WALNUT CREEK, Calif., June 10 (UPI) -- The Colorado Buffaloes ditched the Big 12 college athletic conference Thursday to become the 11th member of the Pacific-10 Conference, officials said.
At the same time, the Nebraska Cornhuskers were also poised to leave the Big 12 central U.S. conference to join the Big Ten as early as Friday, becoming that conference's 12th school, ESPN reported.
And Texas and Texas A&M officials met Thursday to discuss their next moves, given the Big 12's tenuous foundation, The Washington Post reported.
The two teams -- along with Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State -- were reported courted by the Pac-10, which operates in the Western United States, to join Colorado and Nebraska to form a 16-team conference.
Colorado's move -- which takes effect with the 2012 football season -- "is a great fit for the conference, both academically and athletically," Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement.
It is the Pac-10's first expansion since it added Arizona and Arizona State in 1978.
Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe -- whose remaining member schools are located in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas -- said that his conference had been informed of Colorado's move and that he was "working tirelessly towards the long-term viability of the Big 12."
Colorado was part of the Big 12 since its inception in 1996. The Big 12 grew out of the Big Six, which Colorado joined in 1947 to make the Big Seven. The conference became the Big Eight in 1958 and kept that alignment until four members of the former Southwest Conference joined to make the Big 12.
The Big Ten expanded to 11 members when Penn State joined the conference in 1990.
