LINCOLN — A half hour into discussing the future of college athletics and the potential for radical conference realignment, Harvey Perlman chuckled softly and said:

“I sure wish I were on the sidelines watching it with interest. But I'm afraid I'm not."

Not by a long shot.

Perlman may have as much skin in this game as any individual in the country, with at least four points of view to consider.

He is the chancellor at Nebraska, a school with the athletic chops to attract suitors from other leagues.

He is on the board of directors of the Big 12, a conference that pundits claim to be at risk of losing a variety of members.

He is chairman of the presidential oversight committee for the Bowl Championship Series, a football postseason ranking system that faces change if mega-conferences emerge.

And later this week, he becomes chairman of the NCAA Division I board of directors.

Perlman wants Husker fans to know one thing — the first hat he wears in any conversation about conference realignment will be red and white with an N on it. He and Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne are solidly together on potential courses of action.

“My instinct and Tom's instinct isn't just to sit around and wait to see what bad things happen to you," the chancellor said. “We're certainly talking about what options we have."

The Big Ten, the Pacific 10 and Southeastern Conferences have publicly stated they are studying expansion or are open to it.

So far, Perlman said, Nebraska hasn't been approached by another league.

“But are we in the swirl of things? Yes," he said. “By the product of our location, we could be vulnerable if there is significant change in conference realignment."

Perlman said he wants the Big 12 to succeed. But that doesn't mean a move by Nebraska to any other power conference has been ruled out.

“I don't think anyone can dismiss anything out of hand," he said. “If you take the wildest predictions about mega-conferences — 16 is the number you see most, but 24 has been floated though not publicly — we certainly have to act in the interest of Nebraska."

So “watchful waiting" continues in Lincoln amid saber rattling, smokescreens and almost weekly false alarms about conference realignment being imminent.

With so much speculation cluttering the landscape, The World-Herald asked for Perlman's perspective to try to glean fact from fiction.

This is all about money, isn't it?

Perlman acknowledged that athletics and football television revenue — specifically involving the Big Ten — have sparked the current hubbub.

“I don't have any inside information," he said, “but the conversation is clearly guided by the Big Ten television network.

“They are now like any other TV network — you want as many eyeballs on the screen as you possibly can because that guarantees revenue through advertising or access to cable carriers."

The Big Ten pays its members $22 million a year. The Big 12 pays between about $7 million and $11 million. Wouldn't Nebraska be crazy to turn down an invitation to the Big Ten for double the yearly revenue?

“You don't know that for sure," Perlman said. “There could be some advantage to joining the Big Ten depending on what the deal is. There could be some disadvantage, too."

Such as?

“They have a different set of recruiting rules than we have," Perlman said, “which might impact what we're able to do."

Expenses are a critical issue, too.

Depending on how the Big Ten might grow, Nebraska could find itself traveling to Rutgers for volleyball on a Tuesday, to Penn State for wrestling on a Wednesday and to Syracuse for something else on a Thursday.

“Nobody pays attention to the Olympic sports in this kind of conversation. But we do," Perlman said. “Those costs can be a killer."

Another factor in joining the Big Ten is that each school owns part of the league's TV network. That equity won't be given away to new members, Perlman said, meaning schools essentially would have to buy their way in along with buying their way out of their current league.

“So if you left the Big 12 on revenue alone," Perlman said, “you would have to sit down with a sharp pencil."

Is academics ignored in the realignment process?

Not by the presidents and chancellors, Perlman said. It could even be a deal-breaker.

“I could certainly see the presidents of any conference saying that while adding School X makes sense from an athletic point of view," he said, “it does not academically."

So what's all this talk about the AAU? This isn't a summer basketball deal.

The AAU in this scenario is the American Association of Universities. That's a group of 63 invited schools that focuses on issues important to research-intensive universities.

What's important to know is that all 11 members of the Big Ten are AAU members. Seven schools in the Big 12 are (Nebraska, Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M, Iowa State, Colorado, Kansas).

Said Perlman: “It would be extremely unlikely for the Big Ten to select a school that wasn't a member of the AAU."

With the exception of Notre Dame, a non-member.

“My guess is," Perlman said, “that Notre Dame is an icon that doesn't fit the normal pattern."

With the Big East seen as a Big Ten expansion target, note the AAU members from that league: Rutgers, Syracuse, Pittsburgh.

Will the “student-athlete experience" enter the conference realignment discussion?

Absolutely. Perlman said he appreciated the story that Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne told The World-Herald recently about the Aggie women's basketball team returning home from a West Coast night game at 6:30 a.m. on a weekday.

“Those things will be in the mix," Perlman said. “Whether it's No. 1 or No. 2 or No. 5, that's hard to tell. Each institution has to think about this in its own context."

Also, with schools now in danger of losing scholarships for inadequate academic progress rates, Perlman said, “I see a broader set of people having concerns about missed class time."

Why doesn't the big, bad, all-powerful NCAA handle all of this?

This is a common misconception among fans and some media members, Perlman said. The NCAA isn't all-powerful.

“The NCAA certainly has an interest in conference realignment," he said, “but it's not a player.

“Conferences are independent units. The Big Ten doesn't have to come to the NCAA to get permission to do what it wants to do. The NCAA regulates around the margins."

Can the Big 12 survive losing a member or two?

“If you start pulling us apart at the outer edges — say Missouri or Colorado goes somewhere — there are not a lot of options for us to find schools that are compatible and bring us back to 12," Perlman said.

“In that sense, I worry a lot about what's going to happen."

Nebraska as an institution and Perlman as a board member have a lot of sweat equity invested in the Big 12. What's the league's future?

“It has a lot of potential," Perlman said. “In its current configuration, the Big 12 isn't likely to generate the revenue the Big Ten and the SEC do just because of population and eyeballs on TV sets and seats in stadiums.

“That has to be a concern. We can't let the gap in revenue become too large without losing some competitive advantages. But you want to maximize revenue while keeping the collegiate model intact and protect student-athlete welfare."

Is there a major worry behind the scenes among college leaders about all this?

“If there is radical realignment to bigger conferences," Perlman said, “there is a political risk and a public relations risk."

In what way?

Congress has begun to ask more frequently about things such as the BCS, the rising salaries of coaches and how athletics and academics mesh. Fans and boosters can lose connections with conference rivals through realignment. And some schools get left behind in the growth.

“The money gets bigger, but it's moving toward a smaller set of schools," Perlman said. “So we have to look at the risk in terms of losing the allegiance of the American public and the forbearance of the congressional folks if we run too far out."

Contact the writer: 444-1024, lee.barfknecht@owh.com

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