Big 12 Expansion: To Expand, or Not to Expand; We’ll Know More Today
By Chip Rouse
The Big 12 presidents are meeting in Dallas today, and one of the prime orders of business is Big 12 expansion.
Speculation has been running rampant about what will come out of today’s meeting regarding the idea of expanding to conference structure by extending invitations to two or up to four new members. That is certainly one popular notion. The other is to stand pat for the time being.
An announcement of some kind is expected later today in a news conference that has been scheduled immediately following the Big 12 board of directors’ meeting.
Oklahoma president and Big 12 board chairman David Boren at one time had been an outspoken advocate of the need for the conference to increase in size in order to remain relevant among college football’s major conferences, urging conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby to begin vetting potential new members. That process began in July.
Big 12 officials received interest from and talked to some 20 potential schools about the possibility of joining the Big 12.
A month ago, Boren seemed to press the slow-down button, suggesting in a public statement that the addition of new teams into the Big 12 was “not a given. I’m not saying there won’t be expansion,” the Oklahoma City Oklahoman reported the OU president saying following a University of Oklahoma Board of Regents meeting in September. “But I’m not saying it can be automatically assumed there will be expansion.”
Hard to say exactly why Boren was softening his position, but what was taken from the comment was that fans should be prepared that the Big 12 might prefer to just punt on the subject and carry on as is.
“I’m not saying there won’t be expansion…But I’m not saying it can be automatically assumed there will be.” –OU President and Big 12 chairman David Boren
So, here we are, but where are we really? That’s the current dilemma, but we should learn something a little more definitive later today.
One opinion, expressed in an article from Deadspin over the weekend, is that the television networks, namely cable outlets ESPN and FOX, which own the rights to Big 12 games and have a deal reportedly worth $2.6 billion over 13 years have put pressure on the Big 12 not to entertain expansion.
According to the Deadspin article, there is a pro rata clause in the Big 12 television deal that stipulates each member school receives about $20 million in annual payout from the two networks. If additional teams were to come on board, they would receive similar compensation.
It has been reported that ESPN and FOX are also willing to pay the Big 12 to remove this clause from the contract.
It also is believed that Boren and others are concerned about the quality of the schools the Big 12 might be considering as potential new members and whether the additions would strengthen or weaken the conference in terms of the overall quality of the schools in the league.
The most likely additions, were the Big 12 to go forward with expansion plans – and, of course, depending on whether it would be by two or four new members – are Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis and Connecticut, but admittedly there are issues associated with all four schools.
The brutal reality in all of this is that no school the Big 12 is considering as an expansion partner is going to be the equal or superior to the schools the conference has lost (Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri and Texas A&M) since 2011, each of which is doing very well in its new conference home.
But on the other side of the expansion argument, the Big 12 is not going to survive in the long term in its present form without the addition of new teams.
That is a sad testimony, really, for all of the schools not named Oklahoma or Texas. The Sooners and Longhorns would have no trouble landing in one of the other so-called Power Conferences. Whether those two schools would allow Oklahoma State and Texas Tech to tag along is open to conjecture.
For schools like Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Baylor, TCU and perhaps also West Virginia, the prospects of becoming a member of a conference equal to the Big 12 would be false hope.
It is important to remember, this is all about football. That is the sport, like it or not, that pays the bill for all the others.
My guess is that little or nothing on the subject of expansion will be revealed when board chairman Boren and others come forth to talk about it later today.
I don’t believe we will learn that the conference has elected to go forward, because I don’t think they are ready to do so at this time. But I also don’t believe the conference will put the absolute kibosh on expansion plans, either.
So that would leave things pretty much status quo, for the time being. Or, much to do about nothing.
More of what we have come to expect from the Big 12.