Could the NCAA’s power conferences break away to form a separate entity? With the Big 12 left scrambling with the pending departure of Oklahoma and Texas for the SEC, reports have surfaced that the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-10 have discussed a possible alliance rather than attempt to woo remaining Big 12 teams to their own conferences.

If an alliance doesn’t materialize, it’s possible that the 4 conferences could simply depart the NCAA altogether.

“It feels like we’re headed to 4 premiere, huge, 16-team conferences, and it feels like those 4 conferences maybe will pull away one day from the NCAA, go out and hire a commissioner, whoever that might be, and just kind of create their own world,” ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit said during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday.

While Herbstreit stressed that it wouldn’t happen overnight, he added that such a move could occur relatively soon.

“I don’t think next week, but within the next 3 to 5 years, maybe that could happen,” he said.

Herbstreit also added a prediction to the potential expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams, feeling that such a move wouldn’t occur until around 2026, after Texas and Oklahoma are scheduled to join the SEC and the future of the remaining teams in the Big 12 is decided.

“I see this full cycle, it was a 12-year cycle that started in (2014), I think it will go all the way through to make a change,” he said. “There’s too much going on right now for them to be able to say, ‘Hey, let’s change it in 2025’. I just don’t see that happening. I think it will be a full, entire 12 years, and then they’ll make the changes…

“Everybody’s going to respond to what the SEC has done by flexing its muscles by bringing in Texas and OU to what they already have.”