The 10-member conference, the presidents of which meet this week in Dallas, can’t arrive at a consensus about which two non-Power Five candidates to add while the Big 12’s TV partners — ESPN and Fox — aren’t exactly eager to launch a Big 12 Network during an unsettled period for the TV sports giants, according to the report.
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The one serious debate that could get aired this week in Dallas, according to HornsDigest.com’s sources: a Big 12 football championship game.
And even that faces a challenge. Since the 10-member conference plays a round-robin league schedule, a conference championship would guarantee a rematch from the regular season.
The latest no-expansion news appears to be a behind-the-scenes version of a longtime rivalry: Oklahoma president David Boren has been one of the vocal proponents for Big 12 expansion, but, according to HornsDigest.com, that would almost surely necessitate dismantling Texas’ Longhorn Network, which UT has fought because it is so lucrative to Texas individually.
As for the realities of expansion, the Big 12’s research showed mostly positives surrounding a 12-member conference, however the research never addressed specific candidates. And the potential additions, simply put, don’t justify the upheaval.
So the likes of Cincinnati, UConn, BYU and Boise State will continue to watch and wait — perhaps as long as until 2024, when the College Football Playoff and all the major Tier 1 and 2 TV contracts are up across the Power 5 conferences.
At that point, if things get reworked, it could put schools such as Florida State and Clemson, Arizona and Arizona State in play, which is a different deal for the Big 12 and leaves the Group of 5 candidates on the outside looking in — again.
