“We very seldom take votes, but on this one we did take a vote and everyone was supportive of it”, Bowlsby said on a media teleconference Tuesday evening.
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Boren said the Big 12 also wants to evaluate how expansion could help its teams reach the College Football Playoff and stablize the conference.
Bowlsby later indicated to CBSSports.com that they have previously been contacted by 25 schools. With the exception of independent BYU and the Mountain West’s Colorado State, all of the expansion candidates are members of the American Athletic Conference. The one true champion concept crashed, and with the threat of the bigger schools leaving for greener pastures East or West of Texas and Oklahoma, the heart of the Big 12, eating smaller conferences is the only way out.
The Big 12 is accepting resumes from expansion candidates. “We’re just finished with the meeting, and I don’t know that I’m prepared to put a time frame on it right now. As I’ve stated before, I would like to see our student-athletes compete at the highest level”. Tuesday, the league met again (inexplicably capping Day 2 of the league’s media days in Dallas) and made an about face. The other Power Five conferences – the SEC, ACC, Pac-12 and Big Ten – have all added schools in recent years. This includes the preparation of derivative works of, or the incorporation of such content into other works.
Expansion by two or even four schools is on the table, board chairman (and Oklahoma president) Dr. David Boren indicated. The issue was placed to a formal vote, and no member of the board objected or abstained, according to the commissioner. “I don’t think we have to make apologies for stipulations we both agreed to”.
“When I took the job I was assured that I could make any changes with the coaching staff that I needed to make”, he said.
“It’s possible that this could extend to our October board meeting, but it’s also possible that we could have a special meeting sometime between now and then”. “And we’re very seriously concerned about all those categories, because we obviously stand for athletic competitiveness, winning in the right way”.
People used the year before, when Baylor and TCU were left on the doorstep of playing for the national championship, as proof that the Big 12 needed its own championship game. The conference has officially said: okay, we’re going to move forward with the process of expansion and narrowing a list of candidate schools, and actually contact them about expansion. The Big 12 lawyers that drew up the contract earned every penny they got. And I’ve been able to do that I think.
It’s slim pickings despite the fact that conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby had this to say about a new member.
Bowlsby concurred, adding that the league will seek schools that “will grow over time as we grow”.
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“We are looking for members that will grow over time as we grow”, Bowlsby said, “that will bring stability to the conference and that have a high top end, will benefit from an affiliation with the schools that are now in our conference”.
