Big 12 Expansion: What The League Should Do

Four crazy and radical ideas for the Big 12 to expand, and how it all might look four years from now.

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I have a ten-team conference called the Big 12. Now I’m going to change all that.

”Go West … Life is peaceful there/Go West … In the open air/Go West … Baby you and me/Go West … This is our destiny”

There was a time not all that long ago when the Big 12 was about to be the new WAC.

Missouri and Texas A&M left for the SEC, Colorado bolted to the Pac-12, and in the biggest nose-thumbing of all, Nebraska took off for the Big Ten – giggling along the way.

Oklahoma was being talked about as a possible Pac-12 or SEC program, Texas was thrown around as a potential partner for the Big Ten or Pac-12 – and might have even gone rogue as an independent – and Kansas was freaking out about what it might do after all the dust had settled.

The Big 12 survived and advanced, moving on with West Virginia and TCU to help boost the league. Now there’s talk about potentially expanding to make the Big 12 an actual 12-team league, complete with two divisions with a championship game again for the first time since 2010.

But with what? There just aren’t many sexy options.

Cincinnati wouldn’t bring about anything more than a yawn, Houston doesn’t make as much sense as you might think, and BYU really doesn’t make as much sense as you might think.

So what does the Big 12 do? How does it make sure that the everything is fine once the barbarians come back to the gate whenever the SEC and Big Ten start to get the expansion thing rolling again?

The conference survived despite losing four power schools a few years ago, but it can’t risk looking vulnerable. So what can the Big 12 do to be proactive and protect itself?

By 2020, what could the Big 12 look like? Going from the easiest idea to the most radical, here are four expansion proposals to help the league become bigger, stronger, and more stable.

The Single: Cincinnati and Connecticut or BYU and Boise State/Colorado State

This is the no-brainer. While the Big 12’s ten-team, round-robin, One True Champion format is the best way to do this, the lack of a conference championship is going to be solved within the next four years.

Unless it’s Cincinnati and BYU to expand two ways, the league isn’t going to dabble with one new team in one time zone and one in another. It’ll probably either look to Cincinnati and UConn as a pair to go along with West Virginia, or it’ll expand west with BYU and either Boise State or Colorado State.

No matter which two teams are brought in, the alignment would be …

NORTH: Two expansion teams, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, West Virginia

SOUTH: Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, TCU, Texas Tech

There’s your Big 12 title game and there’s your power division in the South to rival the SEC West and Big Ten East – at least that would be the hope. However, all this does is get the Big 12 back where it started a few years ago, but with lesser programs.

The Double: All four. Cincinnati, Connecticut, BYU and Boise State/Colorado State

And why not? The Big Ten bulked up adding Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland to expand the brand – why can’t the Big 12 have 14 teams, too?

Do this, and the conference gets the reach and expansion outside of the middle of America. This becomes a more national conference, the TV deals would change and improve, and the basketball side would have even more juice to go along with the football improvements.

The SEC and Big Ten would still be better 14-team conferences, but this would be a good overall move for TV markets, while not being so nasty to prevent Texas and Oklahoma from being the top dogs on the field and in the cash register.

Cincinnati and UConn would be matched in the same division as West Virginia, BYU would be thrown to the North as the boost to the weaker division nationally, and Boise State or Colorado State would be given to the South to balance things out, even if it doesn’t really work geographically.

The alignment would be …

NORTH: BYU, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, West Virginia

SOUTH: Baylor, Boise State or Colorado State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, TCU, Texas Tech

The Triple: Go after Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami

There’s a big risk by going after any schools from a Power 5 conference: if the Big 12 misses, it’ll look like it’s settling in a big way by making the pitch to anyone else.

There’s a big, big drop-off in potential TV negotiations between Power 5 schools and the others the Big 12 might be targeting.

Right now, though, the ACC is becoming more attractive, generating over $300 million a year and certain to go way above that going forward. But the conference is sort of stuck in the Big 12’s current problem – where does it grow the brand with expansion?

Ideally, the Big 12 would be interested in North Carolina – just like it was rumored the Big Ten was thinking about a few years back – but Duke would have to be along for the ride. While it might help in basketball, that doesn’t do anything for the football TV markets.

The SEC already has South Carolina, Florida and Georgia – it’s not going to go after Clemson, FSU, Georgia Tech and Miami, at the moment and create an unbearably harsh conference competitively.

Would the Big 12 really have a shot? If not, the ACC might come barging in soon looking to snag Cincinnati for itself – and maybe take West Virginia. At least the Big 12 has to be thinking big-time.

But there’s a downside. If the Big 12 expands, Texas would almost certainly lose its network and the guaranteed money that comes with it. Just adding two or four new programs wouldn’t help offset that lack of lost revenue – potentially between $7 to $10 million per year. Go really, really big and try to bust out at least two of the ACC’s power programs, and the TV package would be far stronger and far more lucrative than anything the ACC could generate.

NORTH: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, West Virginia

SOUTH: Baylor, Miami, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, TCU, Texas Tech

Or if there’s just no way to get the big boys out of the ACC …

The Home Run: Expand by two, then align forces with the Pac-12

Enough safe and sane, it’s time for dumb and dangerous.

The Big 12 and Pac-12 are each going to have the same issues over the next four years with the Big Ten and SEC. Those two are becoming cash machines because of their networks, their reach, and their high-powered programs – the Big 12 and Pac-12 are going to lag behind unless they make a power move. The Pac-12 doesn’t exist to most of the country, and outside of the really big games, the Big 12 doesn’t have the pull the Big Ten and SEC do in terms of national TV time slots.

So what’s the solution?

The Big 12 takes on BYU and either Boise State or Colorado State to become a 12-team league. Then, even with non-conference slates set years in advance, the Big 12 and Pac-12 shoehorn their way into a sort of challenge – even if it means cutting the respective conference schedules to eight games – with at least one game on the slate involving a matchup with one another.

BYU vs. Utah and Colorado State vs. Colorado are obvious, while the interest generated by an Oregon vs. Oklahoma or a USC vs. Texas – for example – would crank up the TV ratings. But more than that, the alliance between the two conferences would effectively give them full ownership of the Power 5 world west of Lincoln, Nebraska.

And then, if you really, really want to get radical and if you really, really want to start generating some serious coin, create a super championship game between the two leagues.

The Big 12 was left out of the first playoff, and the Pac-12 missed out on the second. Fine – create your own playoff game, Big 12 and Pac-12.

Time it right so there’s enough time to rest and recuperate after the winner of the Big 12 championship plays the winner of the Pac-12 championship in what would amount to a makeshift first round of the playoff.

But why would the two leagues do this with a chance that the loser might be left out of the playoff consideration? The revenue generated from that one super-championship would make it financially worthwhile, and there’s a chance this would force the CFP’s hand to change up the system a bit. At the very least, an alliance would create a 24-school powerhouse.

Yeah, it’s crazy and it’ll never happen. But four years ago, there wasn’t going to be a College Football Playoff, either.