Big 12 Expansion Is Back in the News with Oklahoma Front and Center

Big 12 expansion is back in the news – here we go again – and Oklahoma is at the front and center of it.

Nov 28, 2015; Stillwater, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners line up against the Oklahoma State Cowboys as they prepare to snap the ball at Boone Pickens Stadium. The Sooners defeated the Cowboys 58-23. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /

The topic of conference expansion was very much on the table – has it really ever gone away? – as the Big 12 athletic directors met recently at The Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix.

The last several years, it has become frighteningly clear, both inside and outside of the Big 12, that the conference cannot survive long term if it does not expand to 12 or more teams.

For one thing, the other Power Five conferences are not likely to remain at their current number of members, and if those other conference grow larger and, in the process, become an even more powerful voice in the college landscape, if will leave the Big 12 further behind and in danger of suffering further member losses if not total dissolution.

The other thing has to do with the College Football Playoff, which tends to lean toward the inclusion of Power Five conference champions who win their league by winning a post-regular season conference championship game. When the member schools who make up the Big 12 was reduced to its current size of 10, the conference discontinued its two-division format as well as a conference championship game in football.

It was widely believed that the exclusion of either Baylor or TCU from the inaugural Football Playoff, despite their high national ranking, was because the Big 12 did not hold a championship game and did not recognize one true conference champion (Baylor and TCU tied for the league title in 2014).

Not all of the schools in the Big 12 are in agreement that expansion is necessary for the Big 12 to survive. But everyone you talk seems to be in agreement that the immediate and long-term survival of the conference is highly dependent on what Texas and Oklahoma elect to do.

And for the time being, at least, it looks pretty solid that OU is content on staying where it is. In fact, President David Boren is perhaps the league’s strongest advocate for expansion, and he has expressed on multiple occasions the last several years that he believes the Big 12 should act sooner rather than later to make that happen.

Boren is strongly in favor of expansion, a conference network and adding a conference championship game.

As Sooner fans also know, however, both Oklahoma and Texas have not always been content with the status quo. Back in 2010-11, when conference realignment had schools scrambling about like in a game of musical chairs, there were reports and a plethora of talk that OU was exploring other alignment options.

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And, as it turns out, the possibility of the Sooners leaving the Big 12 – and taking others along with them – was far more than just talk. In a CBSSports.com article last week, national sports columnist Dennis Dodd wrote that in 2010 Oklahoma was within 30 minutes of leaving the Big 12 to join the then Pac-10 Conference.

To refresh you memory, 2010 was the year that Nebraska and Colorado announced they were leaving the Big 12. Most of us who closely follow Sooner sports are more familiar with what happened the following year, when it was widely rumored that the Sooners were again close to aligning with then Pac-12 and were going to take Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State with them.

The topic of conference expansion was on the agenda when the Big 12 athletic directors met earlier this month, and is certain to get further discussion when the university presidents meet later this month.

While OU’s Boren remains steadfast in his position that the conference needs to expand to remain viable with the other major conferences, that opinion apparently is not shared by higher-ups in the University of Oklahoma governing body.

CBS Sports’ Dodd reported on Monday in an ESPN.com article that Max Weitzenhoffer, chairman of the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents, does not favor the Big 12 adding more teams and, therefore, is at odds currently with President Boren over the matter. “I can tell you, I’m not alone,” Weitzenhoffer told Dodd, implying he has support for that position from one or more of the other board colleagues.

Boren, as do all Big 12 presidents or chancellors, report to a higher governing board, which in OU’s case is the board of regents.

Jake Trotter, who reports and comments on the Big 12 for ESPN.com, said on Wednesday on a Kansas City sports radio talk show that it is not certain at this point how the Big 12 will ultimately come down on this subject, but that he doubts there will be any kind of a vote on the issue when the ADs get together later this month in Irving, Texas.

Trotter said that even if a decision were made to move forward on expansion, there would be further research that would need to be done and presented and then you have the whole process of identifying and deciding on potential new members.

The University of Houston and Memphis are reported to be lobbying hard to become members of the Big 12 should the conference decide to move forward with expansion, but Trotter said that, to the best of his knowledge, there are no clear-cut favorites at this time.

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