So far the only impact of Texas and Oklahoma’s possible move to the SEC on the Big Ten has been reports that Kansas may look to join the league traditionally made up of Midwestern Rust Belt schools.

However, Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren believes the conversations being made today will have a seismic shift on college athletics that will play out over several decades.

“What does this do to our academic mission?,” he said. “What does it do to our athletic mission? What does it do from a television network standpoint, what does it do from a health and safety standpoint? These are things that you have to be very thoughtful about. But on the flip side, that’s one of the reasons why I left the Vikings to come here is because it makes for exciting times ahead. I’m a big believer that decisions that are being made now are going to impact college athletics literally for the next 25 to 50 years.”

If we’ve learned anything from previous realignments, and few have had the kind of power shift that this one suggests, it’s that there will be multiple moves in the coming months or years across multiple conferences to position themselves against one another.