Nebraska bolted for the Big Ten, Boise State took a spot in the Mountain West and the Big 12 rallied for a last-ditch attempt to stave off its demise Friday, a tumultuous day that pointed toward a massive reconfiguration of college sports.

Nebraska regents voted to sever the Cornhuskers’ 100-year relationship with the Big 12 and its predecessors and join the Big Ten, which along with the Pac-10 is expanding, possibly to become a 16-team mega-conference.

Meanwhile, regents at Texas prepared for a meeting next Tuesday that figures to be the pivotal moment for the future of the Big 12.

“I don’t think anyone could read all the commentary around the country and not think the Big 12 hasn’t felt under siege the last couple of months,” commissioner Dan Beebe said.

Also on Friday, Colorado regents rubberstamped the school’s decision to be the first to bail from the Big 12 for the Pac-10.

Seeing a college landscape that might no longer include his conference, Beebe met with the remaining 10 teams, making the case that they are more valuable in their current conference than as add-ons to a different one.

“If it’s about value and money, if that’s the issue, that shouldn’t be part of their equation,” Beebe said. “If it’s about other factors outside of our control, that’s not something I can do anything about.”

Many people think it is, in fact, all about the money, and the decision Texas makes next week will play a huge role in deciding where that money flows.

Top officials at Texas A&M have been meeting with counterparts at UT to jointly discuss the future, while Oklahoma State’s athletic director wrote in an e-mail to a Texas regent that his school simply hopes to end up wherever the Longhorns are “when the dust settles!” Those three, along with Texas Tech and Oklahoma, are considered candidates to turn the Pac-10 into a 16-team conference.