Nebraska AD Trev Alberts predicts far more disruptive round of expansion coming

The latest round of conference expansion likely isn’t done, at least not until the Pac-12 has some sort of resolution for the 2024 season and beyond, now down to just four teams.

But already at least one prominent college athletics administrator is predicting more conference expansion chaos in the future.

“History is unkind to conferences that have not had the courage to expand,” Nebraska athletics director Trev Alberts told the Lincoln Journal Star’s Amie Just. “I don’t believe it’s done. It’s never been done. It’s more likely than not that there will be continued periods of angst. I believe that the next go-around – that’s my basic conclusion – will be far more disruptive than anything we’re currently engaged in. We need to prepare ourselves mentally for that.”

The obvious next dominos to fall would be out west, where the Pac-12 either needs to add new teams to flesh out the league again or possibly merge with another league like the Mountain West.

At the very least, if neither of those happen California, Oregon State, Stanford and Washington State will have to find new homes.

That could precipitate further conference expansion.

Then there’s also the potential for unexpected moves. The ACC has been under pressure from within to improve its standing among the major power conferences, possibly by expansion. But plans to expand by adding Cal and Stanford have thus far been thwarted by four teams voting against the expansion for various reasons.

Those teams are Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and NC State.

Florida State has been the most vocal about the ACC’s issues right now, essentially noting that staying status quo will mean the end of Florida State’s ability to remain competitive at the highest level of football.

FSU president Richard McCullough was vocal about that.

“FSU helps to drive value and would drive value for any partner, but we have spent a year trying to understand how we might fix the issue,” McCullough said. “There are no easy fixes to this problem. … I would say that my current assessment of the situation, after very deep analysis, is that I believe that FSU will have to at some point consider very seriously leaving the ACC unless there were a radical change to the revenue distribution.”

Could Florida State be part of conference expansion Armageddon? Will another conference make a surprising move out of the blue?

Alberts, at the very least, is expecting some chaos again at some point. How soon is anyone’s guess.