If you are a college ahtletics fan, be it crew, football, basketball or any of the other myriad of NCAA sports, you’ve without a doubt, seen the frezy of media acitivity about the expansion of the Pac-10.

As of now only Colorado has been added to the Pac-10 which I guess makes it the Pac-11 (doesn’t quiet roll off the tounge like before), but I, and many others believe that number will be expanded on in the coming days and weeks. Speculation is that it will become the Pac-16 with the inclusion of the Texas and Oklahoma teams.

While the changes to the conference wouldn’t happen for another season or two, it will certainly change the way schools in the area, and out of it, recruit. As programs look to gain the upper hand on their competition, isn’t it likely that they will look to where those schools recruit?

WSU head coach Paul Wulff has made a point of recruiting closer to home the past several seasons, and UW has had success finding local talent and keeping them local. While the WSU football recruiting patterns isn’t likely to get anyone in Texas excited, UW’s certainly could.

So the question, along with the million others, is will this affect who is looking at local kids? I’d think to a certain extent it could be a factor. If a local athlete is good enough to garner attention from Oregon, UW or USC, whats to say they couldn’t suddenly be getting attention from Oklahoma or Texas A&M (not that those schools don’t already have a depth of places to recruit from)? Perhaps in the next five years local recruits could see some orange or Sooners red in the stands?

At the same time this goes both ways, as a colleague pointed out. Kids at high schools in Texas, Oklahoma and other places who might get some attention from their local colleges and universities could attract West Coast recruiters as well.

So who knows what’s going to happen, expect it looks like college athletics on the West Coast will be forever changed. I won’t even start on the Gonzaga, Boise State speculation…

How do you feel about the Pac-10 expansion?
(polls)