Summer is usually the time for big budget movies, baseball and having fun outside.

But for all the Big 12 schools, the beginning of the summer was nothing short of a roller coaster ride due to the questionable future of what most experts say is the nation’s second most prominent football and basketball conference.

“There were a lot of questions from families of our players, and there we’re questions from families of the players we were recruiting,” said ISU men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg. “I’m glad it was resolved as quickly as it was. I just wanted it to get over with so we knew what conference we were going to be playing in.”

The men’s basketball team was not the only team forced to answer questions about the potential changes made. 

Even after the fate of the conference was announced, teams were still bombarded by questions from players, families and potential recruits about what these changes mean.

So what do these changes mean?

The conference’s football future seems simple enough: 10 teams, no championship game, drop Nebraska and Colorado from the schedule and possibly play nine conference games instead of eight.

But what about everything else? What about some of the smaller, non-revenue sports? What sort of questions will need to be answered for their players and potential recruits?

ISU softball coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler said the speculation surrounding the future was definitely a hot topic for discussion during recruiting trips.

“When were out recruiting, we had a lot of players asking us what was going to happen and what we thought,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “But I don’t think it negatively impacted anything because everything happened pretty fast really.”

Looking ahead, it remains to be seen how scheduling for softball will be done, however, after Nebraska leaves, the Big 12 will only have nine schools remaining for softball, leaving Iowa State with eight conference opponents.

Perhaps the most high profile team to leave the conference was Nebraska. The Cornhuskers will leave for the Big Ten at the start of the 2011-2012 academic year.

However, outside of the volleyball and football programs, dropping Nebraska from the schedule will not be a huge loss, as most believe the Big 12 will still be known as one of the best athletic conferences in the nation.

“With our sport, anytime you’re talking about the best conferences, you will always hear the Big 12, Pac-10 and the SEC,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said.

Women’s basketball will have a schedule much like the men’s basketball team. Each team in the conference will play a round-robin style schedule where all schools will play each other twice.

ISU women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly was thrilled by the idea of playing a round-robin schedule. He said it could benefit all sports because the fans will have the same opportunity to see some of the best players play.

“Now [the ISU women’s basketball team] needs to be excited about the challenge of the competition that’s coming,” Fennelly said. “Like we’ve done in the past, I think it’s great for our fans. They’re going to see good teams every year that they only saw every other year.”

Despite every Big 12 school having multiple sports with each finding its own individual success, it seemed every analyst would only talk about football.

Fennelly and Gemeinhardt-Cesler are just two of the dozens of ISU coaches and staff members. Both come from teams that bring in smaller revenue numbers than football and men’s basketball. But for some of those smaller teams, playing the game is clearly not always about the money, but rather contributing to the overall success of the school. 

“There’s no question football and men’s basketball are the two most important things, it’s always going to be that way, and that’s the way it should be – they generate the most revenue,” Fennelly said.

“But at the same time, I think we can add something to the product. I think that’s exactly what volleyball’s doing. I think that’s what wrestling’s doing. I think that’s what track’s doing. And I hope we continue to do that in a way that the casual fan appreciates, because we do it for Iowa State,” he said.