Cincy and the Big 12
- Thread starter cyman05
- Start date
UCONN is a better candidate than Memphis but it would be nice to have a little footprint into SEC country. If you can add Cincy and Memphis, it opens up some fertile recruiting ground that the big 12 doesn't usually get. UCONN would do the same for bball, open up the talent rich NE and bring in the most dominant program in all of the major sports. I know womens bball doesn't mean much as far as expansion but UCONN would be the one team that brings a ton of national attention.
Big 12 would get all kinds of media coverage (from ESPN especially) with UCONN. Can't measure how much that would be worth. West Virginia also needs a travel partner
This is why I think permanent crossover rivalries would be used. If you're keeping schools in divisions with their rivals, and you're splitting the Texas schools, you'd have:
Division A
Baylor
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
TCU
Division B
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas Tech
West Virginia, Other School 1, and Other School 2 would need to be placed still - and they'd have to be broken up. Good luck getting a decent geographical split with those, too.
So I think some sort of permanent crossover set-up like the SEC is more likely.
I don't understand why anyone would want to pass on BYU as football only. They're the best available. It would also open up the possibility of continuing round robin basketball.
This is all about how happy OU and UT are with the present setup. If they're okay, it's best left alone. If not, then we need some additions. BYU, UCONN would be my first choices. Cincinnati next, assuming teams like Louisville, Clemson, ND, etc. are off the table.
I don't think that's really as valuable as it was 10 years ago. UCONN and ESPN were great partners, as it was easy for the network to be a broadcasting partner and the team was competing for National Titles to justify that coverage. UCONN won the title just 2 years ago and there is not a peep from the Mothership. This is a different era where schools and conferences are creating their own TV networks.
I used to hate the idea of adding BYU to the conference due to the travel, but they offer the best available TV market, the best gameday attendance available (50K+ per game) and also offer one of the best alumni bases that would sell the conference nationally.
Oklahoma is never going to be happy because they are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats. I really don't like the idea of UCONN. Just does not fit in with the rest of the Big XII. They have a generally terrible football program (everybody says basketball does not matter). And who wants to road trip to UCONN? Didn't their fans also break Cy's leg (sorry it was his arm.) at the UCONN football game a couple years ago. Forget them.
Last edited:
Best in what way? Because I think Coach Campbell would rather have recruiting ground. BYU doesn't offer that.
Exactly right. The Big 12 secures the fewest ESPN top 100 recruits of any conference and adding any two teams will not remedy this. For OU the league is simultaneously too tough and too weak.
Whatever happens Boren will spin as harmful to OU.
Don't disagree there. But if we try to keep him happy by expanding, BYU is the best brand name available. You want to water down the conference even worse than the B1G with Memphis & UCF?
I'm on board with Cincy, btw. So is WVU I'm sure. UCONN has basketball, but c'mon- traveling to Morgantown is bad enough.
The Big 12 could add South Dakota State and Morningside and it still woudn't be as watered down as the Big 10.
I'm on board with having 11 members and 8 onference games. I don't think there is a good #12 out there right now.
Houston : Don't want and it would end the big 12
BYU : TCU and Baylor would say no and way too far west.
UCF and UCF: low fan support terrible sports besides football. Creates another Island.
Memphis : was trending up for a while, but looks like they are on top of the rollercoaster and about to go down.
UConn : was a fan of them for a while, but Their fans are worse than KU (hard to believe but it's true). Too far east, and like KU there is a big group of them that admit they don't care about football and what it does.
Houston : Don't want and it would end the big 12
BYU : TCU and Baylor would say no and way too far west.
UCF and UCF: low fan support terrible sports besides football. Creates another Island.
Memphis : was trending up for a while, but looks like they are on top of the rollercoaster and about to go down.
UConn : was a fan of them for a while, but Their fans are worse than KU (hard to believe but it's true). Too far east, and like KU there is a big group of them that admit they don't care about football and what it does.
I'd rather hold off on expansion until after we find out what happens with the so-called ACC Network, and if the failure to create one invalidates the ACC's GOR and causes the conference to fracture. Cincinnati, Memphis, UConn, Tulane, etc will always be there, but I'd rather have bigger schools in the Big 12 if they're available.
I'm all about keeping the Big 12 stable as its ISU's best opportunity to play in the big leagues. If Texas doesn't want expansion then I don't. If Oklahoma wants expansion then I do. Boy this is tough! Hopefully those 2 can come to a consensus. I don't care what they do as long as they get along enough to keep the conference intact.
I think the 14 team conferences are over-extended. Playing a team every 3 years? How is that a conference? We should go after Missouri, Arkansas, Minnesota, Louisville, Nebraska, Pitt. All of these teams have been national champions. Uconn and BYU are too far away - makes us look like AAC. Cincy and Memphis might be OK if they expanded our viewership and helped the Big12 establish a network.
You're right - we should go after 6 teams that want nothing to do with the Big 12, 2 of whom ran away from the conference screaming.
The state of Ohio is a very large football viewership market. You can also add in some of Kentucky to their numbers due to their location. I'm not a huge Cincy fan, but their University is a very good school, and their athletic teams have been solid over the years, if not downright good some years.
They would probably have to do some work on their football stadium since it would be the smallest in the conference by 5,000 seats.
If the Big12 could bring in two teams like Cincy and UCF, that wouldn't be a bad job of expansion. Would prefer something closer than UCF, but they would open up the Florida market just a little bit in recruiting.
We are talking football here, not other sports, because to be honest, adding two teams will depend on their football and financials revolving around football. UCF has the second largest, on campus, enrollment in the country at just under 60,000 students. I guarantee if their school were in a P5 conference that football team is much much better. They are in the Florida television market, recruiting area, travel to away game destination, etc. I don't like that they would be out on the island for the conference, but to say they wouldn't bring things to the table isn't accurate.
