take stock of the conference, including all the craziness going on in Westwood -- the losses by UCLA, the ongoing drama surrounding Reeves Nelson, etc. -- and assess the progress of the league’s contending teams as a big week of tournaments figures to be revealing. Also, what the heck is with Jabari Brown leaving Oregon, and how will that impact the Ducks?

If you already subscribe to the podcast, you received the new episode from our feed last night thanks to the great work of our producer, Jeff Collier. If you don't subscribe to the podcast, you can find all sorts of subscription options at our site, or you can do that here via iTunes, or here via a regular RSS link.

Or, you can just feel free to listen to it without ever leaving CougCenter by clicking on the little triangle to the left of the link to the file below.

18 and life 3-2

Looking to kill some time before WSU tips off at 9 p.m. PDT? Here's a good way to spend it: Hanging out with Seth Kolloen and I as we preview the Pac-12 basketball season on our podcast, 18 And Life.

We lead off by talking about the four teams we think could make a serious run at the conference title -- Cal, Washington, Arizona and UCLA -- before transitioning into potential dark horses. Sorry, folks ... that doesn't include WSU, unfortunately. We are in agreement that with every contender has at least one serious flaw that will likely keep it from being an elite team.

We spend that last portion of the show previewing some of the interesting matchups this week, including WSU-Gonzaga.

We've changed websites, so if you were a listener in the past, you're going to want to visit our new page and update your subscription. The new direct feed is http://18andlifehoops.wordpress.com/feed/. Audio player after the jump - just click the little circle next to the file link.

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Ever since the Pac-10 took the bold step a little over a year ago of pursuing roughly half the Big 12 in an effort to expand to 16 teams -- an effort that eventually resulted in Colorado and Utah moving and joining the Pac-12 -- the conference has been linked to just about every potential realignment scenario as Dan Beebe's league inches ever closer to its inevitable demise.

It's been widely presumed (and reported) that at least Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are headed to the Pac-12, and probably also Texas and Texas Tech, wherein the Pac-12 would become the country's first BCS automatic qualifier superconference with 16 teams.

This, apparently, comes as news to the Pac-12. The conference issued the following statement tonight:

In light of the widespread speculation about potential scenarios for Conference re-alignment, the Pac-12 Presidents and Chancellors have affirmed their decision to remain a 12-team conference. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said, "after careful review we have determined that it is in the best interests of our member institutions, student-athletes and fans to remain a 12-team conference. While we have great respect for all of the institutions that have contacted us, and certain expansion proposals were financially attractive, we have a strong conference structure and culture of equality that we are committed to preserve. With new landmark TV agreements and plans to launch our innovative television networks, we are going to focus solely on these great assets, our strong heritage and the bright future in front of us."

To say this statement comes as a surprise is putting it mildly. Like most, I have a hard time believing the Pac-12 is really all the way out of the realignment game. But reading between the lines, it appears Scott is drawing a very public line in the sand: If you want to join the Pac-12, you're going to play by the Pac-12's rules. (Looking your way, Texas.)

There will be no negotiating revenue shares with separate broadcast entities. There will be no usurpation of power. Either you fall in line, or we'll manage just fine without you.

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After California narrowly beat Colorado in overtime on Saturday, Jeff Tedford said something not very flattering about Pac-12 officiating. How do I know this? Not because he said anything particularly inflammatory -- heck, I couldn't even quickly find whatever it was with a Google search.

No, I know it because this just came to my inbox:

"The Pac-12 has specific rules that prohibit our coaches from making public comments about officiating, and this prohibition specifically includes comments that create doubts about the credibility of the Conference's officiating program," stated Scott. "The Conference expects each Pac-12 coach to adhere to our standards of conduct and to conduct himself or herself in a manner which will reflect credit on the institution and the Conference."

Not seen is Scott's first draft, which was wisely edited by the Pac-12 media relations department. But CougCenter has well-placed sources, and we were able to get our hands on it. Check it out:

"The Pac-12 has specific rules that prohibit our coaches from making public comments about officiating, because goodness knows if we allowed this, we'd all have to listen to coaches drone on and on for hours about it because our officiating is that bad," Scott said. "This prohibition specifically includes comments that create doubts about the credibility of the Conference's officiating program, because let's be honest -- our officials are already good enough at doing that on their own. They don't need any help, OK? The Conference expects each Pac-12 coach to adhere to our standards of conduct and to conduct himself or herself in a manner which will reflect credit on the institution and the Conference, even if we don't demand the same out of our officials."

OK, he didn't really write that. But you know that's what he was thinking!

I can't believe I doubted Larry Scott for a moment.

Earlier in the day, Jon Wilner of Mercury-News fame was reporting the Pac-12 could be partnering with Time Warner Cable for their upcoming television network. My reaction was: meh.

Now I don't have anything in particular against Time Warner. In fact, I was jumping for joy when they replaced Adelphia as the cable provider in Pullman. Not because I liked Time Warner; no, it was because I hated Adelphia's commericals with a passion few can emulate or truly understand unless you lived in Pullman circa five years ago. Time Warner was a change, and is also most certainly your standard cable company. I mean that in that they provide you TV, and in exchange your customer service experience is almost wholly dependent on luck of the draw. Sure, they'll try to make you pay a lot for your favorite channels, but the dishes do that too. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there. Overall, I'm pretty neutral when it comes to TWC.

But Time Warner for the Pac-12? Where's the splash? The excitement? Weren't Google and Apple in the mix? Doesn't Larry Scott always push the envelope on these things?

Well, sure enough, he did.

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Rise and shine, campers; Pac-12 Media Day is upon us. For the second year in a row, the Pac-12 will be holding a three-day, bi-coastal media extravaganza. The festivities begin at 9am and run until 12:30pm. Later today, players and coaches will hop on a plane headed for New York City (Wednesday), and end their East Coast trip by visiting ESPN Headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut on Thursday.

Paul Wulff has brought along one of his star WRs, Finas Rabb Jared Karstetter. The senior from Spokane seems like an appropriate choice; Karstetter was the feather in Wulff's 2008 recruiting class cap, his first as Head Coach in Pullman. The pair will step up to the podium at 10:20am, and speak for roughly 15 minutes. Conveniently, the two are scheduled right before a bathroom break.

You can follow the Pac-12 on twitter or watch the live feed on their website. If you're interested in seeing the rest of the schedule, it's posted after the jump.

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Ever seen a great idea and a horrible one all rolled up into one? If not, you're about to.

The Pac-10 has decided to put the process of selecting the Pac-12 Championship Game logo to a popular vote, and I gotta be honest -- all four logos are pretty attractive. Great idea, right?

Well, here's the terrible part: The voting opened today and closes on Monday -- also known as Memorial Day.

I imagine you probably see the issue with that, but in case you don't: Just how many people does the conference think are going to be on their computers in the next three days, given that, A) Internet traffic goes way down on the weekends because people are at home and not screwing off at work (trust me, I have the data to support this), and B) It's a HOLIDAY WEEKEND and many people who might otherwise be on their computers, even on the weekend, will be out of town?

Swing and a miss, Pac-10.

It's not like organizations don't whiff; it's just that the Pac-10 has done so many things right that when it makes a pretty bad error, it sticks out. (Sort of like this.)

At any rate, if you're reading this, it means you're at your computer this weekend, which means you might be so inclined to vote. You know how Grady is a geek for uniforms? I'm a geek for graphic design, since I've done some graphic design work in the past, and it was sort of my job to teach graphic design when part of my duties involved advising high school publications. Given that, I figured I could throw the four logos your way with my quick thoughts on each one.

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