Oklahoma President David Boren said the board of directors voted unanimously during a meeting Tuesday in Dallas that coincided with football media days to take another step toward adding to the 10-member league, but they stopped just short of committing to future expansion.
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Bowlsby said the process likely will come in two stages – preliminary work, then perhaps a fact-finding or negotiation stage.
“I think it’s a statement that we want to move forward”, Boren said.
Following last month’s Big 12 meetings, the leagues’ board of directors sounded like a group administering last rites to schools jockeying for a seat at the adults’ table as college football feasted on financial windfall. It twice lost two members, and only after slipping to eight schools did the Big 12 get on its horse, adding West Virginia and TCU in autumn 2011.
Four Kansas State defenders were named to the preseason All-Big 12 team selected by the media: linemen Will Geary and Jordan Wells, linebacker Elijah Lee and defensive back Dante Barnett.
Just when you thought Big 12 Conference expansion talk was dead, it came back to life late Tuesday afternoon.
“The Big 12 Conference has not gone out and sought conversations with other schools”, Boren said. After that season, the Big 12 began to re-assess whether it needed to add a championship game, expand or both.
“We are looking for members that will grow over time as we grow”, Bowlsby said.
And, of course, there’s also the money factor. The members of this conference have a commitment that we make our conference as strong as possible, and as beneficial to all of our members as possible. West Virginia is a travel nightmare that’s never going to feel as if it belongs in the Big 12 ecosystem.
Big 12 membership will bring a windfall, but the full value of membership will take time to reap.
That approach is not changing, one UConn source said Wednesday.
“The ACC was establishing a conference network, had secured grant-of-rights from its members through 2034 and had dibs on Notre Dame, should the Fighting Irish ever decide to leave football independence. I think that will influence our commissioner moving forward as we examine what is moving on”.
“And also we’re very much looking at the reputations of these institutions for integrity”.
But without the ability to poach any Power 5 teams from their current homes, the Big 12’s choices are hardly ideal. While the Big 12 didn’t commit to a specific timeframe, they did mention that new teams could be added as soon as the 2017 season, and that a vote would happen this fall, either in September or October. That was the Big 12’s stance this spring. And maybe as many as four new teams.
Finally, 20 minutes after they were scheduled to arrive for the breakout session, the players arrived. How does BYU factor in, given its prohibition on competing on Sundays? But BYU would create another geographic island unless it’s paired with another school in the West.
UCF UCF makes sense because … it’s Central Florida, with an enormous student body … and Disney.
Cincinnati’s lackluster fan base.
Only time and placing character over football ability can do that. Does geography here help or hurt?
Whatever the Baylor contingent told the Big 12 on Tuesday seemed to satisfy it.
Kentucky basketball fans are seen as among the most fanatical fans in college sports and fair enough, they are. Does a foothold in New England or NY move the needle for a Texas-based league?
Houston: Made a major impression in football last year by winning the Peach Bowl and paying coach Tom Herman $3 million per year to stay. Has aggressively worked on facilities and fundraising.
“We don’t have a culture of bad behavior at Baylor University”, he said.
Memphis: Would plant a flag in SEC country, a solid TV market and fertile recruiting area. Lack of academic heft may be a negative. But it does indicate to us that we are continuing to operate in an environment that is filled with change, even over the period of a few days a matter can change. Boren also said expansion by either two or four schools is possible.
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Tulane: Here’s an interesting wild card. Why?
