Deloss has now intimated that Independence is an option in football. There's been talks of various natures of Texas and the Big 10, Pac 10 and SEC. Some salient points have been made for various scenarios. I like the scenario of Texas & Notre Dame leading the way for their own conference, with unequal revenue sharing and independent television deals.

Texas & Notre Dame would form their own conference and invite some hanger-oners for the ride. Notre Dame could keep their TV package intact (or close to it) and Texas could add their own network. It would only be an 8-team league:

Texas

Notre Dame

Missouri

Oklahoma

Kansas

Texas A&M

Nebraska

Oklahoma St

In this scenario, the following happens:

1) Comcast formalizes their acquisition of NBC and renogiates their Notre Dame deal and enters into discussion with Texas on sharing content with the Longhorn Cable Network.

2) Beating the Big 10 to the punch, Texas & Notre Dame announce their intention of forming their own 8-team league called the Great 8 or G8 Conference comprised of Central Time Zone college sports powers.

3) 7 of the Top 12 Big 12 teams say adios to the Big 12.

4) Comcast bids on Pac 10 and forms TV partnership for OOC scheduling. With only 8 teams in the G8, each team gets 5 OOC games (maybe 6 without a conference title game in the mix), 2 of which are with Pac 10 teams each year in the Carl's Jr G8/Pac10 Challenge.

5) Comcast/Texas offer production and distribution services to other G8 partners to help them create their own cable tv subscription services. Each uses Hulu to distribute content.

6) That just happened. Texas & Notre Dame increase their TV share to $30-$50 million. Other G8 partners share at least $20-$25 million in tv revenue. Nobody cries. Everyone makes money. No Baylors or Iowa States to prop up. It is what it is. Texas, as a state has the 11th-largest economy in the world and Notre Dame is Notre Dame.