Big 12 Expansion: Ranking the possible schools to be added

The Big 12 Conference has let it be known that expansion is going to happen. Here is a ranking of the candidate schools and the pros and cons of their possible invite to the Big 12.  

On Tuesday it became known that the Big 12 has voted in favor of expansion. Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has stated in the past that schools had already contacted the conference about joining. Without a doubt they will be contacting Bowlsby even more now.

The Big 12 was down to 8 teams in 2012 after the departures of Missouri, Texas A&M, Colorado and Nebraska for the SEC, Pac-12, and Big 10 respectively. The conference then added West Virginia and TCU to bring the league to 10 teams and have been playing with no conference championship game since then as well.

The lack of a championship game in the inaugural season of the College Football Playoff in 2014 cost the TCU Horned Frogs a bid in the 4 team playoff. This is the moment that started the movement for Big 12 expansion to begin so that the conference could reinstate the championship game and boost its chances to place a team in the playoff among the rest of the Power 5 conferences, all of which have 12-14 member institutions.

The Big 12 is expected to add at least 2 schools, possibly 4.

This ranking will include the usual suspects of Big 12 expansion; Boise State, BYU, Cincinnati, Uconn, Colorado State, Houston, Memphis, UCF and USF. Rankings will be based on what these schools have to offer to the conference, from athletic prowess and even area television markets. The rankings will also show the cons that could keep the schools from receiving bids to the Big 12.

The rankings will begin with the least likely to receive a bid and go to the most likely to receive a bid.

Next: No. 9 South Florida