The Big64 creeps in again.

[Ryan Scott]

Reports today have Kansas State basketball coach Frank Martin going to South Carolina.

Granted, Martin is a Florida guy whose recruiting base will be more valuable closer to home and no one really wants to live in the middle of Kansas, but he'll be moving laterally on the coaching tree to a worse basketball conference where he'll be an even smaller second fiddle to the football program.

Why would he do this? The money won't be that different.

I'm wondering if he doesn't see signs that Kansas State will be left out when the Big 64 take off for greener pastures?

Everyone but the Big 12 commissioner knows the conference won't survive. Big names like Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and OKState will find homes, but K-State could be a tougher sell. I thought they'd be on the inclusion list, but with Colorado and Utah going to the PAC-10, the spaces are becoming less and less available.

You've got 54 teams in the big four conferences, once all the current moves are finalized. The four schools from the Big-12 I mentioned above, plus Notre Dame.

That leaves only five slots open for the likes of UConn, Cincinnati, Rutgers, West Virginia, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Louisville, and BYU.

Half of those teams won't get in. Would you bank on K-State to be one of them? Frank Martin apparently isn't.

[Jim Poteet]

Reports today have Kansas State basketball coach Frank Martin going to South Carolina.

Granted, Martin is a Florida guy whose recruiting base will be more valuable closer to home and no one really wants to live in the middle of Kansas, but he'll be moving laterally on the coaching tree to a worse basketball conference where he'll be an even smaller second fiddle to the football program.

Why would he do this? The money won't be that different.

I'm wondering if he doesn't see signs that Kansas State will be left out when the Big 64 take off for greener pastures?

Everyone but the Big 12 commissioner knows the conference won't survive. Big names like Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and OKState will find homes, but K-State could be a tougher sell. I thought they'd be on the inclusion list, but with Colorado and Utah going to the PAC-10, the spaces are becoming less and less available.

You've got 54 teams in the big four conferences, once all the current moves are finalized. The four schools from the Big-12 I mentioned above, plus Notre Dame.

That leaves only five slots open for the likes of UConn, Cincinnati, Rutgers, West Virginia, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Louisville, and BYU.

Half of those teams won't get in. Would you bank on K-State to be one of them? Frank Martin apparently isn't.

I would doubt that Kansas State would get in.