Change my Mind: The Big 12 should become the Big 14

I think the twelve being twelve would be plenty. I’d take Cincy and Pitt because we have West Virginia. But getting Nebraska and Colorado back would be awesome. Nebraska probably wouldn’t come back, but Colorado might.

Well, I like the idea. All those schools have had pretty good presence in both b-ball and football in the past few years. And we get pretty good market exposure in the heart of Big 10, SEC and even ACC country with UCF. One added benefit is the footprint of the conference gets much better stretching out towards WV and giving fans in the eastern half of that proposed expansion some ability to travel to conference games.

I also think Ark and Tex A&M ought to considering moving from the SEC. Neither of the schools seem to be having the expected success from being in the SEC. Especially Ark…

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The biggest problem is that nobody is leaving the SEC or the Big Ten because of the money. Losing in the SEC earns you more money than winning in the Big 12. The Pac 12 is poachable and potentially the ACC (based on their Grant of Rights), but the SEC and Big Ten media money is too good to leave.

Additionally, the Big 12 isn’t going to bring in any schools that aren’t going to make them money. If UCF, Memphis, Houston, BYU, Cincy, etc. were going to make them money, they would already be in the league in my opinion.

Now adding the Arizona schools… This might be something in the next few.

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I want the Arizona schools added for purely selfish reasons!!!

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I think we should head to the SEC with OU.

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MEH. I don’t think it’s all it’s cracked up to be. It’s only their top few that get so much exposure. Vandy, South Carolina, Texas A&M, the Mississippi schools don’t get nearly as much. I think OSUs road would be very similar to A&M. Good for a couple of years then eaten up in recruiting

Let’s get to twelve teams first:

  • Add Memphis for the SEC/Southeastern market
  • Add Cincinnati for the Big 10 market, and give WVU a regional opponent.

That or add Memphis and a Florida team (UCF most likely).

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A&M is crushing it in recruiting and their overall athletic department posture is significantly better than it was when they were in the Big 12.

Part of that is getting out from under UT’s shadow… Which I think would benefit OSU immensely to get out from under OU’s shadow… And the other part is increased exposure with athletes across the Southeast.

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Where do you think we should go, to get out from under OU’s shadow? Or are you suggesting they should leave?

We (I) don’t want Memphis, or Cincinnati, or UCF, or USF, or Houston
Arizona and Arizona State are, from what little I know, much more likely to happen to get us to 12. I don’t see Nebraska coming back, and although Colorado would be nice because of proximity, they seem to enjoy being more of a PAC school.

I still think we could poach some teams from the ACC (like we should have done awhile back), especially ones that feel they will never get past Clemson. Maybe not all of these make sense from a football sense, but for basketball some would be huge.
UNC+Duke (package deal) or UNC+Duke+NC State, Miami+Florida State, Virginia+Virginia Tech. Hell, maybe even Pitt…all of these sound much better than adding Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, etc. I understand those schools are good in Basketball too, but I just don’t see the value in adding Memphis-esque over Virginia-types.

I think the Big 12 just needs to decide if it wants to head west and steal PAC teams, or branch east and grab some regional opponents for WV. Oh and if we are the Big 12 with 10, 12, or 14 teams. Maybe just jump to 16 and sign a deal to have all games on YouTube TV and Hulu. Be the first to sign dedicated to a streaming service. That’s probably my worst idea in this whole spiel.

What do I know though. I was wanting to throw Baylor out of the conference. But that was mainly because of the Art Briles doings. Now they are just 2 (maybe even just 1) win against OU from being in the playoffs.

If Minnesota, Baylor, LSU and Clemson win out, that is the best thing that could happen for college football…The committee’s hands would be tied to leave Ohio St and Alabama out, which would lead to an expansion to at least 6 REAL quick.

I personally think we should get rid of West Virginia, add back Nebraska and Missouri, and obtain New Mexico and Arkansas. This would keep the conference in the central part of the United States.

If the Big 12 blew up… which… that’s highly doubtful because it’s shockingly stable right now. The problem in football is that there isn’t a dominant team, and 7 of the 9 are actually really, really good. Which will be proven out in bowl season. Another problem is that there are only two blue blood programs, so while Oklahoma State, Baylor, Kansas State, Iowa State, etc. might be actually good on the field… they’ll never be perceived as good because college football is stupid.

If I had a magic wand, and it was solely up to me to decide where OSU went, I would want OSU to go with UT to the Big 10 or ACC.

This would assume that OU goes to the SEC, who would package them with a program like Virginia Tech. SEC has a pretty firm policy in expansion to not expand into existing markets… so they wouldn’t take OU and OSU together. They’re not going to take Texas. They’re not going to take Clemson. Va Tech, however, is a great fit for them geographically. Fairly close to Lexington and Knoxville. Allows you to claim DC as a TV market.

The reasons for the Big 10 are obvious… it’s a major coup, as it would require the Big 10 to ignore long held academic standards. 4 million people in Oklahoma is just enough for them to be interested in the television market. The reason I would want to go with Texas is that we would still have a strong presence with Texas there. Need to play there… would need to schedule SMU, Houston, UTSA in non-con and give them 1-1 deals to get more games in Texas. I think that’s still super important for recruiting, as evidenced by Nebraska… but the other thing here is that I think Oklahoma State is immediately VERY competitive in the Big 10. I think OSU would be as good as Wisconsin and Michigan State. Clearly better than Michigan on the field. The only programs that would be favored would be Ohio State and Penn State, but they’re blue bloods and they’ll always be favored. Also, selfishly, OSU Wrestling in the Big 10 makes my pants tight.

The ACC… OSU would just be immediately competitive in that league too. Behind Clemson is just a total dumpster fire. Same with the Pac 12. I think the success would be immediate and OSU would be able to capitalize on that to increase recruiting and do really well.

None of this is realistic… obviously… total pipe dreams… but this would be my dream scenario.

Well, remember that it was once floated that OU and UT would abandon the Big 12 and go to the PAC12. That’s why I wouldn’t want us going with UT anywhere, I can’t trust them. They’re the sole reason the Big 12 is the way it is.

That’s not true at all. UT wanted to take us with them to the Pac 12. Texas A&M blew that up. Missouri and Nebraska are the reasons that Big 12 was in turmoil. They voted for avoiding a conference network and retaining their third tier rights. When Texas did what all of them wanted to do… Went out and got a monster deal for their third tier rights… The other programs that voted for that got butt hurt because they thought they would be able to get the same deal, and they couldn’t because, as it turns out, more people care about Texas than Missouri.

Texas is a great partner for OSU. They architected the Pac 12 deal that included OSU. Colorado left the Big 12 because they thought OSU and Texas Tech would follow within that week, with Texas, OU, and Texas A&M to follow.

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Lol. to take that call from the Colorado AD that week. “Hey uhh we just landed, are you guys coming orrrr?” “Well, Colorado, what had happened waaaz”

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Yeah they kind of always wanted to be in the Pac 10… I think they formally requested an invitation when the Pac 8 expanded back in the day… so it worked out for CU, but the initial intent was all a package deal. Larry Scott is on the record with all of this. OSU and Texas Tech had invites and everything. Texas A&M didn’t want it…

I guess I was just lied to or read misinformation. I had read that UT and OU wanted to escape to the PAC12 and leave the rest behind because they felt the rest of the Big 12 was holding them back.

Yeah… Larry Scott and a few ADs are on record that this is what happened.

Texas takes a ton of blame for realignment, but they really didn’t do anything wrong in this whole deal.

When OU’s deal with Fox Sports expires, I fully expect the Longhorn Network’s distribution to just become the full time Big 12 network.

I’d take the Arizona schools and BYU . That’d make things interesting . It would be an odd number but we could drop Baylor (seems unlikely given how long this has dragged on) or WV (not that I want to) . Or maybe we could snag another Utah team .

Stupid Aggies ruined awesome road trips for us.

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