Big Ten Expansion Doomsday Clock STRIKES MIDNIGHT; Nebraska is Joining

Check back later for any updates to this story...

Update: The Big Ten released its official announcement that Nebraska will be its 12th member school.

Signed, sealed, delivered:

Two sources from conference offices said that Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany contacted BIg 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe on Friday morning to inform Beebe that Delany had officially invited Nebraska to join.

A source with direct knowledge of the situation said Nebraska accepted.

Some quotes from the board of regents meeting, which is still going on as of this posting...

Tom Osborne: "We take academics seriously and Big Ten is a big fit in that regard." ... "The stability of the Big Ten is something that we cannot ignore at this time." ... "We take academics seriously and Big Ten is a big fit in that regard."

UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman: "The Big Ten Network will be carrying our games across the landscape of Nebraska." ... "I think we are, as an institution, more aligned with Big 10, especially academically." ... "We want to begin competition in Big 10 in 2012."

Ladies and gentlemen, the time is now:

12:00:00

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Clock History

Day	Change	Time	'Till Midnight	Reason
May 10	0:00	11:45	15 min.	Initial setting of Big Ten Expansion “Doomsday” clock
May 10	+11:00	11:56	4 min.	Sports Radio 810 WHB reports Big Ten has extended initial invitations to Nebraska, Missouri, Rutgers, and Notre Dame
May 11	-3:00	11:53	7 min.	Jim Delany enters full-scale denial mode about Sports Radio 810 WHB report
May 19	-3:00	11:50	10 min.	Jim Delany, says expansion plans are still 12-18 months away
June 3	+4:00	11:54	6 min.	Rivals reports the Pac 10 will invite six Big XII teams
June 6	+4:30	11:58:30	1 min 30 sec	Nebraska, Mizzou given ultimatum by Big 12; Pac-10 continues with plans to get Big 12 South teams to join.
June 9	+1:00	11:59:30	30 sec	Omaha World-Herald reports that Nebraska will leave the Big 12 for the Big Ten on June 11.
June 11	+0:30	12:00:00	00:00:00	At a Nebraska University Board of Regents meeting, it is decided--on the record--to accept a formal invitation to join the Big Ten.

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