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The other motivation for Big 12 expansion came during media days, when word circulated that the Atlantic Coast Conference and ESPN had reached an agreement for a TV network through 2036.
Expansion? Unless you’re an alum of one of the expansion wannabees, nothing in college football probably makes your head explode more. At 10 members, including West Virginia University, the Big 12 is the smallest of the power conferences. The Big 12 was getting left behind, and Tuesday’s decision is another definitive step to attempt to keep up.
Bowlsby and the conference leaders decided not to react to one year’s results and instead studied expansion along with the possibility of bringing back its championship game and trying to start a conference television network. Everybody else operates that way, and so did the Big 12 for its first 15 years before it found itself on the front line of conference realignment. “I thought that was really important especially for our players to have the same terminology, the same type of schemes as much as possible but hopefully as we go forward if I do see things that I think might help us be a little bit better we might put a different spin on a few things, but I’m not here to change a whole lot”. In reality, though, that’s just semantics.
Boren said the Big 12’s checklist for candidates included athletic competitiveness, fan base size, media markets, school integrity and academic standards, including research. But it became apparent this week that coaches and league officials were unsure how to set up two five-team divisions. But the tenor around that has all changed. The eyes of the college sports world were all on the Big 12 and it was the flawless opportunity.
Not only has Tulane been mentioned as an expansion candidate, but so have conference members Houston, Memphis, South Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut and Central Florida. If the league does add four schools, there’s really no standout candidate for that fourth slot. The 10 university presidents in the Big 12 are the deciders. 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 difference is that other schools likely reacted quicker if that culture existed.
The Big 12 will aggressively pursue potential expansion of two to four schools, but it’s not likely that the league could grow before the 2017 football season, commissioner Bob Bowlsby told the Austin American-Statesman on Wednesday.
Bowlsby later indicated to CBSSports.com that they have previously been contacted by 25 schools. The school is ready to present its case. It’s not clear to even the Big 12 presidents exactly what the ACC news means. The Huskers can remain a middling team in the Big Ten West with Minnesota and Iowa for all I care. The schools are going to come running to their doorstep, pleading to join for a discount price.
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. The agreements, signed in 2011, now pay the conference about $230 million a year and rise each year.
What’s yet to be determined is how much the four schools would be paid up front per year through the length of the contract in 2025. If the conference can get new members to take less than an equal share in order to join, the money works out and they can negotiatie a bigger raise in the next network deal conversation.
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The Big 12 will proceed cautiously and pragmatically in public.
