The Big 12 Will Not Expand - What it All Means Now
After months of will they expand and if they do expand will the Big 12 take two or four teams, we finally got our answer. It was what many started to expect late last week – no expansion. The Big 12 met yesterday and came out saying ‘bigger is not always better.’ There are no plans to expand now or in the near future, leaving the Big 12 at 10 teams and leaving UC, Memphis, Houston, UConn, UCF and others still out there.
So what the hell was the point of this? It’s painfully obvious. This was used as a way for the Big 12 to try and get more money out of their TV deals. When they found out both ESPN and Fox would push back on the expansion talk and the money wouldn’t be there, they decided to toss that idea and roll with ‘we enjoy round robin play.’
The Big 12 can’t make up its own mind. They are trying to essentially just keep Texas happy and Oklahoma for a small part. Do they want a championship game? That was one of the ideas of expanding when TCU and Baylor were left out of the first college football playoffs. Do they want a rival for WVU and make travel easier? That was an idea when they talked about bringing in someone like Cincinnati. But, ultimately they realized nothing can help Big 12 football. There’s not a program out there as a ‘free agent’ that will help that conference. Sure, BYU has had some nice years – but are they really someone you see as helping the conference? No.
On the flipside this means the American Athletic Conference is here to stay for quite some time and Cincinnati and UConn will be left on the outside looking in. Yes, the relationship between Boston College and UConn has gotten better since BC blocked the Huskies from joining the ACC, but there’s no reason for that conference to expand right now. Cincinnati invested millions in making itself a true ‘power 5’ school, only to be told, sorry, we’re good.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the Big 12 when the TV contracts are up – which happens in eight years. Other conferences will be trying their best to poach Texas or Oklahoma in an effort to totally end the conference. Which means if that happens we’re a decade away from seeing 4 superconferences made up of likely 64 teams.