Stormin in Norman
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Big 12 moving fast to remain alive, relevant after loss of flagship brands

By Chip Rouse

MANHATTAN, KS - NOVEMBER 16: A general view of the Big 12 logo on the field at Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium prior to a game between the Kansas State Wildcats and West Virginia Mountaineers on November 16, 2019 in Manhattan, Kansas. (Photo by Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images)
MANHATTAN, KS - NOVEMBER 16: A general view of the Big 12 logo on the field at Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium prior to a game between the Kansas State Wildcats and West Virginia Mountaineers on November 16, 2019 in Manhattan, Kansas. (Photo by Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images) /
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Rumors of the Big 12’s demise may have been greatly exaggerated.

After seeming to be on life support and at deaths door a little over a month ago, the Big 12 Conference appears closer than many thought to staving off relegation and actually growing following the departure of its two biggest brands, Oklahoma and Texas.

Multiple media sources, including the Houston Chronicle, are reporting that the Big 12 is focusing on four schools as prospective new members of the conference and could vote as early as next week for extending formal invitations to join the conference. The four schools receiving serious consideration are BYU, Cincinnati, Central Florida and Houston.

Three of the schools (Cincinnati, UCF and Houston) are currently members of the American Athletic Conference. BYU is an independent and not affiliated with a conference in football, but is included in the West Coast Conference for basketball.

In recent weeks following official confirmation that OU and Texas will be leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC, a Big 12 committee made up of two athletic directors and two school presidents has been exploring expansion options that would enable to Big 12 to rebuild and stay together.

When Oklahoma and Texas actually leave the Big 12, which could be at the end of the existing media rights agreement, which expires June 30, 2025, or earlier, it’s looking like the conference would add four schools to the remaining eight, bringing the Big 12 back to its original founding structure of 12 member schools. The conference has been operating in a 10-team structure since 2012 after Missouri and Texas A&M left for the SEC.

There is still a lot of work to be done and details to be worked out before any of this can be finalized. For example, the three schools out of the AAC would have to give that conference 27 months notice of their intent to leave and could be subject to an exit penalty of up to $10 million.

Also, there is the question about whether BYU would affiliate with the Big 12 for football only.

Although Oklahoma and Texas have both publicly stated that they fully intend to live up to the terms of the grant of rights agreement, the expectation is that they will leave before 2025 and possibly as early as next year or the year after that, even if it means a hefty financial penalty.

The recent announced alliance between the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast Conference indicated that those conferences were not interested in further expansion at this time. That situation sent a two-faced message to the Big 12 and its eight remaining schools”

  • Chances of landing a new conference home in a Power Five league in the near term are slim and none.
  • Staying together and adding new members is the only option for remaining financially viable and relevant, albeit probably no longer as a Power Five league.

This is still a very fluid situation with a lot of moving parts, but the process appears to be moving along quickly and appears headed for an official announcement of some kind in the next few days.

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