Nice to see the Big 12 Conference in the news for the wrong reasons – again.
In the classic case of “no BLEEP, Sherlock”, the numbers run by some research contractor called Navigate Research told commissioner Bill Bowlsby and the rest of the Big 12 the obvious: it has a 4-5 percent better chance (yeah I know, whoopty-damn-doo) of reaching the top four in the CFP by adding two teams, playing one less conference game and holding a championship game.
In other words, “expand dammit, or else.”
College football fans have been clamoring for such expansion the last couple of seasons. It (still) doesn’t make any sense as to why the Big 12 continues to leave millions of dollars on the table by not having a conference championship game AND not to expand its footprint by not adding a couple of teams.
Look, I know folks are saying the Big 12 is limited in terms of expansion candidates. Cincinnati, Memphis and UConn, while competitive in football and basketball, do not exactly inspire excitement in terms of ratings.
And stop with the notion of the Big 12 poaching from the Atlantic Coast Conference and Pac-12. Do y’all really think Florida State, Clemson, Miami, Arizona and Arizona State would leave their comfortable situation in their respective conferences to deal with the massive ego of Texas? Wouldn’t Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, and Colorado share some Longhorn horror stories?
I (still) think that there is nothing wrong with the conference expanding its footprint, which would make a Big 12 network more viable. And conference expansion = conference championship game, which in turn leads to tens of millions of dollars.
So here is what I am going to do. Here’s my list, ranked in terms of viability, of who I think the Big 12 should invite to be part of its conference.
- BYU
- Central Florida
- Memphis
- Cincinnati
To quote Bugs Bunny, “that’s all folks!”
Categories: college basketball, college football, college sports, sports story
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