“There’s a contractual obligation to pay that additional amount pro rata that we’re already receiving if there is an expansion, a hypothetical expansion of the conference”, Boren said. “Not a decision yet”.
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A month ago, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said the league presidents were happy with their 10-member league and would essentially put expansion on the back burner.
SportsDay’s Chuck Carlton reported Tuesday that BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Central Florida, UConn and Memphis may represent an upper tier of Big 12 expansion possibilities, though his source cautioned that the situation is fluid. “We very seldom take votes, but on this one we did take a vote and everyone was supportive of it”. Colorado State has also reached out to Big 12 leaders. Last time a major realignment took place, Texas A&M, Nebraska, Missouri, and Colorado all left the Big 12 for greener pastures in the Big 10, SEC, and Pac-12.
So now the question remains: Who will the Big 12 add?
David Ubben of Sports on Earth says Cincinnati and U-Conn. top a Big 12 wish list that’s described as “fluid”, but Bowlsby also said Tuesday that the league would consider taking on football-only members (thus dispensing with the charade that this resurgent expansion talk has anything to do with sports other than football). That would eliminate one big negative for BYU’s inclusion into the league: a policy of not playing on Sundays that could have a big impact on several Big 12 sports and postseason championship schedules.
The Big 12 can up revenue quickly simply by adding teams – ESPN is obliged to scale up payments if that happens.
The Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and Boren said all the proper pragmatic things in a conference call on Thursday.
Baylor interim president David Garland, Baylor board of regents chairman Ronald Murff and regent David Harper met with the Big 12 board of directors on Tuesday to discuss the school’s handling of the sexual assault crisis.
AMS: Yeah, Boren pretty much said teams have asked about joining. There’s also the allure of getting into the New York TV market, which is huge if the Big 12 wants its own ACC-like TV deal. Even Boren was backing off.
This announcement comes on the heels of reports earlier in the day that the ACC would be launching a television network and extending its Grant of Rights, an agreement where a school leaving the conference would have to forfeit television revenue, to 2036.
Would Conference USA or the Sun Belt (if the Sun Belt loses members to C-USA amid the falling dominos) be interested in the Minutemen for football only?
“We can not sit on the sidelines and not be proactive”, Boren said. “As other conferences have grown other advantages have come to them”. We have so many competitive advantages that it doesn’t matter what league we’re in. I think we’ve gotten to the point now where the players are trusting of me, and I think they wanted that I’m here to help, I’m not here to change things. None of these names are new to us, and indeed, we considered all these candidates (and others!) during Expansionpalooza 2016. In an email first obtained by ESPN, Gee confirmed the interest between UCF and the Big 12 was mutual.
The Rams are high up in media markets and are third among the possibly candidates and that is their biggest chip to play.
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“The provisions, of course, as you know do protect us so that current member shares will not be diluted if we were to add two or four more teams”, Boren said.
