Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby will "conduct video conferences with at least 18 schools that have contacted the league about being considered as expansion candidates," according to sources cited by Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com. Sources also said it is "becoming less and less likely" that the conference will expand to 14 teams. Sources added that the "most likely scenario is that the Big 12 will stay at 10 teams or only add two schools for a 12-team league with two six-team divisions" (ESPN.com, 8/12).
| POTENTIAL BIG 12 EXPANSION CANDIDATES |
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Cincinnati
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Tulane
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Houston
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Temple
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BYU
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East Carolina
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USF
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SMU
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UCF
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New Mexico
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UConn
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Northern Illinois
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Memphis
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San Diego State
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Colorado State
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Arkansas State
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Boise State
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Air Force
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HERE'S THE PITCH: In Idaho, Dave Southorn noted Boise State on Friday confirmed that it "will make a pitch" to the Big 12. Among the "interesting tidbits" in the brochure Boise State will use in its pitch is a "design to expand Albertsons Stadium to a 48,000-seat capacity." That would put it "slightly above the current smallest Big 12 stadium." The conference is "expected to make a decision between mid-September and early October" (
IDAHOSTATESMAN.com, 8/12). In Orlando, Mike Bianchi wrote of UCF's possible inclusion, "We are a college football city. ... We are smack, dab in the middle of one of the top college football-playing and recruiting states in the country." Orlando is the "biggest TV market in America without an NFL team." Bianchi: "If you were to bring big-time college football to Central Florida, the Big 12 could own a metropolitan area of more than 2 million people and turn an internationally renowned city into the world's largest college football town" (
ORLANDO SENTINEL, 8/14).
BEAR MARKET: Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer said Cincinnati joining the Big 12 would be "great." Meyer: "I am a graduate and a fan. I think they should be in the Big 12." In Toledo, David Briggs writes OSU "having an in-state rival from a powerful- big-money league of its own for the first time in the modern era would present a compelling new dynamic." Briggs: "Here's hoping Cincinnati joins the neighborhood" (Toledo BLADE, 8/15).
MISSED OPPORTUNITY? In Oklahoma City, Berry Tramel wrote of the Big 12 adding a championship game and expanding, "None great ideas. None guaranteed bonanzas. None are the ideal. The ideal is in the past." Since the "departures of bedrock members, the Big 12 has no ideal." Some would "say no idea, either, but the real problem has been no ideal." All the current options are "poor." Tramel: "Except twice in the last six months, prime decision-makers in our state, independent of each other, have floated an idea to me. ... Merger. Merge with preferably the SEC, but if not, the Pac-12. Not a split." It is a "longshot," but it is "not impossible." There is "logic behind the absurdity." Tramel: "Financial logic, which is even better." If the Big 12 "wants the ideal, it will not expand." It will "seek a merger that gives the schools in this part of the country their only chance at two things they desire: stability and staying together" (OKLAHOMAN, 8/13).
