Based on the ESPN report, that would be BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, UConn, Colorado State, Air Force, UCF, USF, Temple, SMU, Rice and Tulane.
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It is unknown whether Memphis is part of the group.
When it comes to the Big 12 possibly expanding, that seems to be the norm, and it continued on Wednesday, leaving Colorado State as a school still being considered by the conference.
At some point in the near future, the Big 12 could really become the Big 12 with the addition of two more schools or it could increase to the “Big 14” if it adds four. “I’m not going to start now”.
“While it is obviously not the decision we were hoping for, I am confident ECU put forth its best effort during this process”, Jeff Compher, ECU’s athletic director, said in a statement.
The Big 12 has hoped to make a decision by its regularly scheduled board of directors meeting October 17.
So, we know, based on school’s issuing press releases, that the Big 12 has at least told SOME schools thanks, but no thanks. Another report listed Houston, BYU, Central Florida, Connecticut, Memphis and South Florida plus two other American Athletic Conference schools as remaining.
The conference has been flirting with expansion since May, and is reportedly being influenced by ESPN and Fox, which own television rights to Big 12 games.
UNLV and New Mexico later announced that they too were out of the running.
We do everything backwards in the ten team Big 12. Of course, we’ve heard that the Big 12 would like to have this process finished by a certain date before.
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The University of Memphis is one of “six to eight” schools on the Big 12’s “preferred list” of expansion candidates according to a TMGcollegesports.com story Tuesday written by former Boston Globe columnist Mark Blaudschun. Blaudschun reported that the remaining schools are likely to visit Dallas in the next two to three weeks to make in-person presentations. The ACC got theirs.maybe, but the Big 12 will be a case of too little, too late.
