Could Boomer Sooner be headed to a conference near you? Based on all the speculation, anything is possible. (Photo contributed)

By Graham Dunn
RRS Editor
(June 11, 2010)

If there is any question what time of year it is, follow the college football rumors.

June has traditionally become the month in which media must fill the same amount of space in newspapers or on the evening sports reports but without concrete stories. Websites must be updated to keep up with the Jones. The cycle runs faster these days.

Since few matter-of-fact stories are available (no college or high school games are being played save the College World Series), the rumor mill cranks up. This year, it hasn’t been too difficult with the Big 12 in flux and USC finally getting the hammer from the NCAA.

Not that there is anything wrong with this…

But it makes for some high-flying antics by the media to get your attention.

Here at RRS, we can get into the “what might happen” mode but from where I sit in Montgomery, Ala., it’s more fun to watch all the other news outlets go at it. We’ve already heard a few wild tales.

Let’s set up the facts in the most recent newsflashes across the college football landscape while melding the different stories together.

First, we know the Trojans’ football program was hit hard with sanctions and will suffer for many years, much like Alabama did in the 1990s and early 2000s and Oklahoma did before that.

We know Colorado is leaving the Big 12.

After that, it’s all speculation. (By the time you read this, it might all have changed again but you get the point.)

Already, we’ve heard about Texas and its little brothers moving into – in order of the rumors – the Pac-10, SEC and a few reports say Big 10. Nebraska will announce today (Friday) what it intends to do.

And that Notre Dame is feeling the pressure to move somewhere… or not.

One report from a radio station in Atlanta said Virginia Tech has been offered an invitation to join the SEC.  Another TV station in Kansas City says Oklahoma is petitioning the SEC to become a member.

All that is missing is a comment from Congress and that an investigation will ensue (don’t laugh, if changes happen, Washington will get involved).

Out of this speculation comes one fact – you don’t have to have a named source in order to make a story. I checked all of these and in each case, no names back up the rumor. It’s a safety net that most credible news services have fallen back on in the last few years.

Before the “get the story first” craze began several years ago, it was taboo to even consider the idea.

But the practice has done what it set out to do – create the stir.

So, here we sit with our popcorn in hand waiting for the next shoe to drop. Eventually, we will get to the end of this news cycle – about the time the conference media events for football begin in July.

Then you get to hear about it all over again.

Once these rumors come to fruition, there will be threads of fact within the stories. Texas and the other Big 12 counterparts might well be headed to another conference. Virginia Tech could become the 13th member of the SEC. Nebraska will leave and go somewhere.

But in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, the final outcome will be anticlimactic.

It proves once again that it’s more fun to speculate than deal with reality.