Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Big 12 Expansion Seems to Be Heating Up

The prospects of the Big 12 conference (currently with 10 schools) expanding seem to run hot and cold. Right now, on the heels of the Big 12's football media days, the temperature is as warm as I can remember it being in a long time.

According to this Dallas Morning News article, "The Big 12's board of directors, comprised of school presidents and chancellors, voted unanimously Tuesday in [Dallas suburb] Irving to have Commissioner Bob Bowlsby contact and evaluate schools that have expressed an interest in joining the conference, then reporting back."

ESPN reports conducting an anonymous poll of Big 12 coaches on their top-two preferences (among non-Power 5 schools) to bring into the league. Here are the results:

Houston and BYU each received five votes. Cincinnati and Memphis tied for third with four votes each, followed by Colorado State and UCF with one vote apiece.

I personally favor bringing in the top-four vote-getters (Houston, BYU, Cincy, and Memphis). Bringing in only UH and BYU would do nothing to relieve West Virginia's travel burden (and in fact trips from Morgantown, West Virginia to Provo, Utah are 1,673 miles in the air).

Monday, May 9, 2016

Five 16-Team Super-Conferences?

ESPN.com writer Ryan McGee shares his "utopian" vision of conference realignment.