What NCAA Conference Realignment Should Look Like

Aug 30, 2014; Fort Worth, TX, USA; A view of the Big 12 conference logo before the game between the Horned Frogs and the Samford Bulldogs at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Big 12

Just revitalize the Big 12 with a couple of new adjustments. How do you do it? You make sure that the Texas Longhorns don’t get to keep their own revenue from their own network. If the NCAA stepped in the way it should, that would not be a problem.

However, Colorado would belong somewhere else, which we will get to, and Iowa State would be in the Big Ten. That means, in addition to the return of Missouri and Texas A&M, the conference would need to add two more teams from the original layout.

TCU is one of the new teams that would fit perfectly. The next addition should be Houston, a very successful urban school that has some very good college football history. By doing that, you would have a Texas division with arch-rivals consistently going at it, including Texas-Texas A&M, Texas Tech-Houston, and TCU-Baylor. The Big 12 North would restore great rivalries in college football, including Nebraska-Oklahoma and Missouri-Oklahoma State while keeping big ones like Kansas-Kansas State.

Also, there could be protected cross-division rivalries here as well such as Oklahoma-Texas. The SEC has been doing that for years without any issue, so they might as well do that in other conferences.

The formation of this conference would restore what the Big 12 was meant to be as a competitor to the SEC, but it would take some backbone by the commissioners and the NCAA to make sure certain schools do not get special treatment, which has been a huge problem for the conference. Texas should be treated just like everybody else, and if they try to make themselves independent, the NCAA could take away that incentive very quickly.

Next: Conference USA