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Message: [QUOTE="Scooch, post: 3034029, member: 628"] One could argue that Arkansas leaving the SWC had the biggest, broadest impact in the past three decades of college sports. Why could one argue that? Well, because it was the SEC luring Arkansas (and South Carolina) that got them to 12 members, which enabled the SEC to invoke a rule the NCAA had originally made for Division 3, and allowed them to stage a conference football championship game. From there on out 12 became the magic, if totally arbitrary, number for conferences to reach. And that led to the Big 12 being 12, the Big Ten adding Nebraska, the ACC adding Miami, BC and VaTech, and so on. All the dominoes that fell in terms of conference realignment for years were predicated on reaching a 12 member threshold. And it was Arkansas's move to the SEC (and the NCAA's insistence on upholding the 12 member minimum, rather than some other arbitrary number) that triggered it all. [/QUOTE]